Granada: Too Many Downhills

We were doing that thing again where we think it's a good idea to take a bus or taxi up a mountain and then walk down. Sometimes that can be fun but we did it about once too many times.  The good news about walking down mountains is you don't have to use a map. Well, I would but Lola has the "all the time down" strategy of navigation.

Traveling to and from Granada was a different experience from what we anticipated.  I had bought the train tickets a few weeks ago and didn't notice the fine print in Spanish which says you have to travel by bus for part of the journey.  There were other Americans on our train as confused as we were when we were told the train's last stop was not the Granada station. We arrived at what looked like a new, huge train station in the middle of nowhere. There are no towns in sight, yet the parking lot was full of cars.  Everyone got off the train and boarded a bus for Granada. We later found out there is construction underway to equip the tracks for high speed trains. Everyone is excited by that. We didn't find out how long the construction will last.

Once we got to Granada, there was a slight problem with the hotel I had booked. When I booked it, the site said elevator; I try never to book walkups.  It turns out they do have an elevator but not on the side where the rooms with Alhambra views are located. And, of course, rooms with a view are on the top floor. Our room was on floor 3 which is really 4. Luckily we had to walk that only 3 times.

The hotel and much of old town is located off a narrow street which is also serves as a sidewalk. Only small buses and taxis are allowed to drive on it but there are plenty of them. To avoid getting run over, the pedestrians often have to stand in a doorway or flatten themselves against a building. The problem with this approach is pedestrians are doing that on both sides of the street. Drivers are fairly patient with the pedestrians,  just honking every once in awhile but Saturday night was hopping. The streets were mobbed with young people. We thought there might be a festival but the hotel clerk said it was a typical Saturday night. 

The first thing we had to do when we got there was go to a Ticketmaster machine to retrieve the Alhambra  tickets we had bought online. No one can explain why you can't just print the tickets but you can't. You have to use the credit card you bought the tickets with to retrieve them.  The Granada bookstore has been the site to get the tickets for a long time. We walked there to find out they no longer provide that service but their other location does. The other location is not a bookstore but a historical site that is basically an empty shell of a building. There is a small office with 2 machines but when we got there, several people were waiting for the one attendant to come back from her break and open the door. Once she did, she told people to hand her the appropriate credit card which she inserted in a machine that printed the tickets. 

Since we got there in the afternoon,  we had time to tour the Cathedral.  This cathedral is the second largest church in Spain after Seville's. It is huge and ornate. It's listed as one of two Renaissance churches in Spain but it was started as a Gothic church and decorated in Baroque style.

Granada Cathedral

Main Altar

Side Altar

After touring the cathedral, we walked a little more downtown but it was getting hot so we went back to the hotel. We asked the hotel clerk to book us a reservation at a restaurant recommended by Tripadviser Johnny. It's called the Mirador de Morayma which is at the top of a mountain.  I have taken to calling it More Rayma just to annoy Lola. We took a cab which took us most of the way and then the cabbie pointed down to show us where to walk. It is a steep path but there are signs pointing to the restaurant so it was easy to find. We saw plenty of women walking the cobblestones in stilettos,  including a bride. We both stumbled around in sandals.

This restaurant is very popular so we felt lucky to get a reservation.  When we arrived, a waiter asked for my name so I spelled it in Spanish.  I don't know why. He had a gigantic book with names written in it but just randomly,  not by times. When I finally found my name and showed it to him, he insisted my name is Rahmet and said the reservation was for 8:30, not 8. After 5 minutes of this discussion,  he just pointed to a 4 top and said sit there. It is the best table in the restaurant.  Many tables overlook the Alhambra but this one is in a room of 2 tables,  closest to the wall  and about 2 feet higher than the lower level of tables. A truly great view. After the meal, we used the "all the time down" navigation system to get back to the hotel. That path included a lot of stairs as well as a steep path but it wasn't too bad since that was the first major downhill trip. 

It's much cooler in Granada than in Seville. The overnights get in the 50s so it takes awhile to heat up in the morning. We needed hoodies to go to the Alhambra and needed them until around noon.

  Again, thanks to Johnny's advice, we had booked an 8:30 start to the timed area of the complex, the Nazaries Palace so it wasn't  crowded when we toured that area. To get to that part of the huge complex quickly, it is best to enter through what is called The Justice Gate instead of the main entrance. We took a cab to get there.  The palace is breathtaking. Much of the original tile work, molded-plaster walls, and filigree windows remain. There are also many water features throughout the complex. Arches are a prominent feature of this style of architecture. There are many variations throughout the complex.

One of the Reflecting Pools in the Palace

Arches in the Palace

Window Arches

A view of part of the Alhambra from another part

The other highlight of the complex are the Generalife Gardens. The gardens originally were fruit orchards and vegetable gardens to feed the 1000+ residents of the Alhambra. They are now flower and plant gardens, replanted 600 years ago. There are several layers to the gardens and many water features. 

Arches in the Garden

On a side note, tributes to Washington Irving appear in several places in the complex and you hear tour guides talking about him. There is even a room dedicated to him. He wrote The Tales of the Alhambra while staying in that room when he lived in Spain in 1829. He seems responsible for making it into a tourist attraction with the publication of the book and his time as a US ambassador to Spain. 

  After the visit to the Alhambra, we walked down a very steep path to the city. Visitors to the Alhambra were walking up, full of energy, laughing and talking.  I would have liked to have seen them at the top.

After that, we went for lunch on a covered patio that houses outside dining for 4 restaurants.  We couldn't get seating at the restaurant we wanted to go to or the 2nd or 3rd choices. We had to eat at the paella only restaurant which wasn't very good. Nevertheless, it was cool and restful under the canopies so we sat there until a man, who was probably the owner, told the waitress to bring us the check and made us leave because people were waiting for tables. That has never happened before. Usually, you have to beg to pay for a meal and you get the impression they will let you stay forever.  

After lunch, we took a small bus up a mountain to the Albayzin or old Moorish area. The bus had about 8 seats so we had to stand and hold on for dear life while the bus whipped around corners as it climbed up the mountain.  At one point,  I lost my footing and fell on some guy. The people with seats were sympathetic but didn't offer me a seat. Apparently  there was an exciting soccer game on the radio so  the driver turned up the volume so everyone could hear. More and more people got on the bus at the stops and the atmosphere got so unbearable, we just got off the bus. We walked around the narrow streets for awhile.  By this time, the sun was blazing and we decided to once again,  use the all the time down approach to get back to the city center where mostly we sat in the shade until it was time to go get the bus at the train station. 

The bus/train ride back to Seville was fine but by this time, we were exhausted. We walked back to the apartment from the train station since it isn't that far and went for tapas at the closest restaurant which looks touristy except no one speaks English there. The tapas was some of the best we've had in Spain which explains why it is crowded with locals all the time.