The Alhambra and Granada city
We took a 3 hour express ALBA coach eastwards from Seville to get to the city of Granada. It was 30 mins longer than the train option but gave us a more flexible timetable. An interesting journey with views of olive trees as far as the eye could see. With self imposed time pressures, we had only allowed 2 nights in Granada, which was maybe just enough time, but 3 or even 4 nights would have been better. Granada has a small modern regional and international airport about 20 kms north of the city ( E35 taxi ride from our apartment) and on departing we had a direct flight with Vueling from there to London Gatwick, which worked well.
Granada is situated in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, which in the winter months provides snow for the ski fields, only 90 mins drive away. Originally it was the good supply of water from the Sierra Nevada & the fertile irrigated soil which were a major attraction to the early inhabitants of this part of Andalusia. So for us arriving across the plains of Southern Spain, the mountains of the Sierra Nevada are impressive, overlooking but not overshadowing Granada and its main tourist attraction, the Alhambra.
Our visit to this part of Andalusia continued the historical journey that we had started in Seville and Cordoba, seeing the impacts of a succession of waves of invaders – Romans, Visigoths, Moors from N Africa and then the Christian Spaniards from the north. Again we saw evidence of each of these and that they mainly embraced what they found, building upon and working with each element, leaving behind what we see today. Actually the Visigoths apparently smashed up a lot of what they found, but hopefully you get the drift, and what is left is stunning.
We came to Granada especially to visit the Alhambra, and we did, it was excellent and more on that below. But we found much more to Granada, in particular we did enjoy our visit to the Cathedral which is wonderful, the whole Albaicin district of Granada has beautiful old houses with tiny cobbled streets, its Miradore views across the valley to the Alhambra itself, the “souk like streets with Arab speaking traders” and the tapas bars and restaurants, all brilliant. Yet again another lovely Spanish city, proud and very focussed on its heritage and its story, but clean, friendly and leaving us with a feeling of it being very safe to wander around and explore.
Our apartment was in a small complex – “Smart Suites Albaicin” – that was right in the middle of the Albaicin area itself. The taxi from the bus station took us on quite an interestingly convoluted route to get to the apartment, introducing us to the extraordinarily narrow and one way cobbled streets , steps & alleyways. As we soon discovered the Albaicin was an area best to explore on foot, and we did.
On our first day in Granada, we got our bearings in the Albaicin district and on foot explored up the valley towards the Sacromonte area originally occupied by Gypsies living in caves. These caves are now more bijoux residences and always, across the valley, is the Alhambra dominating every view. At one stage in our wandering we came to a view point – “Miradore”, with a couple of benches, a spectacular view of the Alhambra and an open window into someone’s kitchen with a sign selling beer, sangria and wine!! So we purchased , sat back and enjoyed the view!! As the evening wore on we headed down to the one of the main streets of Granada Plaza to the Los Diamentes Tapas bar.
Our apartment reception had suggested this Tapas Bar as being one mainly offering seafood and predominately for locals. We were told, if there is room – place very popular – you grab seats at one of the tables, sharing therefore with 2 or 4 other customers. With the first drink order, some tapas is also automatically delivered and following that, you ordered off the menu as much other food as you could manage. Enjoying our first drink and a starter of Squid, we watched food being delivered to other tables, worked out what looked really good and told our waitress – “Ola can we have one of those”?? YES!!! The fried mixed fish and then the prawns, seafood artichoke casserole – excellent , very filling and lots of fun!!
Our second day was predominately to visit the Alhambra, the fortress, palace and gardens. We had pre booked our tour tickets and had a 10am start. The pics below will give you a bit of an idea of the Alhambra and the views from it, which are wonderful. But you need to visit for yourself to really appreciate the place and would suggest to take a guided tour, just no guarantee how good the guide will be. We had some truly excellent guided tours in Seville and Cordoba, but our guide for the Alhambra, whilst he had lots of information to impart, unlike his colleagues on our other tours, he didn’t quite manage to bring the history of the place to life.
There are buses up from the centre of Granada to the Alhambra but we elected to walk from our apartment, down to the city centre and up the hillside with beautiful quiet gardens, to our tour meeting point. The tour was in two halves, the Gardens first and then the main palace and fortification itself, with a pause for toilet stop, ice creams, coffee at halftime – excellent clean loos!!
Leaving the Alhambra we walked back down the hill chatting to & comparing notes with two Polish American ladies who had also been on our tour. We searched out some late lunch and prepared to visit the Cathedral of Granada.
We look down on the Cathedral from our apartment and it was definitely a must visit for us. Externally it is badly in need of a good clean. Internally ( E5 entry) – note don’t bother with the “free audio”, its rubbish, but on entry just wander, then sit and ponder the “altar in the round”, the magnificent paintings & how such beauty was created so many centuries ago:-
After a big day of being tourists in Granada, a quiet evening meal was needed, and we circled back above the Cathedral into the Albaicin district and found a quiet square, church in the corner and three small restaurants to chose from. We settled in to enjoy some supper and to reflect on our time in Granada. As darkness fell and the lights came on, Granada put on a new show – different from daytime but just as impressive:-
Thank you Andalusia, we had a wonderful time and you have so much more to offer. We had wanted to visit Cadiz and other centres, just ran out of time. So there is plenty more for another visit!!
Travels with My Wife 