As you trudge your way to the entrance of the Alhambra, the first thing you pass is the Renaissance Palace of Carlos V, grandson of Isabel. Designed by one of Michelangelo’s disciples, it’s a square building that houses a circular inner courtyard. This wasn’t part of the tour, so we just saw the outside and the courtyard. It houses a couple of museums, and Nadine said it is used today to give concerts as it has great acoustics. Hmm.
The Alhambra itself is divided into three areas: 1) the Alcazaba is the original fortress; 2) the Palacio Nazaries is the heart of things – business and government offices, rooms of state for entertainment, and the inner sanctum of the harem; and 3) the Generalife, which was the summer palace higher on the hill. The Alhambra was begun in 1238 under the first Nasrid king, and not completed until 1391. So, they had about a hundred years thereafter to enjoy it before Ferdinand rolled in and kicked them all out. Here’s part of the old Alcazaba. Even though it’s fairly early Spring, the gardens were looking good.
Much of the interior of the Palacio Nazaries was difficult to photograph, either because of high light contrast like this:
or because it was just too darn dark:
Regardless, you can get the sense of the elaborate carvings and mozaics that cover nearly every surface. It’s almost an assault on the senses, but exquisite craftmanship, especially the cursive epigraphy seen at the top right, above. The courtyards, water features, and fountains were generally clogged with people, but very nice nonetheless. This is the Patio de los Arrayanes (Court of the Myrtles), which gave access to both harem quarters and the king’s rooms.
Both ends of the Patio, with its 100+ foot long pool; it’s filled by two fountains at either end; the picture above is the end at left below:
Not a bad lap pool, eh? Next is the entryway to the beautiful Patio de los Leones and some of the 124 slender columns that surround it. It took some hustling to get photos with a minimum of tourists in the way. There were LOTS of people moving through.
The patio takes its name from the fountain in the center (hidden by the bush in the above photo), consisting of twelve lions (for the 12 zodiac signs) sending water to the four corners.
Another view of the delicate lattice work of the arches:
The Sala de los Abencerrajes, so-named for the Abencerrajes knights who were beheaded there, features a weird star-shaped cupola with stalactite or honeycomb vaulting. Too bad we were here at mid-day, as the best photography is said to be at sunset when the windows admit low sunlight that refracts kaleidoscopically through those features. I’d hate to have to dust the ceiling.
Another beautiful exterior courtyard.
Once outside there were some spectacular views to be had. Here’s part of Granada from the ramparts.
And, from the same spot, a view a bit to the right. Those large buildings to the right are not part of the Alhambra, but are a monastery with catacombs.
I’m not sure what this particular tower is, but the garden setting is lovely.
A star topiary. I’d hate to be the gardener who has to keep these things neat and trim.
For the last part of the tour, we had to hoof it about a half mile on traverse paths to reach the Generalife, the Summer Palace, where presumably it was cooler.
On the hike up, there were some spectacular views out across Granada.
This one has a bit more of the Alcazaba and Palacio Nazaries on the left.
The Summer Palace itself was just ok, but did have some nice water features.
There were lots of bitter orange trees planted for their perfume smell. They bore fruit year round. This concluded the tour, but we still had to walk all the way back down again. But that allowed for more of the view, which was stunning.
Back to the bus and down the winding road to Granada proper, we had to park a bit away from the hotel as busses were not allowed on its street. It was the Melia Granada, on the right with all the arches.
We got our keys and went upstairs, down a long hallway to the very end, opened the door and saw . . . bunkbeds?!? Say what? It was only after we entered that we saw the passage to the right, leading to our queen-bed chamber. Turns out this was a family suite, with the kids’ room front and center as you entered. Have to say, I was a bit stunned on first opening the door. Guess the happy-face pillows should have given it away.
We had a while before dinner, so we did a bit of walkabout. Granada was quite pretty.
After our stroll, we were pooped after all the day’s walking, so it was back to the hotel to rendezvous with the group for our walk out to dinner at the Nouveau Restaurant. Lots of tapas, including peppers stuffed with asparagus, shrimp, & clams; gazpacho; an entree of mixed grilled fish (calamari, swordfish, & hake), flan for dessert, followed by an aperitif. It sounds better than the actual execution, but we all had a good time. This photo shows the peril of using only available light, handheld.
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