On Saturday, the 4th of July, we went to the Alhambra. EVERYONE had told us to be sure to get tickets to get inside the main palace - so many people want to get in that they've had to restrict the number of visitors that can enter at a time. So Jason had faithfully gotten tickets well before our arrival. Well, I'm not sure how this happened -- I didn't get up early enough, we had some dramatic meltdowns -- but somehow we didn't leave our hotel until about 15 minutes before our ticket time. And we still had to get breakfast (i.e. COFFEE!), we still had to catch the bus up to the entrance of the Alhambra, we still had to get our actual paper tickets, we still had to make it to the entrance of the palace within the A
lhambra grounds. At the bottom of the hill we realized we had forgotten our ticket confirmation and Jason had to RUN all the way back up the steep steps to our hotel and back again. So at this point it was 5-10 minutes PAST our ticket time and we were starting to panic. (meaning I mostly :-) ) So we ditched the bus and had a taxi get us to the entrance of the grounds quicker. Thankfully, it was very easy & quick to turn our confirmation into actual tickets. Then we RAN about 10 minutes to get to the palace. It was a bit confusing to figure out which way to go, and I just kept thinking, "If we take a wrong turn we are out of luck!" We arrived 2 or 3 minutes before 10, cut in front of this huge line of people waiting for the 10:00 entrance time and breathlessly pled our case to get in even though we were so late! It was a bit crazy. I still can't believe we came this close to missing the main attraction all together! :-)
So after we caught our breath, we had a very nice visit to the Alhambra :-). It was full of the beautiful patterns that I loved in Sevilla, but it is much more elaborate than the Alcazar in Sevilla. There are also many more famous stories from the Alhambra - in part thanks to a book by Washington Irving that describes the palace and some of the famous legends. I have begun reading this book and it is fascinating hearing what southern Spain was like in the mid 1800s.
One story tells of 2 feuding noble families. The family living in the Alhambra invited their rivals to a dinner to make peace. Except during the meal they came in a slaughtered all their guests. That room had a ceiling similar to this one, from the Sala de las Dos Hermanas.
One disappointment: a highlight of the Alhambra is the Patio of the Lions, which contains a beautiful fountain held up by 12 marble lions. The legend of the fountain is that water flowed from the mouth of a different lion each hour of the day. (courtesy of Frommers) The patio was beautiful, but the fountain was being restored.
On the edge of the palace, you could look out the big windows to see a beautiful view of the Albaicin, the area of Granada where we were staying. Granada is full of the white houses like other parts of southern Spain. And of course there were the beautiful Moorish arches throughout the palace and grounds.
We thoroughly enjoyed the grounds outside the palace. They were really beautiful and extensive. We also visited Generalife which was the summer escape of the kings who lived here. (it struck me a bit funny that their escape was walking distance from their regular palace - but maybe it still felt like a get away :-) )
Another fun first we did while visiting the Alhambra - Spain has a chain of national hotels around the country called the paradors. They want to be sure that people always have a place to stay. We have heard about many of them, but have never visited any of them, whether overnight or for a meal. Well, one of the nicest paradors is inside the grounds of the Alhambra. So we had a lovely lunch on the terraza of the parador :-).
On Saturday, the 4th of July, we went to the Alhambra. EVERYONE had told us to be sure to get tickets to get inside the main palace - so many people want to get in that they've had to restrict the number of visitors that can enter at a time. So Jason had faithfully gotten tickets well before our arrival. Well, I'm not sure how this happened -- I didn't get up early enough, we had some dramatic meltdowns -- but somehow we didn't leave our hotel until about 15 minutes before our ticket time. And we still had to get breakfast (i.e. COFFEE!), we still had to catch the bus up to the entrance of the Alhambra, we still had to get our actual paper tickets, we still had to make it to the entrance of the palace within the A
lhambra grounds. At the bottom of the hill we realized we had forgotten our ticket confirmation and Jason had to RUN all the way back up the steep steps to our hotel and back again. So at this point it was 5-10 minutes PAST our ticket time and we were starting to panic. (meaning I mostly :-) ) So we ditched the bus and had a taxi get us to the entrance of the grounds quicker. Thankfully, it was very easy & quick to turn our confirmation into actual tickets. Then we RAN about 10 minutes to get to the palace. It was a bit confusing to figure out which way to go, and I just kept thinking, "If we take a wrong turn we are out of luck!" We arrived 2 or 3 minutes before 10, cut in front of this huge line of people waiting for the 10:00 entrance time and breathlessly pled our case to get in even though we were so late! It was a bit crazy. I still can't believe we came this close to missing the main attraction all together! :-)
So after we caught our breath, we had a very nice visit to the Alhambra :-). It was full of the beautiful patterns that I loved in Sevilla, but it is much more elaborate than the Alcazar in Sevilla. There are also many more famous stories from the Alhambra - in part thanks to a book by Washington Irving that describes the palace and some of the famous legends. I have begun reading this book and it is fascinating hearing what southern Spain was like in the mid 1800s.
One story tells of 2 feuding noble families. The family living in the Alhambra invited their rivals to a dinner to make peace. Except during the meal they came in a slaughtered all their guests. That room had a ceiling similar to this one, from the Sala de las Dos Hermanas.
One disappointment: a highlight of the Alhambra is the Patio of the Lions, which contains a beautiful fountain held up by 12 marble lions. The legend of the fountain is that water flowed from the mouth of a different lion each hour of the day. (courtesy of Frommers) The patio was beautiful, but the fountain was being restored.
On the edge of the palace, you could look out the big windows to see a beautiful view of the Albaicin, the area of Granada where we were staying. Granada is full of the white houses like other parts of southern Spain. And of course there were the beautiful Moorish arches throughout the palace and grounds. 
We thoroughly enjoyed the grounds outside the palace. They were really beautiful and extensive. We also visited Generalife which was the summer escape of the kings who lived here. (it struck me a bit funny that their escape was walking distance from their regular palace - but maybe it still felt like a get away :-) )
Another fun first we did while visiting the Alhambra - Spain has a chain of national hotels around the country called the paradors. They want to be sure that people always have a place to stay. We have heard about many of them, but have never visited any of them, whether overnight or for a meal. Well, one of the nicest paradors is inside the grounds of the Alhambra. So we had a lovely lunch on the terraza of the parador :-).
1 comment:
It's soooo beautiful! You are so fortunate to get to tour this part of the world! Enjoy! Love the pics!
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