Mysteries of the Alhambra

  Granada, Spain
Tuesday, April 1, 2008

musical hipsters

You know how I raved about Seville and how charming and beautiful it is? Well now I will proceed to do the same about Granada! How could you not love this place? Personally it is exactly what I was hoping for - the Andalusian culture of tapas, siestas and 'churros con chocolate', mixed with the sultry Arabic tea houses, bazaars and wafting incense. Oh, and a huge helping of bohemian 'vagabundo' youth. Personally I love the mixing and blending of cultures like this but it is hard to tell how much the residents of Granada actually feel about it.

Anyway, we took the bus from Sevilla to Granada at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 30. We arrived at about noon and took a city bus to the Plaza Nueva. We walked about a block to Cuesta de Gomérez and found the Pension Venecia. The owner was very friendly but a bit flustered as her cleaning lady had forgotten to set her clock forward for daylight savings so she was an hour late for work. We weren't bothered about a later check in so we  left our bags in the office and headed out to explore the city.

View of Alhambra at dusk

We found the cathedral and the main shopping area as well as a nice little bakery with fresh pastries and coffee. The perfect treat for a Sunday afternoon! Later in the afternoon we wandered up to a look out to watch the sun start to set over the Sierra Nevada mountains and illuminate the Alhambra. We thought it would be tranquil and calm, but about 200 people had the same idea so it was pretty chaotic for a bit. The bohemian folk were selling their jewelery, playing guitar and hanging out with their 5 or more dogs and puppies. In terms of the hippie youth scene, it is a lot like the 'Nelson, British Columbia' of Spain (a cultural reference for my friends and family in Canada).

So on Monday morning we got up bright and early to hike up the hill to the Alhambra and stand in line for day-of tickets. If you know when you will be here, you can buy tickets ahead of time on-line, but I think they let in about 1,500 people per day that just show up to buy tickets on the day they want to visit. We were advised to go early and wait in line. So we showed up at the ticket office (taquilla) which was surprisingly hard to find even after asking 4 different people. When we arrived at 7:40 a.m. we were already about 200th in line. We waited for an hour and still only advanced to about 100th in line. Then all of a sudden, someone announced over the loud speaker that you can use your credit card (with a PIN number) to buy tickets through the machines in a little office behind us, which of course had no line whatsoever. So Andy went off and within 5 minutes we had tickets in hand for 2:00 p.m. that afternoon. We had to laugh at the fact that we stood in line for over an hour for no apparent reason. A simple sign would have been helpful, but oh well. It made me think that my PR skills could be put to good use in this country...

Patio de Arrayanes

So we returned at about 1:30 to stand in line for admission to the Nasrid Palaces. There are three zones in the Alhambra where you are required to show your admission ticket. Everyone gets an entry time (ours was 2:00 - 2:30 p.m.) and you need to enter the Nasrid Palaces within your half hour or they don't let you in. You can visit the other two areas, Alcazaba and Generalife, at your leisure after. The Nasrid Palaces are pretty spectacular. There were a lot of other people walking around at the same time but it was still amazing to see all of the rooms and passages and imagine what it must have been like when it was built in the 13th century. After this, we visited the Alcazaba, which has a tower that offers great views of Granada. Then we headed to the Generalife, which was at one time the leisure villa of the sultans of Granada. You could easily spend a whole day wandering around this area and sitting by the fountains and shady forested areas.

Palacio Carlos V

On Tuesday, we had a sleep in then checked out of the hostel. They were kind enough to store our bags for the day as our train to Barcelona wasn't until 9:45 p.m. that night. We wandered around the town and checked out El Banuelo (an old Arabic bath house) and walked back up the hill to the Alhambra museum. Both are free of charge, which was nice. After walking back down the hill we found a quaint little Arabic tea house and sampled some exotic combinations. Mine had fruit,cinnamonn, vanilla and other herbs infused with tea and milk. It was sweet and delicious. And the owner chatted with us in Spanish for a few minutes which was nice.

That evening we gathered up our bags and took the city bus to the train station. We said goodbye to Andalusia with a bit of apprehension, but we're excited about life in the big city of Barcelona (I think!). I have an interview on April 4th in Barcelona (with the same company I had a phone interview with), so maybe I'll have more news on the job front next time I write... Hasta luego!