Travel Day 808 – Barcelona to Granada, SPAIN
After a really great day of walking through the historic parts of Barcelona yesterday, we hopped in the evening on the overnight train, slept away the distance to Andalusia and woke up in Granada…
Portico and Pool of UNESCO Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain
Initially we wanted to continue our little side trip towards Madrid, but then our rational had been that it would be much better weather in the south and so we decided to take the southern route on the way to Lisboa. Unfortunately this whole theory blew up right into our faces when we left the train early in the morning and realized that Granada was actually freezing cold…
Luckily as soon as the sun came out, it began to be nice and warm and we were able go for a little exploration walk around the area. The historic Albayzin area with its winding streets became our first destination. This hillside neighbourhood was not only famous for its medieval Moorish past, but also because of its great views over to the palace Generalife and the hilltop fortress called Alhambra. We had prearranged entrance tickets for the afternoon to visit Alhambra, which was together with Generalife and Albayzin enlisted as UNESCO World Heritage Site…
White Houses of the Historic Albayzin Area in Granada, Spain
But first we continued our walk through the historic Albayzin area and rested at a view-point opposite the Alhambra fortress with great views of the valley, even up to the snow-capped mountains in the back. As we followed the winding roads up the hill and along one white washed house after the next, we tried to have a peek into some houses and courtyards. Luckily at least once we were actually invited inside and had the chance to enjoy the great city views from one of the house owner’s terraces…
After seeing pretty much every single little street, we retired for a nice lunch in the sunshine, on one of the many cute plazas that appeared between the houses every once in while. With that little bit of rest we felt ready to descent form our hill and ascent the other one with the huge Alhambra fortress and Generalife palace on the top. Both of these UNESCO enlisted places were the main attraction of Granada, not only because they were magnificent buildings with beautifully carved details, but also because they represented the Muslim past of Spain…
UNESCO Summer Palace of Generalife in Granada, Spain
In the end we spent the entire afternoon walking around in the palace, the fortress and the extensive gardens. It was overall really an amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site with some excellent views of the old part of town, Albayzin, the valley and the distant mountains. After sitting down and taking-in the views for quite a while, this Arrival Day in Granada could only be perfected by a truly passionate flamenco performance in an underground vault. Wow, it really had been an amazingly great day in Spain…
Granada was my favourite place in Spain. I don’t know if you got the same impression, but I found it a rather strange experience to see, down in the city, the tombs of the Catholic monarchs who took back the city from Moorish dominion and then to climb the hill to the Alhambra and be transported to a completely different culture and outlook on the world. I spent an entire day at the Alhambra, and with its ornate carvings on the walls and pools of water reflecting the sky it was hard to see it as a military fort. Looking at these two very different sides of Andalusian culture resting peacefully side by side today it was hard, but at the same time rather fascinating, to try to imagine the city as a site of conflict to those who lived there back in the 15th century.
It’s quite easy to see how Granada could be your favorite place in Spain, especially since it has three UNESCO sites in such close proximity. The conflict in culture and history rather adds to the appeal of the city in my opinion and the beautiful Alhambra seems to represent this perfectly as it merges almost seamlessly a military fortress with a delicate palace. Either way, Granada and especially Alhambra is certainly a must visit place when travelling in Spain…
Loved it… was there in December 2012
You are right Rusudan, Alhambra is a really great place to visit and I loved it as well…