Blogs from Granada, Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 7

Daj mu jałmużnę, kobieto, bo nie ma w życiu nic bardziej godnego współczucia, niż być ślepym w Granadzie - Francisco Icaza I to jest prawda. Granada to jedno z najpiękniejszych miast Andaluzji położona u gór Sierra Nevada. To tutaj miesza się kultura Europy z kulturą arabską, dla nas orientalną, tworząc niesamowitą dla duszy i piękną dla oka mieszankę. Według lokalnych opowiadań, Maurowie, którzy przybyli na te tereny w 711 roku natrafili na osadę, którą zamieszkiwali wówczas Żydzi. Nadali jej miano Garnatal Yahud, czyli po prostu Granada Żydów. Istnieje jeszcze inna, lokalna legenda, która mówi, że nazwa miejscowości może pochodzić od ciasnej zabudowy, która przypomina owoc granatu. Pierwsze kroki skierowałysmy na aleje z szerokim deptakiem dla pieszych. Dziwnie się chodziło po tym deptaku, gdyż płytki, którymi był wyłożony były bardzo... read more

After breakfast, we started our bus journey from Madrid to Granada. A surprise stopover in Toledo, allowed us to once again visit the picturesque city. In Toledo, we headed to the Mercado de San Agustin food market, recommended by our tour leader, Nihar, for a quick brunch before the continued journey to Granada. In Granada, we settled into our room at the Hotel Los Angeles, a charming colourful hotel found near the city center. It was probably one of the better hotels we stayed at during our trip. Then we headed out to the city center for dinner where we devoured a delicious paella at a local restaurant. As we left the restaurant, we got lost trying to find our way back to the hotel. Luckily, we had help from Erin’s phone GPS. We finally reached ... read more

Geo: 37.1765, -3.59793After checking out, we headed to the train station to catch a noon train to Granada, our last stop on this blitz through Spain. This train was a bit of a milk run to Granada, albeit quite comfortable, with the last segment by bus because the train tracks were under repair.It was a short taxi ride from the train station to our hotel in the old town area of Granada, the Hotel Anacapri. After check-in and dumping our bags in the room, we navigated our way to Plaza Nueva to pick up the city card, Bono Turistico, that we'd purchased online to cover admission to the major sites, including the Alhambra, the Cathedral, and the Royal Chapel.We have an early 8:30 AM entry time to the Nazrid Palace on the Alhambra site tomorrow.Our walking ... read more

Well, sleep deprivation caught up with us today; sleeping very late, having breakfast just before the local lunch time. We walked to a main bus stop area and took a mini-bus to the Alhambra, to learn how to get there for our reserved tour tomorrow. The Alhambra, having begun as a defensive fort, is fairly high above the city, and the temperature today was warmer than yesterday, forecasted to be 34°C. We were glad to take the bus, then walked down to explore that route, and to continue walking in preparation for the Camino a week from now. We plan to walk up tomorrow. Back down in the city, we stopped for cold water and iced coffee then followed Rick Steves' self-guided walk of the historic center. That gave us more detail and history of the ... read more

Reaching the end of our travels in Andalucia and the final two amazing buildings that I wanted to visit, the Mezquita in Cordoba and the Alhambra in Granada. The Mezquita or Santa Maria cathedral is a wonderful building, never seen any building quite like it. There’s a special atmosphere, even with the large numbers of visitors. The huge area with the repeating columns with their red and white striped curved tops makes the space seem both infinitely large and quite intimate as no one space is particularly big. It would have been amazing to see it with more than one door open and the light playing through the columns as it was designed to do. The site was originally a Roman temple, then Visigoths, then a mosque that was extended three times, then a cathedral. Many ... read more