Sandy and I woke up late today; we were just completely knackered from our day of traveling before. We popped down to the main part of Granada for lunch and to go to the Catedral de Granada. The Catedral was a bit of a let down in the sense that allegedly Ferdinand and Isabella are buried there, but I couldn't find their tomb anywhere. Oh well, there was still a pretty awesome organ in there. After lunch we headed up to Punta de San Nicolas which, according to Rick Steves, is the best place to see the Alhambra from, the Alhambra being the main reason to go to Granada.
Inside the Catedral de Granada
The climb itself was a pain and a half because the temperature got progressively hotter the higher up we went. If that's what it's like on mountain stages in the Tour de France, then I feel real sorry for those guys. There was no reprieve. But Rick was right, the Punta is the perfect place to see the whole Alhambra from, and I've got to say it is a MASSIVE structure. I hadn't really heard about it until Sandy talked about it (I know, a travel destination I didn't know about, shocker), but when I saw it from San Nicolas, I knew I was in for a real special treat. As we were sitting up there, Sandy said to me, 'I smell something funny.' I looked around and sure enough, as I suspected, there were two guys smoking pot and selling cheap trinkets to tourists. Did I mention Granada is full of hippies? It's absolutely brilliant.
The Alhambra from Punta de San Nicolas.
Me with the Alhambra.
After a quick rest at the hotel we walked over to the Alhambra. If we though Punta San Nicolas was a tough climb, nothing could've prepared us for the climb to the Alhambra. Sandy came to the determination that they had strategically placed benches where they did because they knew when exhaustion would set in. Now, I've got some pretty strong leg muscles from running and cycling, but my calves and thighs were burning by the time we reached the top. But man was it worth it.
For those of you who don't know, the Alhambra was built by Moors in the 14th century. And if you don't know what the Moors are, they were the Arabic people who invaded Europe during the Middle Ages. Reference: Morgan Freeman's character Azeem in 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'. These palaces (alcazars) were built for Moorish kings called Emirs (United Arab Emirates make more sense now?). The Alhambra was specifically built for the last Emirs and the court of the Nasarid dynasty. Oddly, there is a statue of Washington Irving, deemed the son of the Alhambra, because he wrote a book called 'Tales of the Alhambra' which you can (conveniently) buy in one of the many Alhambra gift shops. I went in to the Alhambra with absolutely no expectations. I made a point to know nothing about it besides what Sandy told me (which was, 'OMG, it's amazing. I may die of happiness when we get there.') because I wanted to be completely surprised. And let me tell you. I walked out of there completely awestruck and I now rate the Alhambra as the greatest man-made structure I've ever seen. I cannot express fully express in words how incredible the Alhambra was, so I will let my photographs do that for you.
Entry gate in the Tower of Justice.
Arabic calligraphy. Hopefully I'll be able to read a bit this time next year.
The Patio.
All hand done. Be sure to click on these photos so you can see all the detailing.
One of my two favorite 'rooms' in the Alhambra. In this one, you could smell the running water everywhere and you looked out into the Albayzin of Granada. The other one smelled like honeysuckle and oranges.
My favorite place in the Alhambra in the room that smelled like water.
The water room. My favorite spot on the far right. Can I live here?
In total, I took over 400 pictures in the Alhambra, so this is a REALLY paired down version of all the photos. All I can say is go there. It'll blow your mind.
We returned to our hostel (after stopping for a well-deserved ice cream of course), went back to Kebab man for dinner while avoiding Hussein at all costs, and then began to re-pack. It's getting to the point in our journey where we're tired of packing and repacking. It's getting old. We did shed some weight that was sad to part with though. We had to say goodbye to Rick. He was too heavy and because we'd be meeting Igor in Barcelona, we didn't feel the need to carry him around anymore. So thanks Rick, for guiding us around Spain, back door and all!
And for a final laugh of the day, I was REALLY tempted to go on this tour. Can you figure out why?
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