Granada & Alhambra

On Tuesday we went for an overnight stay to Granada. For Falk's birthday Carsten and I had arranged a cooking class on Tuesday night.

We four, together with Guillermo the chef, prepared Sangria, Gaspacho (cold tomato soup), Egg/Potato Omelette, Paella and a dessert similar to Creme Brule'.

It was super fun and so much food!  We had to walk around a little afterward. No going to bed that stuffed!

Wednesday morning we grabbed breakfast, stowed our luggage in the car and started off for Alhambra.

Of course, it is at the top of the city - for defensive purposes....

Per Wikipedia:

Alhambra is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Islamic world. Additionally, the palace contains notable examples of Spanish Renaissance architecture.

The complex was begun in 1238 by the first Nasrid emir. Later, after the Christian Conquest in 1492, the site became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella (Christopher Columbus received his total endorsement for his expedition there.)

In 1526 Charles V (famous for his fight with Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms) commissioned a new palace. He did not live to see it completed.

The gardens are quite beautiful:

This is the entrance to Alhambra that Napoleon tried to breach when he was running amok in Europe.

All this detailed work is in plaster.

Outside the Palace of Charles V (this is on the grounds of Alhambra). 

More beautiful plaster work.

The courtyard of the irrigation canal. This canal supplies water to the Generalize Palace and the Alhambra.

Courtyard and Fountain of the Lions

The Court of the Lindaraja

Inside the Palace of Charles V is reminiscent of a Roman amphitheatre.

View from a tower in the Alcazaba.

Square of the Cisterns.

One of the old gates of the city.  We found this walking back down to the town.

The reward for 19,000 steps:

Whew! We were super tired after a long day of sun and many, many steps! 

Let's go back a minute to talk about driving and parking in a city like Granada. 

Not leaving things to chance I had arranged parking near our hotel. Once paid they helpfully sent this video: https://youtu.be/UceFieWVHU0?si=xgAXvEwriGuRz1OY

I can assure you we would never have found our way without this help.  But this does not tell the entire story.  Once we found the garage and put in the code we entered a garage that seemed designed for the smallest of compact cars.  We were on subfloor 4 so we had many circles descending to deal with. It was wild - the parking sensors just beep the entire time - too close in all directions!

The up/down ramp was one lane - when we went to leave Svenni and I stayed out on the street to stop anyone from starting down the ramp while Falk & Carsten were coming up.  I think they thought that was not necessary but sure enough someone showed up to enter the garage and we told them to wait.  I cannot imagine what that head-on encounter would have looked like.  

On Thursday we returned to Cartagena to visit the Underwater Archeology Museum.  This was a very nice museum.

This is the remains of Mazarron I a Phoenician-era (6th or 7th century BC) boat that was discovered off the coast of Mazarron.

On the right is a decorated ostrich egg.

Coins from a Spanish Galleon discovered by US Treasure hunters but returned to the Spanish and restored in this museum.

Strangely, these are wine casks.

Today is our last day in Bolnuevo. Carsten and I travel to Seville tomorrow.  Hopefully we will be able to finally rent some bikes today.

More later - Sheri & Carsten