The year 1492 was a biggie for Granada. Ferdinand and Isabel gave Columbus a bag of jewels and sent him on his way and after five centuries of rule, the Moors were driven out of a united Spain. And they left behind the World Heritage site of Alhambra.
Today Granada is a major tourist destination and the main attraction is the Alhambra, perched on a hill above the town center and framed by the snow-capped mountains. We are staying at the Sierra Nevada Motel. It’s cheap, comfortable and only 100 meters from the “estaçion de autobuses” where the #33 bus whisks you to the Cathedral. We reserved our tickets with help from multi-lingual Ingo at the motel. Our Alhambra reservation was for the afternoon so we spent the morning wandering around the Albayzin Barrio, the original Moorish neighborhood of San Nicolás.
Water and gardens
The Alhambra was everything we expected: lush gardens; water, water everywhere; and exquisite Moorish architecture. And few crowds! Finally at 5PM it was our time to visit the Nasrid Palaces, home of the sultan. Somehow the Alhambra’s marvel of carved wood ceilings, stucco “stalactites”, ceramic tiles, molded plaster walls, and filigree windows remained unchanged after the Christian conquest.
And that spells "Allah"
Local flavor
It was a long day, nine hours with six different buses. Thank heaven we don’t have many like this. I can’t imagine what kind of experience the “average” tourist would have in the heat of July with the high-season crowds.
