DAY 12 - GRANADA

Our second day out was to Granada, 163 km South East of Cordoba.  This involved an early start bus ride of nearly 3 hours on the outbound journey, long, but we knew that Granada and the Alhambra was not a place to miss.

The longer distance buses are very modern and comfortable and we enjoyed the ride though the countryside. 

 We had read that getting into the Alhambra was difficult because of the shear volume of people trying to get in and they limit the number who can get in each day and the limit is 6000. There are three possible solutions to this problem.  You buy tickets ahead.  The problem with that is that you have to do this at least a month before your visit and not realising this until too late as we didn't have the month.   A very few tickets are sold on the day, about 1000.  To get these you need to be there around 5.00 a.m. to join the queue.  Not a solution for us as we weren't going to arrive that early.  The third solution is to join a tour and that's what we did and the majority do.  There are many tours in many languages available and the tour guide gets the tickets ahead of time.  You just turn up at the appointed time and join your group of about 20 people.  It was all very well organized and the tour gives a start time and a time to get into the more important buildings.  This controls the crowds very well. 

We arrived in Granada around noon and our tour time was 4.30 p.m. so we had plenty of time to get some lunch and visit the Capilla Real, the large cathedral in the centre of the city.

To view a larger image left click image once.  To return to the Blog use the Back Button or click once off the image
The Capilla Real
The Alhambra is a little way away from the city centre and this involves a longish walk uphill.  You start the climb through the lower entrance gate passing the inevitable  souvenir shops.

The lower entrance gate
The path on the way up
A welcome seat, you can see the slope of the path

Having reached the top you look for your tour guide.  The main entrance is a busy place with everybody looking for their tour guides.  However, it was all very efficient and we found our group quite easily.  Each person in the group is given an ear piece and receiver.  This means that you don't have to be right up with the guide and you can easily hear what he is saying wherever he is.  This is important because your group gets mingled in with other groups. 

The Alhambra ( the red castle) is part palace, part fort, part World Heritage site, part lesson in medieval architecture and is a historic monument probably never to be surpassed.  the first palace was built in the 11th century and in the 13th and 14th century the Nasrid emirs turned it into  a fortress-palace complex.  The Nasrid dynasty was the last Arab Muslim dynasty in Spain in the 13th to 15th century.  After the Christian reconquest of Spain, the mosque was replaced by a church.

There are two principal areas to visit, the palace complex and the Palacious Nazaries in the Alhambra and the Generalife, which our guide explained was not an insurance company.  He was very good as a guide and he spoke very good English.

 Our time to enter the Palace was 6.00 p.m and he stressed that we must be there on the dot as the groups are let in in 30 minute intervals and you can't be late.

Tour groups looking for guides

We started out in the Generalife, which is a peaceful arrangement of pathways, patios, pools, fountains, tall trees and flowers. The complex consists of the Patio de la Acequia (Court of the Water Channel or Water-Garden Courtyard), which has a long pool framed by flowerbeds, fountains, colonnades and pavilions, and the Jardím de la Sultana (Sultana's Garden or Courtyard of the Cypress). It was designed as a place for relaxation for the occupants of the Alhambra.


The view from the Generalife over Granada
The view of the Alhambra from the Generalife
One of the many pools
The Salon de Embadajores (Ambassadors)
An area where concerts are held
The gardens were really lovely
You enter the Alhambra across a bridge and pass by the remains on an old aqua duct that brought water in from the hills
The foundations of the old merina (market)
The Convento de San Francisco - now the Parador Granada, an up-market hotel
The entrance to the Parador Granada
The Iglesia de Santa Maria de la Alhambra, which sits on the site of the palace mosque and built between 1581 and 1618
The Palacio de Carlos V. The design is monotonous and massive, much like many ministerial buildings one sees throughout the world. It is mainly distinguished by its circular inner courtyard, in the majestic Roman tradition. The construction ended up taking no less than 110 years, twice that of Notre Dame Cathedral! The man who was to be the occupant of the house, Charles, died when the work was still "only" in its thirtieth year.
The square building with a round hole in the middle

We made our way to the the centre piece of the Alhambra - the Palcios Nazaries, on time for our 6.00 p.m. entry.  There are basically three palaces in the complex.  The Mexuar, the Palacio de Comares and the Palacio de los Leones (Lions),
The first building you enter is the Mexuar.  This is a large room where the emir met with the people



The walls are covered with the repetition of the phrase, in arabic " Everything that you own comes from God" thousands and thousands of times
The fantastic ceiling
The Courtyard of the Lions. 
  
Its construction started in the second period of Carlos's reign, between 1362 and 1391 AD. The Courtyard is oblong  surrounded by a low gallery supported on 124 white marble columns. In the centre of the courtyard is the celebrated Fountain of Lions, a magnificent alabaster basin supported by the figures of twelve lions in white marble.  The fountain was itself under reconstruction.
A wider view of the courtyard
A detail of the ceiling of the roof around the courtyard

A view over Granada from a palace window
Another fantastic ceiling


This is the roof of the baths in this palace
One of the rooms built by Carlos V and later used by the author Washington Irving. He was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century.  He wrote the Tales of the Alhambra.
A view from the window down to the Patio de la Lindaraja
A plaque commemorating Washington Irving. He was appointed as a Minister to Spain in 1842.
The Patio de la Lindaraja
This window was the one we looked down from into the patio
Our tall guide and our group at the end of the tour


We now had to make some haste to catch a taxi to get back to the bus station for our bus to Cordoba, the last of the day.  The return journey was quite a bit longer than the morning ride.  It took a completely different route through a series of small towns and was very interesting.

NEXT PAGE: DAY 13 - BACK IN CORDOBA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
SPRING VISIT TO ANDALUCIA, SPAIN  DAY 1 AND DAY 2 For our Spring vacation we chose to visit Andalucia in Southern Spain spending a week in Seville and a week in Cordoba plus a week visiting family in the UK. We left home in late March, flying from Comox to Vancouver on Air Canada where we connected with the overnight Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt.  We had a short time at the airport before we completed the journey with another Lufthansa flight to Seville. To view a larger image left click ima ge once.   To return to the Blog use the Back Button or click once off the image DLH 493 to Frankfurt We had no glitches on any of the flights.  No baggage problems as we travelled light and only had cabin baggage. We took the easy way from the airport taking a taxi that took us to our home for the week, an apartment in the centre of Seville booked through the VRBO organisation. The booking online had been easy but getting into the apartment was a bit of a prob...
Read more
Image
DAY 6 - IN SEVILLE  Our last two days were spent in Seville, the first wandering the streets in the more Northern area.  The first place we visited was the Metropol Parasol.  This structure opened in 2011 and claims to be the largest wooden building in the world.  There may be some dispute on this claim as the Toda-Ji temple in Nara, Japan can also make this claim as well as the airship hangar in Tillemoook, Oregon State.  In any event it is big!  Having seen all three this a difficult question as they are all so different in style. To view a larger image left click ima ge once.   To return to the Blog use the Back Button or click once off the image The Metropol Parasol The structure has an undulating honeycombed roof held up by five giant mushroom-like pillars.  It took six years to build and is sited on a former dead zone in the central district that was an ugly car park.  Roman ruins were found when it was constructed and t...
Read more
Image
DAY 4 - CARMONA   We made two day trips out of Seville, the first to Carmona which was 35 km East of the City.  The town sits on a small hill overlooking a valley.  It was strategically placed by the Romans on a road running from Rome to Cadiz which lies on the coast to the West. We took the bus from Seville, very cheap tickets. Our first port of call was the Alkazar de la Puerta de Sevilla - the impressive Eastern gate into the town. To view a larger image left click ima ge once.   To return to the Blog use the Back Button or click once off the image This is one element of the fortification of the town.  The building contains a museum and you can climb to the roof level where the Romans built a temple.  There were some splendid views across the surrounding countryside and over the town.       The main church is the Inglesia Prioral de Santa Maria de las Asuncion built mainly in the 15th and...
Read more