Granada, Málaga & Marbella

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At this point, our trip changed a little bit. The plan was initially to spend one day and night in Granada and then to fly to Barcelona for three days. However, because of the political unrest in Barcelona with the Catalonian referendum and talks the state declaring independence at any point, we were advised by many people to reroute our trip. This was definitely a big bummer as we all wanted to see the city that most say is the best in Spain, but unfortunately that trip will be for another time. At this point the new plan was to spend two days and two nights in Granada and then go to the southern coast of Spain to the beach in Marbella with a put stop in Málaga on the way. So, at this point, I am going to do my best to sum up the rest of our trip.

Granada was a great little city and I am glad that we spent two days there because I think we got a much better taste of Granada on day two. However, I must start with our first day which was the day we saw the Alhambra. We arrived early afternoon by car (it’s about 2 and a half hours from Sevilla) and we settled into our hotel which was in an old palace of some sort and had only 21 rooms. Some of the rooms where a bit odd, but the overall hotel was really nice and included a beautiful outdoor patio area where you could have lunch or drinks and a very nice spa (we did a little spa-ing in the morning of day 2 since we had some extra time). We had lunch on the patio and then in the later afternoon met a guide who took us to see the Alhambra.

Granada is an old city that is flanked by mountains and part of the city extends up into the foothills of the mountain ranges. The Alhambra sits on the top of one of these foothills overlooking the city. So, what was the Alhambra? Well, as we know, Arabic kings ruled Spain at one point in their history and Granada was the last of the cities to be taken over by the Christians in the very late 15^th century. At one point, all of the surrounding states were governed by the Christians and the Arabic king of Alhambra knew this and basically kept very good relations with the surrounding states so that he could stay in power of Granada. Because it wasn’t until the late 1400’s that the Alhambra and Granada were surrendered to the Christians (Queen Isabella of Isabella and Ferdinand, to be precise), the Alhambra was built in the 13^th and 14^th centuries as a beautiful palace for the Arabic kings.

The Alhambra was ultimately made up of seven different complexes. It started as one, but king after king built more and more complexes until the final number was seven. Sadly, only two remain as there was one point in history where there was not enough money to keep the palace protected. There is also a “Summer Palace” which is no more than a few rooms surrounded by beautiful gardens for daytime visits with children or for a nice relaxing afternoon with a friend – no one ever lived there. We started our tour visiting the gardens and the palace and they had beautiful flowers and trees and views of the city as well as a nice “mini” palace of about three rooms. Definitely a nice spot. This was about a quarter of a mile from the actual palace and you could tell that at one point, the place was like a huge compound as there were also several quarters for servants to live on the property, as well.

The actual palace – or what was left of it – was very beautiful. At this point, we’d seen a lot of Moorish/Arabic art and this had the same concepts as everywhere else we had been – beautiful décor with geometric patterns, florals and Arabic writing, courtyards with water fixtures and vegetation, and of course very beautiful rooms surrounding these courtyards. The Alhambra did not disappoint. The two complexes that were left standing were the third and fourth. The third was impressive by its vast size and the fourth was impressive by the incredibly intricate details and patterns covering the entirety of the complex. Of all of the Arabic architecture that we saw on the trip, this was definitely the most intricate and definitely worth the trip if you are ever in Granada. Beautiful!

We ended the tour of the Alhambra with some beautiful views of the city of Granada both from the palace itself as well as from some of the old watch towers that were part of a wall that guarded the palace. As I mentioned before, it was a very well defended place due to its location and in fact, it was never even attacked by Isabella and her soldiers. They surrounded the city and cutoff supplies for six months which ultimately led to a surrender of the Arabic king. After this point, some of the Alhambra was added onto with more Christian buildings and again it became of an example of an Arabic building taken over by the Christians. This was the last place Spain to really be conquered by Isabella.

That evening we went out and had tapas in town which was nice and then we had a lazy morning the next day. Since our originally itinerary had only been the Alhambra, we had a morning off that we spent sleeping and at the spa followed by an afternoon tour of the city. We saw a few different sites which included the tomb of Isabella and Ferdinand in a very large church shaped chapel as well as the actual Cathedral (another one!), which was attached to the chapel. I will say, despite all of the cathedrals blurring together, this one was cool because it was the only Cathedral that (I think I’ve seen) done in a purely Renaissance style. Most cathedrals are Romanesque or Gothic or Baroque, but this one was Renaissance, which meant that it had a very cool apse (front part of the church). I’d never seen one like it – it was very beautiful with the archways and different levels with balconies that felt very open and airy. Hard to really explain, but see the picture for details. That was what stood out to me the most about this particular cathedral.

The last part of our tour included two different views of the city. The first brought us up to one of the highest points of the city where we could look out at both the city and the Alhambra to really get in a good view. The second was lower down and more at eye level with the Alhambra, but this was in the old part of the city. This is why I am glad we stayed an extra day. From that view point, we walked back down the hill old part back to the city center and we were able to see the very old, beautiful city. This was full of beautiful viewpoints and narrow streets that winded around as we walked and old steps leading us past old doorways. It was charming and I loved it! The end of the walk took us down a street that was basically like a Moroccon marketplace which made you feel that some of the Arabic traditions of this city still remained. We ended in the main square and went back to our hotel to end the day. We had dinner in the heart of the city at a seafood place called “Cunini” whose main restaurant portion was outside in the middle of a small square among other restaurants. It was pretty good (despite Mom thinking she ordered shrimp but actually ordered something that looked like whole mini lobsters) and the evening ended up with ice cream at a placed called “Los Italianos” which is known to be the best ice cream in Granada. And that ended our time in Granada.

The next day, we headed to the coastal town of Marbella, but not before heading to Málaga for a two-hour tour. Málaga is a fairly large city of 600,000 which was much bigger than we thought. It is a city that is on the water and was a very important shipping port for a very long time. This is also where you can hop on a GIANT ferry to Africa, so it’s a pretty cool spot. We toured around the town a little bit checking out the main pedestrian walkway and the cathedral (on the outside, so I can’t add anything more!) and finally spent about an hour in the Picasso museum. Picasso was actually born in Málaga, but only lived there as a child. Málaga has the third largest collection of Picasso paintings in the world, despite the fact that he only lived there a short time. It was nice to switch things up a bit with some modern art since we hadn’t really seen anything like it on the trip at all. We all really enjoyed it and learned a lot about the man who invented cubism. We learned a lot about how he painted how his subjects made him feel more so than an accurate depiction of what his subjects looked like. Despite the art history background, I don’t know a whole lot about Picasso and so it was interesting to learn more. I definitely left feeling like I understood him and his art a bit more and would be excited to learn more about him in the future. This was a good stop in Málaga and we ended the trip to the Picasso museum by going into the basement to see some old uncovered Venetian ruins that had been found underground as well as ruins of an old amphitheater right outside of the museum. Pretty cool.

We left Málaga and drove along the coast to Marbella, which is apparently a big beach spot for Europeans. It was nice to end the trip with some relaxation and this last hotel was more of a beach resort. We checked in, got some lunch at the restaurant by the water and spent the rest of the day under a cabana on the beach watching kite surfers on the ocean. That night we ate at one of the several restaurants in the complex and enjoyed the ambiance of all the outside restaurants and bars that seem to all be on one area. It was a lively place with music and people eating late like the Spanish do. It was a nice last night together and a nice ending to our Spain trip. Mom and Dad spent an extra night there and we headed to London for a day to both make our connection home easier and to meet up with Drew’s brother who was also on a European trip. Overall, a wonderful trip and I am so grateful to my parents for taking us along!

Overall Spain Notes:

The Arabic influence – It was shocking to see so much Muslim/Arabic influence in the architecture of these Spanish cities, but what was more shocking was the lack of Muslims in Spain. You would think with such a rich history that they would still live there, but no one does. And on that note, there are also no Jews in Spain. Despite having historic Jewish quarters in some cities, no actual Jews live in the cities. It is a very Christian/Catholic country which really likely boils down to the history of the Spanish Inquisition with Isabella and Ferdinand. It’s pretty crazy that it is still this way so many years later.

And on that note, Isabella and Ferdinand – It is amazing how obsessed the Spanish are with Isabella and Ferdinand, especially since they were known for the Spanish Inquisition. It’s almost like the Spanish are not taught much about that in their history classes because the focus seems to be that they united Spain. Every tour guide spoke about that and hardly had anything to say about the Spanish Inquisition. It was crazy. When we would ask our tour guides about that, they mostly brushed it off or even said things like, “Well, they gave the Jews the option to leave – they didn’t kill all of them.” Ummm, okay, no. It was just odd.

The time change – If you look on a map of Europe, you’d notice that Spain and the UK should be in the same time zone based on geography, but they are not. Spain is an hour ahead which means that in October, the sun does not rise until after 8am (which is nuts) and the sun does not set until 9:30pm or so (also nuts). This just feeds into the Spanish lifestyle of eating dinner at 10pm and going out to the bars until 4am. It’s totally crazy, but that simply is the Spanish lifestyle. The keep their time zone that way on purpose! Crazy!

And on that note, eating times – Do not expect to be able to get into a restaurant before 8pm and once in the restaurant at 8pm, do not expect it to be busy until a minimum of 9pm, if not 10pm. They eat lunch around 2pm. This is seriously why tapas exist – because who eats dinner at 10pm???

Food and Drink – Favorites foods included, 1. Everything with potatoes! I loved the potatoes with garlic aioli that we got all over Madrid and the papas bravas! Mmm. 2. I also loved the little green peppers that were fried with salt. Delicious – it was like the Spanish version of edamame. 3. Iberian ham which was like prosciutto or salami. Favorite drinks included, 1. Spanish wine – Rioja region. 2. Sangria, of course. 3. Tinto de Verano – the Spanish wine with lemon soda. Sounds so weird, but super refreshing!

And with that, I am wrapping up my Spain blogs. These were a little more condensed than my last few trips, but I think I got all my points across. Definitely looking forward to some future trip to Barcelona (whenever that may be) and maybe a repeat of Sevilla – my favorite. Adios for now!

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Photos

Alhambra Summer Palace
Gardens

Alhambra Summer Palace
Views of Granada

Alhambra
First complex courtyard

Alhambra
Interior View

Alhambra
Detail of interior room

Alhambra
Courtyard detail

View of Granada
From Alhambra

Guard Tower at Alhambra
Family photo!

Cathedral of Granada
Renaissance style apse

View of Alhambra
From Old City

Old City Granada
Cute old buildings

Old City Alhambra
Beautiful doorways

Málaga
Family photo on the river