Granada; Friday, 13 March, 2009

Today was going to be about the Alhambra. I had a ticket for the day and another for the night.

After a slightly more filling breakfast than the previous day (there was bread as well as cornflakes, and the juice machine was working). I headed out to the Alhambra to start some serious sightseeing.

I had a slot of 11:30 for entering the most spectacular part of the complex the Palacios Nazaries, but that meant I had quite a lot of time for wandering around the rest of the complex taking in the Palaces, Fortress and gardens.

By the time I had seen everything inside the complex it was almost half four, I was knackered and starting to feel quite hungry. I stopped at a little restaurant overlooking the entrance to the park, and had about the latest lunch I have ever had.

Sated, I wandered down past the Alhambra, following a pathway that runs alongside the walls of the complex with the Rio Darro running next to it. After quite a steep descent I arrived at the bottom of the Albaicín.

I had a short wander around the city centre before heading back to the hotel to freshen up ready for the night time trip back around the palaces.

I got up to the palace with time to spare, which was fortunate, as I had to walk along quite a bit of the outside to get to the open entrance (the way through from the ticket office I had taken in the morning isn’t open at night, probably to stop people getting lost or wandering off!) I wandered up inside the main part of the complex, and was able to go into the courtyard of the Palace of Charles V.

Having taken quite a few night shots of the site, it was time to go into the Palacios Nazaries. Whilst at night there are far fewer people around, so it’s less crowded, there is also far less of the site open (despite the ticket costing the same as a full day ticket). Most of the Palace was open, but you could only get so far before having to come all the way back, in the end most people, including me, were only in the palace for about 25 minutes (there are only so many photos of a building shrouded in darkness that you can take).

However, it was still late enough for the last busses to have departed, so I wandered back down the hill to the centre of town, and then back to my hotel for a well earned kip.