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Published: December 1st 2006
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Granada…a questionable city with historic relevance
Our Arrival Yesterday we left Marbella and drove to the Granada airport where we had to leave our faithful little BMW behind. I will personally miss the car because of the flexibility it has given us…but alas, all good things must come to an end!
Granada’s airport is in the middle of nowhere and only has three gates. It makes Richmond’s airport look like a major hub, which says a ton for those of you who have been there. We caught the bus at the airport after waiting an hour for the rental car place to open up and then another half hour for the bus to fill up with passengers - only in Spain. The trip to town takes about a half an hour which was an interesting trip because of our hilarious bus driver. This guy made me wish I understood Spanish better because he talked to himself a large part of the trip and cussed and swore at people outside the bus at every possible opportunity. To give you a picture of this guy, he was about 5.5 feet tall, bald and had a ton
of hair growing from his ears and nose. Quite a character!
We, unfortunately, we got off the bus one stop to late which increased our hike with packs by about three times. It’s always challenging entering a new town looking for your hotel with these huge packs on. People stare at you like you are crazy, and you are trying to read a map. It’s really a pretty hilarious image I’m sure. We found our hotel, which is quite nice, and checked in and then went for a walk.
Granada is surrounded by distant mountains so the sun goes down a little earlier here. This was discovered when we walked for about 10 minutes and found the city to be dead and dark; it was about 5:30 and nothing was going down in Granada. We promptly went back to our rooms and rested for the next 2 and a half hours waiting for dinner time.
Dinner and a Chat We got up off our lazy behinds at 8:30 and went to the hotel recommended restaurant around the corner from our room. We order Paella because we hadn’t eaten any in Spain yet and
thought it might be time to get some. The waiter informed us it takes an hour to prepare but we were cool with waiting; it’s not like we have any reason to rush. We ordered a salad and a cheese tapas plate for our wait.
A rant about Spanish salads: Kel and I have both been craving vegetables for a while. We keep ordering salads as a way to get our vegetable needs met. I’m getting more and more disappointed with Spanish salads. What is a salad? By American standards the standard small salad is lettuce, tomato, maybe cucumber, some onions, maybe a few random vegetables and some croutons. The Spanish salad seems to be less about lettuce and more about canned tuna, canned corn, and beets than anything else. What do I have to do to get a salad without canned tuna…really??
Well, while we waited a couple sat down next to us and we could tell that at least the girl (lady) was American. I promptly struck up a conversation with them and they were really cool. Their names were Timory (Californian by birth) and John (Australian by birth). Timory and John had spent the last
few years traveling and then teaching English in a school in Berlin. They had finished working earlier in the year and had bought a cheap van and had driven from Scandinavia to Spain. After Spain they were going to see John’s family in Australia and then heading to Hawaii where Timory had been living prior to her travels. We spent the next few hours talking about their travels and then American politics. It was the first time we had partaken in intelligent conversation with people face to face in almost a month. Felt absolutely great! Timory and John, if you read this…thanks so much!!
After our fabulous Paella and conversation we headed back for a nights rest knowing that we had to get up and head to the Alhambra. Our hotel had reserved us tickets and we had to be there promptly by 10:30am, so we need to get some sleep.
The Alhambra Despite the rather dingy and dark streets of Granada proper, the Alhambra is on top of a hill overlooking the city and it’s absolutely gorgeous. We woke up, had our free breakfast at the hotel, and headed up the hill to the
Alhambra. The walk took us about a half an hour because its about a mile up a pretty steep hill and Kel and I both still have a bit of the illness funk that we’ve been fighting for the last week or so.
The leaves are changing around the Alhambra which created a beautiful backdrop to our walk up the hill. Also the road that travels up to the Alhambra is flanked on both sides by drainage from all of the fountains on top of the hill, so the road has a constant burbling sound with water rushing by to its final destination at the bottom of the hill.
Once we arrived at the top, we got our tickets and headed to the Palacio Nazare which is the only part of the Alhambra that you have to actually reserve a time for. Our scheduled time was 11:30 and it was now 10:30 so we could take our time getting to the entrance.
The Alhambra was created originally by the African Moors who conquered most of Spain in the 1200s. The Alhambra was the last major stronghold of these same Moors when the Spanish re-conquered the territory that
was rightfully theirs. Ferdinand and Isabella were the King and Queen who not only funded Columbus’s trip to the new world but were also responsible for expelling the Moors from Spain. Later Kings, namely Carlos V, took over the Alhambra and built their own Palaces on the same sight as a tongue bllrrrppp at the conquered Moors. The Alhambra is now comprised of four major sites, Palacio Nazare: the original Moorish palace, Carlos V Palace: built by Carlos V as the aforementioned tongue bbblllrrrp, The Alcazaba: old fortress used for defending area, and the Generalife Gardens: Moorish summer palace and gardens.
We started at the Carlos V palace since its right next door to the Palacio Nazare and therefore convenient while we waited for our turn to enter the Palacio. We walked through the renaissance style building and looked at a museum exhibit about vases discovered on the Alhambra site. We then waited the final minute until we could enter the palace.
The Palacio Nazare is an amazing building because of its Moorish craftsmanship and architecture. The wall carvings and tile work are exquisite. Everywhere is Arabic writing intricately carved into the walls in such a way
that you almost don’t notice it is writing. There are fountains and terraces everywhere. M.C. Escher found inspiration for many of his impossible geometric drawings at this very site. The ceilings in many rooms are comprised of hundreds of small curved arches that seem to never end. It was worth the wait and the trip to Granada just for this site.
After the Palacio Nazare we went to the Alcazaba which is basically just a big empty fort with some good views of the city. Then, we trekked back to the Generalife Gardens for our final stop. All in all, we spent about 4 hours at this one site which is a much larger amount of time than we normally spend anywhere.
We are now resting after walking around downtown and getting some lunch. Hopefully everyone had a great day just like us. We have one more day in Granada and then are off to Cordoba and finally Madrid.
Kel’s Food Footnote of the Day: Today I have discovered my new favorite fast food restaurant: Doner Kebap. Delicious. It’s a chain of restaurants that serve cheap, good chicken/beef kebab sandwiches and rice pilaf (Middle East food in
general). Rice pilaf is an enduring favorite of mine and kebabs are right up there too . . . unless they’re all I’ve eaten in Turkey for a week =) Quick little shout out for Doner Kebap - you will probably hear about them again!
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Scott Neilson
non-member comment
teaching American
"teaching American" - how does one do that exactly? is it like an anti-Miss Manners class?