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Granada is at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which, at its highest point is 3,478 metres. In the morning we took a guided tour of the Albayzin which is the old area of town on the hill. Views of La Alhambra are excellent from this point because of the snow topped mountains in the background. I will speak more of La Alhambra which we explored in the afternoon a little later on. The Albayzin is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as were most buildings in Spain it seemed. After a poorly guided tour, with little information of the area, we were taken to the Church of San Salvador which was a monastery built on the remains of a Moorish Mosque. The building was very unassuming from the outside but as soon as you entered in you could see the baroque period styled architecture featuring lavishly decorated rooms. One monk would spend his whole life just building and perfecting a door or a wooden cabinet decorated with marble or gold. It almost made me ill to see how much time and money went into a building instead of helping the less fortunate. The idea of the building seems so against what is preached by the word of God. Our next stop was the cathedral where Ferdinand and Isabella were buried. They wanted to be laid to rest in the final city they conquered where the empire of Spain would be completed. Outside the cathedral we were entertained by watching Gypsy’s chasing after tourists to bless them with rosemary and then ask for 20 Euros. If people didn’t pay, the Gypsy’s would follow behind the individual, cursing bad things upon them.
We knew little about the Alhambra before visiting it except that tickets to enter the palace had to be purchased a year in advance because of the limits they placed on people entering the site. It is one of the most visited sites in the world, averaging 3 million people a year. The Alhambra is a Moorish palace, later occupied by the king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Muslim rulers lost Granada and the Alhambra in 1492 when the Kind and Queen took over the region. The architecture combines water, light, wood, stucco and ceramics to create the palace/fortress.
For dinner we decided to take our guide books advice by trying a hole in the wall kebab/falafel restaurant. I had the most amazing falafel and lemonade with infused mint infused in the drink mmmmmm.
