Granada

Jeremy - The train ride from Seville passed through similarly dry country to the road to Seville but fortunately the temperature was not the same! We found our guesthouse, again at the top of a hill, after a couple of wrong turns and some directions from a local. This small guest house was a real find, it was in the old town and run by a family. We basically shared the house with the family which made for an authentic experience of Granada and a Spanish household.

The main attractions here were the old town and the Alhambra and of course the tapas (and a massive church). The old town was a maze of streets winding their way up hill and opening in to small squares that were surrounded by restaurants, churches and tapas bars. The Alhambra (red fortress) sat atop the hill opposite (supposedly like a ship grounded on the hill top). The Muslim rulers lost Alhambra (and Granada) in 1492 when King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile took the surrounding region. After this the Moors all but fled and the Christians took over the fortress. Like the Alcazar in Seville it was the Islamic architecture and landscaping that made the Alhambra special. My favorite part was the private gardens (see picture below). Despite warnings to book in advance we rocked up early in the morning and walked up and bought a ticket with ease. It was like a hill top oasis with running water everywhere and greenery all around. Its was strange to look out from the hill top across the dry sierra Nevada and the hot summer scorched city while we stood, shaded, on a stair case that had water running down the banisters! Water is a central feature of the Islamic architecture though I'm not sure how
it would deal with modern water restrictions.

Now the tapas is all we had heard about even before we arrived in Spain. In Seville we tried in vain to find free tapas but alas the was none. Although we did pay for some great tapas our thirst for all that is free had yet to be quenched, here we were not disappointed in Granada. Despite being lost in the old town again we found numerous places serving beer with a free tapas. The notion being that tapas should be free and is offered to encourage you to drink more is alive and well here. After a few days here we where ready to stay longer but resisted and pushed on towards Madrid via a little place called Toledo.