The Alhambra

Trip Start Apr 04, 2008
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Trip End Jul 03, 2009


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Flag of Spain and Canary Islands  , Andalusia,
Tuesday, August 5, 2008

On our 2nd day in Almerimar we decided to hire a car and see more of Spain than just the rugged coastline so we headed for the ancient palace and fort of Alhambra in Granada. We followed the coast west for an hour which is littered with tent like structures that cover most of the coastal area which are used to grow vegies under, I assume to keep them out of the intense heat of the summer sun. From the ocean it gives off an unusual patchwork like pattern. We then headed up into what looked like really arid and rocky hills, very desert like with nothing growing on the ground but Olive trees covered the hillside and we were later to find out that the area is really quite fertile.

Granada is a huge city which at first glance looked quite modern with a huge urban sprawl not what we had been expecting but as we climbed further into the hills and came upon the Alhambra our breath was taken away Gardens in the Summer Palace
Gardens in the Summer Palace
 . This place was truly amazing, built by the Muslims in the 900's and gradually added to and then taken over by the Christians in the 1400's and changed again. It has a fortress and 3 palaces as well as ruins from the Medina (old city) and gardens with fountains run by springs everywhere. We couldn't believe how beautiful it was, in fact all we could do was rave all day about how stunning and gorgeous it is.

Even the boys were saying when they saw something interesting could we do this and that in our next house, made us all want to rush home and start building again. The palaces had rooms running into courtyards with gardens, pools and fountains, with amazing details on the walls and ceilings, truly breathtaking. It was amazing to think that people actually lived here, straight out of the Arabian Nights, the commentary phone we hired told us stories of Sultans and lovers and the Christian Knights and Kings. The only problem was we left our cameras in the car and I was devastated so we purchased a disposable camera to try and capture the beauty of this place but I don't think we could do it justice. Our photos are a little grainy but maybe look it up on the internet for a better understanding of it, we had no idea that it existed and even the boys who are not culture vultures thought it was great. Even the 40 degrees and mild cases of heat stroke could not dampen our enthusiasm for Alhambra.

After that we headed high into the Sierra Nevada mountains to go home and hoped to find an authentic Spanish restaurant for dinner but no luck and had to wait till we got back to Almerimar at 11pm where we ending up having a Chinese buffet. Go figure !
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