The photos below are what we saw.
Kathleen
attempted to get us a room at the Parador, but they were fully
booked for the dates of interest. So, we did the next best
thing and got the smaller, more modest place next door.
There were only two hotels at the Alhambra, and this was "the
other one". Good job Kathleen. The day after the
rain dawned clear and warm-ish.
We had a
down day before our scheduled tour, so to help get us on local
time and crush the jet lag, we headed out. This church was
part of the "new" additions to the Alhambra after the Catholics
took over the site.
The
cathedral was impressive in its stone work, although only
medium-scale compared to some churches in the area.
A
spotted this small piece of construction equipment used for
constrained places. This is a combined scoop and dump
bucket.
Since
this was our first full day in country and in this time zone, we
elected to hike into the town of Grenada for breakfast.
Other than the two hotels at the top (ours and the Parador) the
only other food service is down the hill in town. The
photo above shows one of the entrance gates to the Alhambra
palace.
We walked down from the substantial heights of the Alhambra to
the entrance portal. The city of Grenada lies past the
gate.
Beyond
the gate, the streets were narrow and steep. Since it was
relatively early, the city and its tourists were just coming to
life.
We got to the base of the hill and the street dumped us into the
Plaza Nuevo. It turns out that we stayed at the Macia
Plaza Hotel during our last visit.
We had a
light breakfast in a cafe on Plaza Nuevo. We decided that
we would head to the Madrassa (Islamic School) but discovered
that there had been few changes to the school since its
creation. The Moslem influence was essentially overwritten
by the Catholics and icons were installed on the walls.
The
rooms that had, on our previous visit, been open to the public
had been cordoned off. But, despite these changes, the
beautiful carvings were still visible.
Across
the street from the Madrassa was a large cathedral, complete
with religious graffiti. The crowds were mounting as the
day wore on.
We
stepped into the cathedral for a look. Some of the
artifacts were quite stunning.
A lot of
time and effort was spent on these adornments.
I have
no idea who this fellow was, but he must have been important.
Most
cathedrals that we visited display this kind of iconography.
Moving
from the historical to the current, we came upon this statue in
one of the plazas near the church. We stopped for tapas
and wine at a nearby restaurant. Both the tapas and wine
were excellent and reasonably priced.
The
sidewalk cafe culture is very much alive and well in Granada.
The
streets in Granada are very narrow and motorcycles are a
favorite method of transportation. Special parking areas
were created for the bikes.
The
whole tour thing degraded into a giant cluster-fuck that wasted
several hours and resulted in nothing but overhead for us.
Moving on, we did gain entrance to the Alhambra and started
exploring. Above is one of the many ponds fed by water
from the acequia (aquaduct) that comes from the high Sierra
Nevada mountains to the east.
There
are a number of areas in the Alhambra that are still being
excavated as part of ongoing archeological efforts. Above,
some folks are managing the dig site.
Heading
through one of the many gates in the Alhambra.
We
waited in substantial lines but did finally gain entrance to the
main Nazari Palace. We could see large groups of folks
over on the Alcazaba side that were enjoying the view of
Granada, Sacramonte and Albecin.
One of
the many buildings in the Nazari Palace.
We
waited in substantial lines but did finally gain entrance to the
main Nazari Palace are and got nice, close-up views of the
carved alabaster walls. The detail of these carvings are
incredible.
The blue
tints have essentially faded, but despite that fact, this is an
impressive work of art.
More
intricate carvings and arches.
This
arched ceiling has been "overwritten" with Catholic iconography.
The
scope and detail of the carvings in the palace are almost
overwhelming.
This portion of the Alhambra grounds, the Nazari Palace, was the busiest and most heavily traveled of any of the sites on the grounds. Entrance to the palace was linked to a specified time and you were prevented from entering earlier by the guards. We were lucky that we got the correct tickets despite the guide-schedule SNAFU.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2024, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use without attribution.