Sunday, 6th April 2008

	25ºC
	7ºC

Sometimes, you take some things for granted. 17 Days in Europe, and we were almost experts in European travel. We arrived at Granada at almost 10am by train, and our first task was to find lockers to deposit our backpacks for the day. But who would have expected, that the Granada train station was under renovation, and despite looking as hard as we did, we could not find any lockers. Hopeless, we decided to leave for the streets in search of a place to leave our loads. We walked several hundred metres down through Granada, and found a hotel, but even they would not keep our bags for us despite our offer to pay. Dejected, we headed back to the train station, where we asked at the information counter again. This time, we were directed to the bus station, a 10 minute bus ride away. And so, most part of the morning was spent in search of the so elusive locker. Thankfully though, we got our loads off our bags at the bus station.

By then, we were hungry! And by Marcus’ recommendation, we took a bus to the Granada city center where we started to hike towards the hilly neighbourhood of Sacromonte, where he says there is good food to be found. We scaled the slopes around the neighbourhood, but found it to be a ghost town! Perhaps it was the fact that it was a Sunday morning! There was no food to be found, and we were tired and hungry.



After a little bit more walking, we gave up. We decided then to start walking towards the Albayzin neighbourhood. Here, the streets were distinctively narrow and windy, and contained several Moorish houses, and retained the charm of its Medieval Moorish history. Here, we were not interested in what looked like rather over prices tapas, and proceeded back to the city center as it was getting late, and close to our appointment time at the famous Alhambra. We ended up having lunch at a simple café.

Spanish Omelette

We made our way uphill towards the Alhambra. I’m not kidding, the incline was steep, and it was a long walk! We were lost for a while before we found that the ticketing office was on the other side of the site. We eventually got our tickets, and we off to explore this very famous Moorish citadel and palace.

Look at that incline!

Well, the story goes… Once upon a time, the Moors took Spain, and Granada was one of its last strongholds, before they were driven out by the Christians. So today, having such an importance in Muslim and Christian historical legacy, it is a cultural tourist hotspot.

The architecture here was markedly different from the rest of Europe. And, the change was a breath of fresh air.

We started with a tour of the Palacios Nazaríes.

Patio de los Arrayanes

Wall details

And then the very beautiful Generalife Gardens.






Sadly, time was running short, and we had to make our move. It was a rather enjoyable visit, as it was a place of such beautiful Moorish architecture, and at the same time, so steeped in history.

Our last stop for the day was the Granada Cathedral. Its sheer size is impressive – 115m X 67m! This cathedral was built during the height of the Spanish Renaissance, and took 181 years to complete building. It would have been more impressive had its two planned 81m tall towers been built, but this did not happen, mainly for financial reasons.



Our long train into the sunset brought us out of the very special and very distinctive town of Granada.

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