October 16, 2022: We took a moment to take some photos of the view from our hotel room in Los Alcázares before setting out for Granada. On our way to Granada, we stopped at Castillo de Vélez-Blanco.
View of the village of Vélez-Blanco snapped on our way up to the castle
View of the castle from below
Elaine admiring Vélez-Blanco
Large birds swarming around nearby mountain.
Entrance to this 16th century Renaissance castle.
View from the castle
When we arrived in Granada, our AirBnB host Rafa met us at the train station to guide us through the maze of narrow streets up to a garage where we could park our car for a couple days.
Rafa guides us up to his garage in the Albayzín neighborhood.
Granada’s streets are full of cobblestone designs. This one was in the courtyard of our AirBnB.
Garden as seen from our bedroom window
On our way to find dinner.
Restaurante Meknes Rahma, in downtown Granada. Morrocan deliciousness.
Lamb tagine. Mouth waters.
October 17, 2022: The Alhambra was enormous and beautiful. However, most of the time we didn’t really understand what we were looking at. The audioguide provided a few details, but was short on explanations and context. We enjoyed it anyway.
Welcome to the Alhambra!
Map of the Alhambra. The first pictures below all from the area on the right side of the map.
Alhambra gardens.
Cosmos!
Giant hedges
Pomegranate tree in foreground.
Roses!
Entrance to the Palacio Nazaries. We are now on the left side of the map.
One many beautiful courtyards.
Infinitely varied geometric patterns on the walls.
Entrance to the courtyard of the lions.
The courtyard of the lions.
A lion in the courtyard.
20221017_1152-59_011_IPHONE
Color and human figures were very rare throughout the palace’s decorations.
We glimpsed some restoration work behind the curtain.
More beautiful geometric patterns, and lovely Elaine.
We sat in this garden for quite a while, watching people go by, enjoying the serenity of the flowing water and the breeze in the trees.
View of Granada from the Alhambra
Oranges at the Alhambra
Our serene fountain.
This is about where we realized that we might never find our way out of this place.
We did find our way out, and went down the hill back to Granada.
Cathedral of Granada. We didn’t go in. We were too tired. As a result we missed Isabella and Ferdinand’s tombs (which are actually next door, in a chapel).
Later that evening we went to see Flamenco dancing in a traditional cave house, Cuevas Los Tarantos.
The walls were whitewashed, so we had to be careful not to lean on the wall to avoid chalky residue.
We were seated near the front of the long narrow room, so got a sideways view of the entertainment.
Flamenco dancing is all about expression of the sadness of daily life.
We were not sad that day. Just tired.
The club opened in 1972. Our guess is that this dancer was a founding performer.
Her dancing was all about posture. Note the castenets at the ready.
