03-11-2016, 03:20 PM
On our 2nd to last day in Spain, we hopped a bus to Granada to see L'Alhambra, allegedly one of the greatest examples of Islamic architecture in Spain. We got tickets online that promised hotel door pick-up, but it wasn't our hotel. And it's a 3-hour ride from Sevilla to Granada, but the bus was a posh BMW luxury vehicle so it wasn't so bad. I have never seen so many olive trees in my life. The cute tour guide, who said her name was Carmen but she probably says that to all the tourists, said the region supplies 70+% of the world's olives, and that seemed possible after looking at 3 hours of mountains of olive trees.
Unfortunately, we had come out of synch with Spain. Our tour day was the anniversary of Islam surrendering Granada to Spain's Queen Isabella, and that happened at Alhambra so the place was packed to capacity. We had a guided tour, which showed us the highlights (it's a massive complex) and got us around a lot of long lines. It's another spectacular example of Islamic art, but I was more impressed by the Alcazar. The Alcazar wasn't nearly as massive, nor set a top a spectacular hill, but it was tighter somehow, more concentrated in what it was trying to achieve artistically.
After the tour, the bus let us out in downtown Granada where we were supposed to scavenge up our own lunch, but because of the anniversary, everything was closed. We found an Italian place that did gluten free pasta, only to discover after waiting for way too long (gluten free is more time consuming to cook) that marinara in Spain means seafood, not just veg like here. Stacy was extremely disappointed. There wasn't much to see in Granada, at least not on that day where they dropped us off.
Then the long ride back to Sevilla for one more day, then one more travel day back to Madrid, where we were staying near the airport where there was nothing to see.
Unfortunately, we had come out of synch with Spain. Our tour day was the anniversary of Islam surrendering Granada to Spain's Queen Isabella, and that happened at Alhambra so the place was packed to capacity. We had a guided tour, which showed us the highlights (it's a massive complex) and got us around a lot of long lines. It's another spectacular example of Islamic art, but I was more impressed by the Alcazar. The Alcazar wasn't nearly as massive, nor set a top a spectacular hill, but it was tighter somehow, more concentrated in what it was trying to achieve artistically.
After the tour, the bus let us out in downtown Granada where we were supposed to scavenge up our own lunch, but because of the anniversary, everything was closed. We found an Italian place that did gluten free pasta, only to discover after waiting for way too long (gluten free is more time consuming to cook) that marinara in Spain means seafood, not just veg like here. Stacy was extremely disappointed. There wasn't much to see in Granada, at least not on that day where they dropped us off.
Then the long ride back to Sevilla for one more day, then one more travel day back to Madrid, where we were staying near the airport where there was nothing to see.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse