Granada

Even before we left the U.S. I had already decided that our time in Andalusia (southern Spain) would be my favorite part of the trip. So I went into Granada with a pretty positive attitude. But Andalusia has not let me down! We had a wonderful weekend.

We arrived in Granada Thursday evening, and promptly received instructions on finding our hotel from the information desk at the Granada airport. I’ve become quite enamored with information offices in Spain. They always stick with my Spanish even though we could probably get along better in English, they make bus schedules completely understandable, and – most importantly – they give out free maps! Alan had selected our hotel in Granada the same way we chose all of our lodgings for the trip: It was the cheapest option available. So we were very pleasantly surprised when we walked into the ornate Tryp Albaicin. The two nights that we spent there made me very aware that I had been sleeping in a dusty tent for six weeks.

We went exploring Thursday night, which is the best time to explore a Spanish city because the Spanish stay out very late. Nearly everything closes in the hot afternoons, but stores and pharmacies reopen at six or seven and stay open until about midnight. So there was a lot of people-watching to do, and tons of little shops of African influence – probably just for tourists – tucked into little windy streets downtown.

View of Granada from an Alhambra tower. That’s the Sierra Nevada in the background.

One goal for our Andalusia experience was to see some authentic flamenco. We’ve been warned that almost all advertised flamenco is an expensive tourist trap and that real flamenco is spontaneous. However, one travel guide that warned us about this recommended a few good bars. One of which we set out to find on Thursday night. We found the area and even a spray-painted sign pointing us in the right direction, but then found ourselves at a dead end in a seemingly residential area. Strike one for our flamenco-seeking efforts.  

Granada is probably most famous for its Alhambra, the palace/fortress originally built during the Nasrid dynasty (the last Moorish kingdom before surrendering to the Catholic Monarchs), then later expanded and altered by Ferdinand and Isabella and then by their grandson Carlos V. A while ago we booked tickets online to visit the Alhambra, but we were unfortunately one day too late in making our reservation to see the Nasrid palaces. We purchased two tickets to see everything outside of the palaces that the Alhambra has to offer. The first stop for those of us who did not plan far enough in advance to see the whole monument is the extensive Generalife gardens. They were beautiful, and we were surprised that we recognized a lot of the flowers used.

A flower that we did not recognize.

We could enter several structures of the Alhambra as well, including a military fortress, several lookout towers, the Generalife palace, and the palace of King Carlos V (where there is currently an M.C. Escher exhibition! Apparently Escher was inspired by the Alhambra’s geometrical structures or something). All buildings show-cased beautiful Mudejer architecture (the result of Moorish construction under Catholic instruction), which I am very fond of. I am disappointed that we couldn’t enter the Nasrid palaces, but even without them we spent a good chunk of our day at the Alhambra.

View of the Alhambra from the Generalife gardens

Some examples of Mudejer architecture. I believe this is from the Generalife palace.

View of the Alcazaba (military complex)

 We spent the next couple of hours of our Friday walking around a nearby neighborhood called the Albaicin, which is known as the largest Moorish quarter in Spain. The neighborhood seemed to be a bit of a fortress itself; we couldn’t find an entrance around the high walls.