Granada

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Granada was our last sightseeing city. We walked the streets of Old Town, spending more time in the shops and less in the cathedrals. This time we explored without a guide, as we had in the other cities. Granada a beautiful city. With the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains and the Alhambra, as its back drop, and the narrow cobblestone streets, the photo ops were endless. We spent time in the Alcaiceria, once a silk market, but now full of souvenir shops; it reminded me a little of the souk in Israel. Taking a break from walking in a Morrocan style tea shop on the Rua de Casas de Cha, was delicious... the tea of course but also the crepes and baklava style pastries. We walked through the Albayzin, with winding narrow streets of the Moorish area, up to Mirador de San Nicholas view point for incredible views of all of Granada, and the Alhambra. We walked lots of steps and alleyways to another lookout point San Cristobol to meet John and the bus for a ride around Granada as he looked for a way into the Sacromonte neighborhood to see it. The day ended with dinner at Carmelo's with an especially memorable eggplant dish, and a ride on a ferris wheel that was set up behind hotel.
The next day we toured the Alhambra. I don't know if I was too cold to appreciate it (because it was very cold inside!) or I'd seen too many amazing palaces before this, or the guide that wasn't very inspiring, to say the least, but I didn't leave there with the wow feeling I expected. Seeing Sandy's pictures afterwards made me appreciate more what I had seen. It was hard even to follow the history of the place. It is a UNESCO site, described as a palace, fortress, and a city. The timeline of it seems to be something like: started in 889 AD ..then renovated in the mid 13th century by Nasrid ....converted to a palace in 1933 by Yusef 1...,and in 1492 became the palace of Ferdinand and Isabella, and 1526 Charles 1 did some more building there. For more details than that, go to Wikipedia!
Before leaving Granada, we took in one more hour in the Alcaiceria to do just a little more shopping. Our group was by far the biggest customer of the week at a particular olive oil/tea/nut shop.

Then it was off to Costa del Sol, our final destination.

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