Granada 11th October

Granada 11^th October.

We had tickets for the Alhambra for this afternoon. I had managed to book some online a few days earlier, but because we had left it so late there wasn’t a lot of choice about what and when we could see things. I had thought it being autumn that there wouldn’t have been as much demand for tickets, and there probably wasn’t compared to the height of summer, but nevertheless it is the thing to do in Granada and so tickets were patchy. I managed to get an afternoon ticket for everything except the palaces for Tuesday (today) and then an evening ticket to see the palaces under lights on Thursday, it was actually quite  a good way of doing it in hindsight because there is so much to see that trying to fit everything into one visit would be impossible.

Anyway, we had a leisurely start to the morning, caught the bus into town and followed our path from the day before up to the base of the hill leading to the Alhambra. We had a couple of maps and followed those in combination with street signs up through the wooded area, past the water running down channels  lining both sides of the steep path, past the seats that were placed parallel to the path and consequently had one leg longer than the other to make them flat (but made them look very uneven to the eye), up to the ticket office. You can get your tickets issued from a machine if you have booked electronically, so we headed over to the machines and tried to get our tickets. One lot worked fine, but the machine ate the ones for today’s admission so we had to line up anyway in the long queue to get a human to issue them.  Once we had our tickets we lined up in an even longer queue waiting for the opportunity to enter at 2pm. Though the queue was very long, once the gates were open, it flowed very quickly, so we were all inside ready to explore slightly before 2 (they must have opened the gates early).

Heading up the hill to the Alhambra

This bloke was making a tray in the parquet style. Hand chiselling/cutting each little piece

Part of the gardens within the complex

The gardens within the Alhambra complex

Me, Hilary and Jo

Beautiful reflection on the pond of the Palacio del Partal

In the Generalife gardens the Patio de la Acequia

Looking back from the Alcazaba

Foundations of the army barracks (not a maze)

Some the the intricate plasterwork, unfortunately my photos didn't work

Some more inside work

The Palace of Carlos V

A view through the Sala Regia

A view from the Alcazaba (fortress area)

We spent a wonderful afternoon wandering around the Alhambra, our ticket was from 2-8pm and we didn't leave a minute early. As I said earlier, we didn't have tickets to the Palaces for this visit which was just as well because we caouldn't have fitted it all in within the time limit anyway, as it was we were tired by the end, and had got our money's worth but we were still enjoying the gardens and the light of the golden setting sun when it was time to leave.
We caught a little loacl bus down the hill, our feet were weary and it was dark, it was a great way to view the skinny little streets we hadn't otherwise enjoyed. The bus deposited us near to the main thoroughfare we had been using, and we were just about to head around looking for somewhere for dinner when a young man came up to us, touting for business (selling dinner, nothing more). He was handing out flyers for a tapas bar very nearby, and so we decided that was as good a place as any to eat. he was lovely, chatting away in a very friendly manner, excited when he knew we were from NZ, and started to sing Crowded House and Split Enz songs to show he knew where we were from.
We sat outside in the balmy evening enjoying the menu del dia and a beer, followed up by grenadine (of course, very nice, a bit like raspberry juice with apple, but of course being Grenada, it had to be pomegranite).
We caught our bus back to La Zubia after walking through the town, enjoying the lights and the business of the city. Very tired, but a lovely tired where you have had a good but full day.