Moving south

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17 April

In anticipation of heading into Morocco to renew my passport for Spain and Europe again, I started heading for the south of Spain. My first stop was Granada, an old city in Andalucia that had been fought over by the Spanish and Moors for centuries. If not exactly friendly, Granada was quiet and laidback with a relaxed pace.

The highlight of Granada is the Alhambra - a red stone Arabic fortress from the 9th century but with its zenith in the 13th and 14th centuries. It stands on a hill overlooking the city and river and is an architectural marvel, as attested to by the 6000 daily visitors to the site. Due to the high number of visitors and the high admission price I was relegated to seeing much of it from the outside, but it was pretty nonetheless. The fortress was finally conquered by the Spanish in 1492 (a momentous year for the Spanish) and remained such a valuable and symbolic prize that the Spanish monachs Ferdinand and Isabel were buried here. The rest of the time was largely taken up with walking the narrow twisting streets of the old Islamic quarter and drinking coffee on plazas that have seen everything from bullfights to Inquisition trials.

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