Ala-Ala-Alhambra, Alhambra, Alhambra

AHA! I finally have the upper hand. It appears that at this stop my windows machine actually seems to get the internet better, while the macs seem to be slow and sort of in a queue type system where one works well and the others barely work, and then once that computer is done another one will work.

So the hotel that we are staying at had a continental breakfast, which was good because the place outside of the window was really really loud. The bar was sort of open until about 5 AM or something like that....and they were loud for the entire night and so that made it tougher to sleep than we should have.

So we stumbled out of bed at about our typical time of 10 AM, the breakfast ended at about 11 AM and we headed down to the breakfast. We weren't expecting much... however, the place was very confusing. We walked in and wondered around confused about where we sat and what we are supposed to do. We eventually just sit down and try to get the attention of someone. The guy eventually comes over and we order the breakfast... I guess there are no options, since they don't ask us. We thought that we would also get tomatoes... sadly this is what we got:

This is my second coffee of the trip and I again load it up with sugar and make it bearable. I figure that this will probably help since then I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Well I got about... 6 hours, so not too bad, but we have a long day ahead of us, so I figure that it wouldn't hurt.


We hang out in the room for a little while and make arrangements for tomorrow, getting our bus tickets and trying to call the apartment that we are staying at. Sadly, we can't get a hold of them and so we head out. We hope that it is not the bad phone in the room, which Chris barely figured out how to use.

So we finally head out and Allison decides that we should do lunch so that we can hit the Alhambra as early as possible. We find a restaurant with a nice view of the monument. It also had a Menu Del Dia, which we were excited about and it was pretty cheap. But they tricked us! They didn't include drinks! So we had to pay more than we thought, but it was good, so that's ok.
Allison was super excited about her pasta, which she has had a lot of recently. Actually, in general we ate a lot of Italian food in Granada... which is very strange, since it doesn't seem like a very Italian place, but that is just sort of how it worked out. We also fed a cat that was walking around. We gave it a whole bunch of shrimp heads. It plopped out below Eric's chair and chilled with us for a while. I guess we made a friend. Perhaps the cat treat idea would be good.

So after our lunch we headed out. We were a little later than Allison would like, but we were still kind of on time. We head up to hill. It is a bit of a trek. We find a couple that is trying to automatically take their picture and I offer to take it for them. I figure they will just use the same pose, which was sitting on a little rock. Instead they run to a tree and make out.... and want me to take a picture of that.... so I did... but it was weird.

Here is the road that on the way to the Alhambra. it is pretty steep. But definitely the fastest way to go.

We also find a dungeon, which I point out. Since this is the second or third dungeon I have noticed and pointed out, my companions seem to believe that I really like dungeons... so, I get my picture taken with it. I am not sure where this belief came from, I don't actually like dungeons.


So we finally make it there and we stand in line for our tickets and we wait for a while and then they send us off to a little machine that allows us to pick them up really easily. That is nice, since then we don't have to wait in line. So we walk in and then we find ourselves in ... a castley garden place? We walk around a little and find a sign pointing to the palaces.

To help things make some sense, I am adding a map here and I will refer to it occasionally. This is something that I haven't really done before, however, almost all of this blog is about the alhambra, so I think it will be helpful. The numbers aren't the greatest, but hopefully they will help:



We walk down the cool pathway and look through the little window hedges. Chris seems a window that captures his interest and we also notice a french garden that is set up near what used to be the town of the Alhambra. (About 33)
The Alhambra was set up in 3 parts. The first part was the town part, and I guess they also got the gardens. The second part was the palace part, which housed like three palaces, or two and a cathedral, and the third was the military part which housed the alcazar.

I think the towns people lucked out. They got cool gardens with trees that had weird little nut fruits. Here we are checking one out. Chris B. informs us that it is a French Garden since it is more trimmed and cut nicely. (about 33)
We finishing walking through the small gardens and town and then we come to an exit? An exit? How can this be the end. We are really confused. I swear, sometimes the way that the spanish run their monuments infuriates me. I think that I could do a much better job of it than they do. First of all, don't put an exit in the middle of the monument. That makes very little sense and will just confuse people. Second, don't make it confusing when you can and can't visit and have the guidebooks say random different things. Just those two changes would make a world of difference.

Also... allow people to take pictures.

So after we finally figured out that the exit was just so that they could control access to the generallife, the area outside the town, on the other side of where we had walked, and that we could get back in at anytime with our ticket. We figured we were safe. So we went off exploring.

The first place we found was the banos! (45)

Here are Eric and Chris B. walking into them, Allison makes a brief appearance, or her shoulder does.
The banos were cool, lots of cool arabic writing and some cool architecture, I am leaving much of it out, since we will get to pictures of some slightly more impressive places, and I don't want to overload you too much.

So we continue walking down towards the palaces and we find some more cannons. I don't know why, but I am legitimately and think that we should get our pictures taken with all of us manning a cannon and pretending like we were firing. No one was really excited about this, so Allison just took our picture with us gesturing at the cannons. Slightly disappointing as you can tell by my enthusiastic gesturing. (37)
Next to the cannons there was the door of justice. We wondered who would answer the door, since it wasn't unlocked. So Eric knocked. (39)

Sadly, no one answered the call, so we moved on. After a quick bathroom stop, we moved on to the Palace of Carlos V. (42) We have been seeing his hotels all over Spain, and even stayed in one in Toledo, so this was truely a special moment, to see exactly how his hotels compared.

The short answer.... not favorably :P

The palace was pretty cool. The outside was a huge square building with lots of little lion knockers all the way around the outside, so that was pretty cool. The inside was a huge circle with columns and such. It was pretty impressive. It was also time for a panoramajama.

Here I am heading to start the panoramajama time.

Here is the end result. While I was doing this a whole bunch of Asian tourists came up and took a picture with me in the background and they were laughing about it the whole time. I am not quite sure what was funny about me talking pictures, it was exactly what they were doing.


We walked around the palace and of course went upstairs, but the only additional thing to see was this weird art museum that didn't seem incredibly interesting. So we headed over to the Alcazar, which was the fortress part of the castle. (1-10)

Here I am looking at the entrance to the alcazar, a pretty imposing view.
So we walked around for about 1 minutes and then went up to the first rampart thing to take pictures. The walkies posed for some potential christmas shots, while I did... what else... a panoramajama!

Outtakes from the photo shoot:

The panorama that resulted from this wall thing. (7)

We also got all of our pictures taken here, a pretty intrepid band of explorers if I do so say. Also since I thought of it just now. We forgot our sunscreen application since it was cloudy when we left the hotel. But luckily it seemed to not affect us much. I may have gotten a little burned. But not bad at all.

Eric really liked the view of the town and kept talking about how picturesque it was and how impressive it was, etc, etc. Here he is pointing out a basketball court, I think.So we walk a little farther and then we find some stairs, and of course, we went up them. I am not sure why stairs hold such an appeal.. I guess because there could be new cool stuff up them. Allison never seems nearly as excited about the stairs, which is a little sad, but understandable. The stairs let us out onto the wall (4) and we check out the view before heading back. That is another thing that I would change about the monuments, they are never continuous. There are lots of breaks in the path and so you have to go back the way you came and you lose all of your progress.

Here Eric and Allison climb the stairs.

After we get down we walk through the ruins of the barracks and check it out. (1) I notice that one of the window things as a whole bunch of round rocks. I hypothesis that the rocks are either skulls or dragon or dinosaur eggs. I am rewarded for my ingenuity with a picture. Not easy to see the eggs, so I am pointing at them:

We then head up the tallest watch tower (2) and enjoy the view/take a panoramajama. :) Lots of them in this post! By the way, these panorama's are about 3% to scale, so they are small compared to what I have. So if anyone is interested in the big ones let me know.

We head down and check out the small gardens. Allison stops for a drink. I stick to my trusty nalgene bottle, at least that I know is safe.

We are looking at a hedge trimmed as a star in the gardens.
And then we are done. We check out a little store nearby, but sadly, the guy doesn't let Chris look at the antiques and then laughs at him, so we leave, down the hill. Past the stray cat population. I wonder if cats are considered good to keep around since then they kill the rats, etc.

Of course, I didn't think the plague was a big deal anymore... but maybe that is the cats!

So our tickets to the main palace is for 6 and so we need to look at some other stuff, so we head down the hill. Then Eric says that he thinks we shouldn't go down there, since it is a long walk, it was a very good call, since the thing(54) we were headed for is actually nothing, so we would have been very dissapointed.

So we head back and we check out the cathedral (44), then head to the generalife(47-50) and walk around a little bit. It is basically just a really cool garden/forest with a palace. We aren't able to finish checking it out before we decide it would be good to go line up for the palace. Rick Steves told us we could line up early.

We get there and there is almost no one there, but the girl says we can't line up yet, so we sit down and wait in the shade. Then I go and check it out and people are lining up! despite the fact that they said we couldn't. So we rush back and I sort of crowd in the front, because I think it is silly to have to wait behind lots of people since we were there. I am sure it doesnt matter... but I get vindictive about little things sometimes.

So these are just some of the photos in the Alhambra: (12-21)

Allison with a very impressive door:

Eric checking out the courtyard. You had to wear your backpack on your front so you wouldnt hit anything.
A very nice picture of Eric and Allison with the fortress/palace in the background.

The walkies explore one of the many intricate walls in the palace:

Allison in one of the rooms:
Eric and Chris B. in the palace
Some of the walls were just amazing, very intricate and... very much work was done on them.

Unfortunately one of the main attractions, the lion fountain was in construction, so we only got to see videos which wasn't nearly as cool as the real thing.

Here is the group posing in front of windows:

We then walked through the gardens which were really nice. I spotted some stairs and bolted up them. No on followed me, so I made them pose for a picture with the garden background.


So that was pretty cool. I was a little sad, since the books had hyped it so so much, and then access was sort of restricted, only a certain number of people every 30 minutes. I thought it was cool... but not as cool as the Alcazar in Sevilla... or even the one in Malaga. Perhaps with the fountain. That room was really cool, but with construction stuff and missing the centerpiece it just wasnt the same.

So we head to the generallife and the first thing we look at is the farm land. With a very interesting crop:(49)

We find more stairs that lead to the gardens and the generalife palce. Eric and Chris B. walking up the stairs:


This palace (50) was impressive. Very pretty, very picturesque, a cool fountain thing that everyone got their picture taken with. We bucked... oh no, we took pictures too :)

Then we find another fountain thing! This palace is so much better and greener!
In the gardens of the palace there is this staircase that has water flowing down it, it was pretty cool. I am not sure if this picture shows it off though. We make the joke that Alhambra espcial beer much be made with this water, since it seems like it is very special water.


Here we are leaving the last palace through a cool walkway of vines.

Finally, we walk back through the generalife towards the exit. It was a successful trip, we managed to see everything, including the cats! We are also very hungry.
First of course we have to stop and get something from the bookstore! That is an almost constant experience. The only place that didn't have it was the Italica, and I strangely missed it. It is a nice book end to a monument, it allows you to see what they think is important and then you can compare that with your own opinon.


Walking back we found a whole bunch of wedding dress models taking photo shoots, so I figured I would include one.So we finally make it back to town and we are trying to decide where to go. So we just start heading back to the hotel. And we pass a couple of places and I have no idea what people are looking for, so we keep walking. Finally I ask and they don't really know.

That inspired the following conversation, where everyone confiremed that they didn't know where to go. that is captured below.


Finally we decide to go to this place we walked by the day before and so we head off in that direction. It takes me a bit longer to get there than I thought it would, but we are soon there. It is another Italian place. But... we got Tapas!!! We werent even trying!

Here is one of the tapas. This one was great. Little ham rolls with like a creamy nutty filling.

After another succesful day, we take a group portrait.... I am hiding... and then we head back to the hotel to listen to the partiers all night