This was always going to be a big day, one we were both looking forward to. We had pre-booked our Alhambra tickets in Australia when a friend told us you had to book way in advance. Like a lot of things, these are ‘timed’ tickets – in other words, so many people go through, they try to space it out a little and they allow a certain amount of people in on the hour, every hour. We have discovered this with a lot of places we have been to. Our ticket was for 2:00pm and so we decided to have a look at the Granada Cathedral before heading up (The Alhambra is in the hills above the town). We wandered through some little streets, and found the side of the Cathedral and went in through there. There was a courtyard filled with beautiful orange trees that provided some great shade as well as a burst of colour.
The Cathedral itself was breathtaking and the altar was just amazing – gold, white and wood, everywhere you looked. From these tiny little streets, you end up walking into something that is four and five stories high on the inside, with soaring ceilings that are covered in stucco carvings. The wealth of the Catholic Church is on fine display, and you can see the power that comes along with the opulent interior. It was built in the early 16th century atop the city mosque - they had to wait for the Muslims to be run out of town first. It has not one, but two massive organs, and the marble tiles on the floor are very well worn. I find myself standing in these places thinking of the hundreds of years of people walking over, or standing, where I am standing.
We caught the bus up to the Alhambra, and that was an experience in itself. Narrow windy roads and a bus driver that has done the trip hundreds of times, equals a rollercoaster ride through the streets. Everyone on the bus was quite calm, I just kept thinking back to us trying to turn up the narrow streets at 2km/h in a tiny car and how frustrated we must be making the drivers behind us. Oh well! We picked up our tickets once we arrived and then sat down in the shade (it was around 37 degrees) while we waited for 2:00pm to come along. We saw some cats who had the visitors all figured out as food giving machines, and watched one try to stalk a pigeon that was twice its size – did I mention how big European pigeons are!!
Our time was getting close, so we joined the huge 2:00pm queue and stood in the sun for the next 20 minutes. We’re glad we packed hats and sunscreen. It was hot. Now there’s a statement! The gates opened, and we were told to head straight for the Nasrid Palace as our tickets were for entry to that. We wandered past some of the buildings, it’s like an old town behind a wall, so there were old buildings everywhere. There was also a trough running alongside the cobblestone streets that carried crystal clear water around the place. There is a spring somewhere on top of the hill, and the water from it feeds from the Alhambra into the town.
We got down to the palace and we were shuffled through as it seemed we took longer than all the other 2:00pm people to get down there (there was lots to see!). We entered the palace, and went from room to room. Like most of the palaces we have visited, words aren’t enough to describe how totally awe-inspiring it was, and sadly in this case, the photos just don’t do it justice. Mainly because you can’t see the room as a whole in the photos, the rooms were tiny, and it was all about what you saw standing at the doorway of one, looking into the next few rooms. Each room was brightly tiled about a third of the way up, and then there were amazingly intricate Arabic stucco carvings on the walls and around the doorways. The rooms were yellow, or that terracotta orangey colour, or pale creams. The walls were cool to touch, some were actually cold, and it was beautifully cool inside every room. The ceilings were incredible as well – again, all carved – many with stars carved into the designs. There were central courtyards with huge pools, and again, it was all designed to be sitting somewhere, looking out. The shapes of the windows and doors perfectly framed the views. It took around 45 minutes to walk through the whole palace, and it is something neither one of us will ever forget.
We went from there to see another three palaces: the Alcazaba which was the old fortress and had fabulous views over the white buildings of Grenada, The Charles V palace which was a huge circular building, and then the Palacio del Partal which had another fabulous pool and is the oldest building in the complex. From there, we wandered along the side of the Alhambra which looks across a valley to the Generalife section, the summer palace.
Genralife was just as beautiful as the Alhambra, but I think a little more peaceful. It is bordered by topiary Cyprus trees which have sections cut into them for the view back across the Alhambra. There were more beautiful fountains in front of us, which again were designed to be looked at from different rooms. It was lovely and cool up here, and as we walked through, we found this was where the water came from. There were steps going further up the hill (to the upper gardens) and it had a trough built into what would be the handrail. Water flowed freely from here, and it was so cool, and so clear, we splashed ourselves to cool down and it was almost as if the water had been refrigerated.
If you go to Spain, you have to go to the Alhambra – it was spectacular and unlike anything we have ever seen before. The architecture is amazing, with the artwork built in all around the rooms, windows and doors. It was pretty easy to imagine what it would have been like being there 500 years ago, and how wonderfully peaceful it was, and still is.
~ Wikipedia information about the Alhambra here
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