We try the inclusive breakfast this morning, it's Continental stylie we settle for
fresh orange juice, rather stewed coffee and toast. At last we are off to the long awaited Alhambra -
can we get the tickets today? We drive up the steep hill which has the lovely
Sierra Nevada mountain as it's background and park. This time there is no
problem collecting our tickets, yes we are in!
The Alhambra was a Palace, a Citadel, a Fortress and home to the Nasrid
Sultans, high Government officials, servants of the Court and the elite soldiers,
from the 13th to the 15th century. This Monument is now divided into 3 main
areas the Alcazaba, the Palacios Nazaries, and the Generalife, built
by the Moors.
There is an hour before we are
allowed into the Palacios Nazaries, {anytime between 12.30 and 1pm }- later forfeits
our ticket, though only for the Palace. We decided to start at the farthest away bit, the Alcazaba.
This is Andrew's favourite
part and I must admit I loved it too. It is a huge old pink stone building with
lots of high buttresses, and has a brick maze and dungeons too, very
atmospheric! This is the oldest part of Alhambra and dates from the 11th
century, the only part already in existence when the Nasrid's arrived as it was
built by the Ziridian rulers before hand. Alcazaba literally means "the red
fort". From any of the buttresses or towers there are wonderful views, all of Granada spread out below us. It's the only place which gives a good view of the
Cathedral, as unfortunately there are buildings surrounding it, so there are no
area's where you can see it from the ground till you are literally upon it. We
would have liked to spend more time up here, but our time limit means we must
move on.
Next we entered the Palacios Nazaries, really fantastic buildings with some of
the most beautiful ceilings that I have ever seen. Some are intricately carved
wood, and some in even more intricately carved adobe or stone - truly
wonderful! The rooms all have highly carved patterned walls, some the entire
wall and others are carved to halfway down then tiled to the lovely tiled floors, which
are mainly terracotta with inlaid smaller coloured tiles. There are lots of courtyards
with carefully set out formal gardens and carved fountains. The Lions Courtyard
is the most beautiful and intricate of these, and the largest, apparently this
was originally the Harem. Ibn-al-Ahmar who built the Palace
diverted the River Darro nearly 8km to provide the water for all his
fountains, this is now considered his greatest contribution, as the water is
such an integral part of the Palace. Apparently this building was designed not
to last, but to be reviewed and replaced by succeeding rulers so it is rather
amazing that it is still in such wonderful condition.
Isabel and Ferdinand lived here for a while and restored some rooms and
converted the Mosque. Isabel was originally buried here in the Parador San
Francisco, a Monastery which is now part of a terrace bar of
the Hotel America within the Alhambra walls.
Carlos V their grandson screwed up however, by demolishing
a whole wing of rooms to build himself a Renaissance Palace. Napoleon later
still, got his nasty hands on it and looted and damaged whole sections of the
Alhambra. This was once a whole city within the walls, now only the Alcazaba and
Palace exist as entire buildings. It is now a National Monument but still has sections currently being
restored, hence the green netting in some of our photos.
We took a walk round the Generalife Gardens, which are very formal and
pretty, again interspersed by fountains. There are lots of junipers and ivy's
trained into arched "walls". Described as" The dark and secret
walled gardens of sculpted junipers, where the Sultana Zoraya was suspected of
meeting her lover Hamet." Nearby is the Camino de la Cascadas, a stairway
with water flowing down the stone balustrades. The whole effect is very tranquil and
colourful, with plenty of highly perfumed plants. As with the buildings the
gardens ascend into the hills so some areas are very steep.
We walked back through the ruins of the Medina to find a late lunch and much needed drinks and
loo's. If you come
here do be aware that there is only one toilet in the ticket area and one at the
car park. Also all the eating places are alongside the car park area and drinks and
food are forbidden inside. We lunched at Generallife restaurant - see
hilarious menu, e.g. Fried Big Hole. Andrew took photo of menu as there were so
many funnies on it. We bought an Alhambra 2003 calendar and a pretty Moroccan
style ashtray. Afterwards we headed back to Hotel Carmen and a welcome
siesta, totally wiped out from all our walking up hills and climbing towers etc.
in the heat.
We spend a while in the Jacuzzi to refresh ourselves, then at 9pm we went out for dinner at El Aguador,
another restaurant near the Cathedral, where we are seated next to
the Donkey Hote statue. A yummy dinner of, baked spinach, baked
aubergines, and steaks, {did you know that the spell check on American lap tops
doesn't like the word aubergines - it comes up with aborigines as the
alternative?!} Lots of difficulty in choosing dinner tonight, we could have" baked
icicles" for
starters, then "fried milk" or "ice pie to the whiskey" for pudding. I love these
literal translations! We returned to the hotel and lazed in our Jacuzzi again with a brandy nightcap,
then to bed.
