Granada, Spain

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Last month we took a trip to Granada which is just an hour and a half drive east from our place in Comares. Granada is the home of the Alhambra, the most well preserved example of the ancient Moorish presence in Spain. The town has an exotic, bohemian feel, with lots of artists, craftspeople students and travelers.
In the distance, to the south of the city are the snow-covered Sierra Nevada which are the highest mountains in Spain.
We stayed in an excellent youth hostel right downtown next to the main plaza, where we met some interesting and friendly travelers from Spain, Canada, The US, France, Italy, and Australia.
We sampled our first paella at the Saturday night dinner at the hostel. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish which combines saffron rice with chicken, pork, mussels, and shrimp.
At night we went to a venue to see an Latin-jazz-Flamenco fusion band. Strangely enough, they had no guitar player but the singers provided the flamenco flavors while the incredible rhythm section brought the Latin feel and the keyboard player was the jazz link. To sum it up, the music was as exotic as Granada and was very impressive.

The Alhambra was huge and amazing. We did our best to absorb as much as we could even though we did discover that it's impossible to cover it all in an afternoon.. We walked through the Alcazaba (fort) which is the oldest part of The Alhambra. We went through the Nasrid Palaces which were constructed by a succession of Moorish Sultans between the late 1200s and 1492. Coincidently, the year that Columbus "discovered America" for Spain is the year that the Moors were driven out of Granada and lost their hold on Southern Spain
We walked around the vast gardens which were full of blooming flowers and cover a huge area. (It must take an army of gardeners to keep the place in shape)
In The Palace of The Spanish King, Carlos V, we viewed an art exhibit of some of the works of MC Escher and an MC Escher who had visited the Alhambra and was influenced by the geometric designs and incorporated much of it into his works. Another early visitor to the Alhambra was the American Writer, Washington Irving, who wrote Tales of The Alhambra in 1829.

We were all impressed by Granada and even though there are a lot of other places to explore, we'd love to spend more time there.

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Photos

Granada
From The Alhambra

No Human Or Animal Forms
On the Palace walls..only intricate geometric designs.

Zack and Hunter
Check Out The Town

Old On top Of Older
Granada

Washington Irving
Visited the Alhambra in 1829

Comments

[Lisa]

I love seeing the photos of places where you travel.