Detour to Granada

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A funny thing happened on the way to Ronda...we were sitting on the comfortable "fast train" from Seville to our next cycling point in the hill town of Ronda, and Kate idley pulled out the LP guide and started paging through the section on Granada. "Oh, too bad we're not going to see Granada and the famous Alhambra castle. It sounds beautiful, right at the base of the Sierra Nevada." A few minues of discussion ensued, and so rather than transferring to the Granada->Ronda train, we instead transferred to the Ronda->Granada train going the opposite direction, and that's how we ended up spending a couple of days in in the beautiful city of Granada.

And we did indeed see the Alhambra Palace, made famous (apparently - I didn't focus much on literature...) by Washington Irving's "Tales of the Alhambra", a 19th century Orientalist description of his days spent among the gloriously decayed castle. We can tell you right now that it's been considerably spiffed up since that time, as the Grenadinos have figured out that it's their #1 route to tourist euros (apart from being a jumping-off point for Sierra ski holidays.)

After arriving at the station, the GPS guided us to the decent but chilly (we're already at 700m elevation here) Pension Navarra at the base of the Alhambra's steep hill, and we sloshed our way through a delicious dinner ot tapas at a local bar. (Unlike Malaga or Seville, the bars in Granada bring a plate of savory goodies gratis as soon as you order your drink, even if it's just a cheap tubo of cerveza.)

On the morrow we did the full day walkabout of the Alhambra, complete with audioguide, which takes you through a complete tour of the Alhambra palace itself, the fort, and the Generalife palace and gardens. Once again we were treated to amazing examples of Islamic architecture and the decorative artwork that these medieval architects were so skilled at integrating into their buildings. I have to say that despite it's splendors, between the crowds and the recent experience of Seville's Alcazar, the Alhambra didn't quite meet the overhyped expectations that we arrived with.

We got smart and brought our lunch with us and had a glorious picnic in the sunny gardens, offering the feral kitty-cats the opportunity to finish off the remains. By the end of the day we were reaching the fatigue point and escaped across to the Alcayzin neighborhood for some amazing sunset views of the Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada in the near distance, serenaded by a busker playing classical Spanish guitar - magical. We wrapped up as we did the previous night with a somewhat sloshy dinner at another of Granada's generous tapas joints.

We spent one more day exploring Granada and preparing for our train departure to Ronda, our original destination before we took this lovely detour.
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Photos

Alhambra with a snowy Sierra backdrop
Granada is a pretty good jumping-off point for ski vacations in the nearby Sierras Nevada mountains.

Generalife Gardens, The Alhanbra
The city of Granada can be seen in the distance below The Alhambra

Guitar shop, Granada
The street where we stayed on the hill below the Alhambra was home to a half-dozen guitar shops producing beautiful handmade classical instruments