Tuesday was a travel day for us. We bid goodbye to Fuengirola about noon and headed for Granada which was about a three hour drive. Not knowing where we were going to stay when we arrived, we parked in the first long term parking lot we could find and hoofed it into town (fortunately, not that far away). We lucked out finding a very nice and very reasonably priced hostal downtown that included a parking garage under the building where we left our car for the duration of our stay. Granada is a city with with a 25 century history settled by Moors, Arabs, Iberians, Romans, Jews and Christians. Being a travel day, we didn’t have the time to take in much of the city’s history. We strolled around downtown for a while, had a delightful early dinner, wandered around a little more, got lost a couple of times, finally found our way back to the hostal and called it a day.
On Wednesday, we toured the famous Alhambra. Since we didn’t have advanced reservations, we needed to be in line by 7:30 a.m. (which meant getting up about 6:15 a.m. Ugh!!) We headed out for the bus at 6:50 a.m. in the dark. (We are on the western edge of the time zone so there is a late sunrise and sunset.) Our hostess at Verona Hostal informed us that if we went to the credit card machine line it would be much shorter. That is a great secret we think. Happily once the machines opened at 8 we had our tickets within 10 min instead of the hour in the person line. We were planning on paying with credit card anyway.
The Alhambra began as a Moorish palace & fortress. The first phase of construction went from 1237 – 1273. As new sultans and Moor leaders assumed power additions and entire new palaces were built. The restoration that had been done and the ongoing restoration and preservation are truly amazing. The gardens, Moorish baths, fountains with gravity water flow are true wonders. The Catholic Monarchs (Isabella & Ferdinand) took over in 1492. They made extensive repairs & alterations. In 1526 Charles V decided to build a palace which is considered one of the most important Spanish Renaissance works. It is all magnificent. In 1870 the Alhambra became a national monument and it 1984 the UNESCO declared it a World Heritage site. All the buildings and the water distribution system are architectural wonders.
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The plaster work on walls and archways and ceilings made from intricate wooden patterns or stained glass are beyond beautiful. The Alhambra is on a hill and the towers offer amazing views of the various buildings that comprise the Alhambra and the city of Granada. We were privileged to view it. After wandering around and climbing up and down towers and balconies for 3 1/2 hours (and rising before dawn) we were ready to head back to our room for a rest. After our rest, we headed back out into the sunshine and wonderful plazas here in Granada. We were fortunate to find a small place on the plaza that was serving early dinner so that we could go back and catch up on our blog and take care of a couple of lingering cell phone challenges. (Dinner for most here in Spain is not before 7:30 or 8:00.) Once those are taken care of we will plan for tomorrow and call it a wrap for the day.
Ciao
Wayne & Peggy