For those that don’t know, La Alhambra is a fortress and palace on one of the hilltops of Granada. It was initially built by the Moors when they came over from north Africa to Spain in the 13th century. It was occupied by several sultans and much of it has a very Arabic flavour. Eventually Christian monarchs pushed them out and appended their own additions. It’s a beautiful mix of styles.
La Alhambra is also one of the biggest tourist attractions in Spain. They release a limited number of tickets for each day and they sell out months in advance. For this trip, we’re kind of making it up as we go along. We only know roughly where we’re heading and dates are a bit fluid. Hence we did not have anything pre-booked. We arrived the night before and were advised by the ticket office that some tickets are returned and become available on their website at midnight each night. So we set up camp in the carpark with an alarm set for 11:50. Even though it was a weekend, we did manage to snag some general grounds tickets, but not for the Nazaríes palace… maybe next time. It was still amazing.
We then took a one of the minibuses to Granada town centre. The buses are very small to fit down the incredibly narrow and very steep streets. And the drivers are all certifiable. It’s a white knuckle ride! We went to one of the tea houses and has some very nice infusions and sweet pastries.
After the narrow and crowded spaces of Granada, we move on to the Sierra Nevada mountains…