Since my first year of architecture study, when Ron Lewcock included a presentation on the Alhambra in Granada in one of our History of Architecture lectures, I have wanted to visit it. It was my failed 50th birthday plan then my 60th but finally it happened post 65. Be careful what you wish for is all I will say on that topic … but I will say lots more about Granada.
Arriving in Spain again, I was struck by: how modern and clean and “Californian” Malaga seems; how dry the land is; and how many olive trees there are. Rows and rows and rows in every direction and up every mountain and then some. Well great olive oil is one thing Andalucia is known for as I learned. But I hadn’t really expected the vast scale of the countryside. It is immediately clear that Spain in a big country by European standards and it is larger than life in many ways.
Huge emerald-coloured water reservoirs (the amazing colour come from pesky algae), vast valleys and plains, massive mountains, extensive solar energy panel farms and quite a few very non-Quixotic windmills for certain Australian politicians to tilt at – these giants are clearly welcome here.
There are some similarities with the Australian landscape – the green of the olive trees is quite like the green of the eucalypts. There is a lot of what seems to be limestone and sandstone but I am no geologist so I will just say that you need sunglasses on a bright day and there is much research to be done on the geology when I get home. Not only is Spain a huge country but it has a huge history and I feel ashamed that I know so little of it. This trip is helping make up a tiny bit for this gap in my knowledge.
Granada. City of my dreams. Set against the majestic and still snow-capped Sierra Nevada. But like all cities, it needs to be discovered and on the way to discovery there are many disappointments. Narrow winding streets can look dingy, dusty and dirty – Granada has all of that. Our tiny little first floor apartment looked straight into the building opposite – in fact we could have reached across and shaken hands with the office workers across the way. Fortunately, we were seldom in when they were at work. Spanish working hours seem very odd unless I suppose you are used to them.
Just off the Plaza Nueva, our location was to prove perfect in just about every respect. We could walk to everything and though much of the walking was uphill, every time we walked uphill, the payback was instant and rewarding. Every direction we walked in was a tourist route the benefit of which is that you don’t have to travel far to see things. The hire car ended up staying in the parking garage for the entire three days which had to be paid for and it was a fair walk to the hotel. The daily rate for parking quoted on booking.com was Euro2 per day less than the reality.
Lesson learned – hiring a car day by day could be a lot cheaper. That said, the reason the car stayed in the garage was that there was a lot to see and do in Granada as we are taking things at a seniors’ pace on this trip. By the way, Australia, I hope you are as kind to Spanish seniors as Spain is to us. We show our drivers’ licences and get seniors’ rates everywhere and the savings are substantial.
So if you are familiar with Granada, you might have gathered by now that our first walk – up the Carrera del Darro – got us an immediate view of the Alhambra Palace on the top of the hill as well as a tiny taste of the AlbaicÃn (Moorish quarter) which is labyrinthine and steep once you deviate from the Carrera del Darro. Of course we deviated and ended up walking halfway up to Sacromonte before returning to the Darro bank for a sunset drink looking up at the imposing walls of the Alhambra and the rather more delicate Generalife Palace.
I have to admit to being a very poor "tourist". As soon as the busker turned up and turned on his amplifier to regale the drinkers with a very second rate version of the very predictable guitar music you would associate immediately with the Alhambra, Segovia and all that, I made Richard get up and leave. I love that music and there is no way anyway is going to wreck it for me even if he is a hippy traveler and needs the dough.
Continuing on, we discovered the walk up to the Alhambra and carried on this mesmerising tack all the way along the other side of the Alhambra and back down to our apartment as the lights came on and evening descended upon us. So far so good. My dream is not going to be a nightmare, buskers notwithstanding.
Comments