Wanderung 17

No Rain in Spain, not even on the Plain!

April-May 2008

Monday April 28th 2008

Noon position: Granada, Spain.

Bob:

Assembling our various cameras and accessories after breakfast, we prepared for our assault on the Alhambra, the famous Moorish palace on the hill just above Granada. Since I was already bulging with the GPS, cameras, coin purse, keys, and maps, I decided to leave my wallet in the safe. Keeping my cash and credit cards safe in our room seemed to be a wise move at the time, but it turned out to be our first tactical error.

Frommer's Guide to Spain warned about the limited tickets to see the Alhambra and recommended getting there by 10 a.m. Given that information we figured we would be OK if we got there a shade earlier than that because it was, after all, still the "off season" in Spain. So we leisurely ate our breakfast before we headed across town and up the hill to the entrance, which also seemed to be a reasonable thing to do at the time but turned out to be our second tactical error.

After walking as fast as we could up a very long, steep hill to the entrance, we were amazed at how many people were already in line at 9:30. We first got into the "cash" line to buy tickets, but then Monika saw that the "credit card" line was much shorter so we jumped over to that line. That also looked like a good idea at the time, but was our third tactical error.

Shortly thereafter they announced over the loudspeaker that they were only selling 250 more entrance tickets! Well, we were only about 20 people from the end of our line, so we thought we were safe, but when we finally reached the automatic machines and tried to purchase our tickets, we found out that they required the PIN number. Monika couldn't for the life of her remember the PIN number, so we had to give up on the machine and by that time it was too late to get in the back of the "cash" line, so we gave up on the Alhambra for the day, defeated by a curious chain of three poor decisions that individually seemed reasonable at the moment and collectively put the kibosh on our planned visit to the citadel.

Monika:

Our hotel was situated amongst a lot of apartment buildings. I had fun trying to take pictures. They were really close, so it was not easy. I was amused, when I saw a steet sweeper - the person type - carefully sweeping the street next to the hotel.

But today we were going to see the Alhambra. We first bought two day tickets for a sightseeing bus, where we could hop on and off as much as we wanted. But the bus did not start until 10 AM, so we walked up, up, up to the Alhambra. At the ticket windows there were three lines, one really long one for cash purchases, one shorter one for credit cards, and the shortest for Internet bookings. We went into the credit card line. By 10 we got to the end of the line and tried to buy tickets, but were thwarted because I still did not remember the right PIN number for the credit card, and they would not accept a credit card without a PIN. Bob did not bring the ATM card, so we were out of luck with the machine.

Actually by this time we knew we were completely and utterly out of luck, because a cheerful voice kept announcing how many tickets were left, and looking at the long, long cash line, there was no way we could get one of them. But we formed a cunning plan: a) we would try to book over the internet, since we had internet hookup in the hotel or b) get here early and bring the ATM card, hoping that it would work.

Bob:

Giving up on our visit to the Alhambra for the day, we instead hopped on the tourist bus to take a tour of Granada. The day was sunny and warm, and the view from the open top deck of the bus was really magnificent. Monika sat on one side and I sat on the other so that between the two of us we managed to get good pictures of assorted buildings, churches, and monuments as we looped around the central district of Granada.

We finally alighted at the cathedral and paid for a tour of that. It was impressive in that extraordinary way that heavily gilded gothic-styled churches usually are. I was amused that the votive "candles" are now electric lights. The newest ones were LEDs, so at least the church is saving energy and money in the votive candle business. The cathedral was, however, very pretty and well-kept, with a particularly impressive pipe organ and altar nave.

But the church is not the only group that's going cheap on us: the gypsies begging outside were trying the old dodge of giving you something and then demanding payment for it. Last year in the Azores they were giving flowers ripped off from someone's garden, but this year in Spain they were just pushing sprigs of some evergreen that looked like they had torn off the nearest juniper bush. It looked scratchy and certainly wasn't very tempting.

Monika:

So what should we do today? We had the tickets for the sightseeing bus, and one of the stops was in the parking lot for the Alhambra where we boarded it. We rode around for an hour, listening to the explanations over earphones and waved at our hotel as we passed it. The bus was a double decker bus, with an open area on top. On some roads, we got so close to trees that you better keep your hands and arms inside! One man got up to take pictures and was not watching and got wacked by a small branch that was head high. We got off at the cathedral, not before taking some nice pictures of it from the top of the double decker bus since the cathedral is like most European cathedrals in the middle of the city and it is hard to get a good picture from street level.

We bought the tickets to get into the cathedral. It was an immense eight-sided structure. Along the outside walls were little chapels to various saints with various amounts of gold. In front of each chapel were the usual candles to each saint, that you could light for a donation. But these candles were electric. So for a coin you could turn on a light - somehow much more prosaic than lighting a candle.

The main altar was in the middle of the octagon. It was a beautiful expanse soaring into the sky with stained glass windows at the top and flanked by a very beautiful pulpit. We sat down in the front pew to take pictures. Of course, other people just walked up the nave in front of us. So we waited patiently for an opportunity to take panoramic pictures of the nave and the altar. On either side of the pews, was an organ. Altogether a very impressive structure.


 


 

Bob:

Returning home for lunch, we found a bakery and a food store near our hotel and made some nice sandwiches to eat in our room. Resting a bit, we hopped on the tourist bus again and circled around to the Cathedral stop, where we got off and began a walking tour of the old Moorish section of Granada. Just as Frommer's had promised, the narrow, twisting streets were hilly and often roughly cobblestoned, but offered interesting glimpses of old Moorish architecture as compensation for our efforts.

Monika:

By now it was lunch time and we decided to grab a bite while walking back to the hotel, rest there and consider what to do with the rest of the afternoon. We did not find a cafeteria but bought some freshly baked bread and some meat and cheese and went up to our room for a repast. With drinks from the minibar it was quite satisfying.

Bob studied the map in Frommer's, our map, and the bus map trying to figure out where things were. Equipped with two maps and a GPS we road the bus back to the cathedral. From there we headed into the old Arabic section that had been praised in Frommer's as worth a visit. The first two streets we walked along were narrow streets with wide open stores on either side. The wares were distinctly Arabic-looking. The stores were selling clothing, lamps, jewelry, and other colorful things. Tourists were walking along and mothers were hustling their kids home from school, trying to prevent them from going into the stores.

We left the commercial section and walked into the residential area. The streets were narrow and went up, up, up. The Arabic section of Granada was built on a hill across from the Alhambra. At one high point we had a good view of the gates to the old city and the city wall. Walking on, we chanced upon a beautiful walled Moorish residence, where we could peek through one gate and even take pictures of the garden inside. A little further on we could get a glimpse of the Alhambra on the next hill, and by continuing our climb we chanced upon a little park with a fantastic view of the Alhambra across the valley.


 


 

Bob:

We were particularly happy to find that Maridor of Saint Nicolas offered a spectacular and unblocked view of the Alhambra on the opposite hilltop. The snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada gleamed white in back of the fortresses' battlements. It's really quite a palace, and we resolved to try to get in again the first thing the next morning. But our feet were getting tired by this point so we wandered back to the hotel, stopping off to get a chicken kabob sandwich for dinner. That evening we put our feet up while reading, doing crossword puzzles, and taking turns working on the computer before we finally turned in for the night.

Monika:

A few more crooked streets and we came to a plaza with lots of tourist. The "Mirador de St. Nicholas seemed to be the official viewing spot of the Alhambra. And it was a "Kodak Moment". We even got someone to take a "we were here" picture.

But now we were tired of walking and so we were trying to get back. Bob tried to keep track of where we were with map and GPS. I just opted for "down". Between us we got back to the Plaza Nuevo, were I spied a Doner (Gyro) cafe that advertised "Take Away". We took two chicken doners away, and headed for the bus to get home. But the bus was delayed by a traffic accident en route, so we just hoofed it After a yummie dinner, I tried to reserve tickets for tomorrow. Unfortunately, the internet tickets for the next day had already all been booked. The earliest date for which I could have gotten tickets was next Sunday. Not much help. So we hoped for Plan B, get up early and bring the ATM card.

We called it an early night after a nice hot bath to loosen our tired muscles.


 

Copyright 2008 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
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