La Alhambra

Sunday 05 August 2018

We had pre purchased tickets to La Alhambra so after our free breakfast at the hostel we started our walk there. We went through the old town on our way and were enjoying it so much, we went too far and had to double back! We started our ascent to the palace (they always seem to be situated on big hills) and came in at the south western end. The La Alhambra is enormous and it’s gardens and buildings cover the entire hill. We started with the Alcazaba, a military barracks which housed the military in its time. There were the remnants of the walls inside which was amazing! It had incredible towers and walls too, which we enjoyed climbing. 

Next we headed to an additional palace which housed two different museums. For some reason we were let in for free just because we were Australian. It left us wondering who wasn’t allowed in! Amazing exhibition with restored vases, fountains etc. We then looked at a church which was dedicated to Mother Teresa who we assume grew up in Granada. 

We had booked to go into Nasrid’s palace at 11:30 so had some morning tea and then got into line. The palace was unbelievable. We have never seen such amazing architecture, decoration and opulence. In particular we enjoyed the carved stone walls, colourful tiles, carved wooden ceilings and the interconnecting fountain rooms which led out to huge water courtyards. We kept thinking about how many years of labour it would take to carve the rooms we walked through. Also attached to the palace were manicured gardens with more water features and lots of lion statues. 

It took us over an hour to explore the palace and we were well and truely ready for lunch by the time we exited. We decided to stray from the typical cheese roll today and found a little restaurant that served us a very tasty gazpacho (mum’s first one) and some drinks. Perfect on such a hot day! 

Once we were refreshed we headed back in to complete the north eastern section of the grounds, lots of opportunities for boat racing in the hilly water features I but mum only humoured me once! She’s made me add that her boat won... 

After checking out some shops we headed back to the hostel via the supermarket for some dinner ingredients. Cool siesta afternoon in our air conditioning before beer o’clock and some Harry Potter watching.