Wednesday, September 2nd - Granada to Malaga

We were up early again today with suitcases out by 7 a.m. for a 7:50 departure.  These early mornings are getting to me but in this case it was worth it.  Our first stop was at Alhambra for an 8:30 tour and going early meant it was cool and the crowds were not too bad.  What an amazing place.

We had a separate tour guide for this tour and he was certainly knowledgeable about the whole complex.  It is always neat to have a tour guide who knows what he/she is talking about and is enthusiastic about it.  When we do these tours we all have headsets so we can be anywhere in the area taking pictures or buying water or checking out a nearby room, and we can still clearly hear what the guide is saying.  And we had the same headset for the whole trip so there was no hassle getting them and turning them in every night.  You just always made sure you had it with you.

Alhambra means red palace in Arabic and the walls do have a reddish tinge.  Mention of Alhambra goes back to the 8th and 9th centuries when the Muslims were in power in southern Spain and they were the ones who really expanded and fortified the complex during the 13th and 14th centuries  and most of what we see today is from that period.  The Christians ousted the Muslims in 1492 and the Christian kings destroyed much of the city and try to get rid of any Islamic symbolism.  The monarchs made many changes to the city and King Carlos V built his palace here. 

The location, as always, was on a hill overlooking the rest of the town and countryside and the views were spectacular.  It is a walled fortification of course because you had to protect those living within, and there are many beautiful gardens with pools and fountains, statues and of course plants and flowers.  There are also fruit and vegetable gardens.  The whole complex is huge.  We wondered around for at least 3 hours and didn't see all of it.

Charles V's palace did not look much like a palace but rather more like a small fancy coliseum - at least some of it.  The interior courtyard is round with an open roof (perhaps it once had one) and pillars around the outside in front of circular walkways on two levels.  There were doors going off of the circular walkways but I don't remember getting to go through any doors or see any of the rooms.   I also don't remember many other parts of the palace, or of the complex for that matter.  There were numerous palaces and official buildings in the complex.  I can picture some of them in my mind but I certainly can't differentiate them.  Almost all looked more Arabic or Muslim than Christian with arches, geometric designs, carvings, tiles and paintings.  I really should do these blogs in a more timely manner and then I might remember more of the details.

The towers around the wall were often used as living quarters and we went through some of them.  They had intricate decorations carved into the walls and ceilings.  The Ladies Tower was  a beautiful building, smaller than I would have expected given the name, that reflected perfectly in the pool in front of it.  There was a lot of picture taking going on in that location.  One of the towers was supposedly where the one daughter was locked up so she wouldn't run away like her two sisters.  Washington Irving spent time here in the 19th century and a lot of his stories are based in Alhambra and have become quite well known.  Whether they actually have any basis of truth in them is another matter.

Some of the decoration throughout the complex, especially in the more prestigious areas, involved very intricate mocarabes or 3 dimensional carved design.  The designs were incredible with some looking like lace and some looking like honeycomb.  Entire window ledges, with the castle walls at least three feet thick, were carved in these designs and the depth and detail was amazing.  Windows, doors, arches, walls, ceilings - all of them were carved beautifully in some of the buildings.  Apparently no space was to go undecorated and, in some cases, fake covers were built over the walls to ease the decoration process.

We saw the remains of the baths and the latrines.  The complex had running water even in the early centuries so baths and latrines were expected.  This portion of the complex now is just excavated ruins, not full buildings.  

Alcazaba was the fortress of the complex and it is the oldest section of Alhambra.   Rulers lived in Alcazaba while palaces in Alhambra were being finished but basically it was just a fortress with many walls of defence and twisting entrances to trick invaders. At times it was used as a prison.

The whole complex was  left deserted for many years after the 18th century.  During the French occupation in the 19th century, many parts of the complex were intentionally destroyed.  It wasn't until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the complex was updated.and later opened to the public.

There are probably a million other things I should mention about this incredible place but I no longer remember the details and they did not give us any brochures or information to take with us.  Again, I should have been doing these blogs right after the visits instead of weeks later.  I do know that it was an impressive sight to see, albeit rather chopped up so it was hard to picture how it all fit together given the many different inhabitants over the centuries and the changes that were made.  I also have to add that the views of the city and surrounding countryside were incredible.  Around every corner where you had a view, you wanted to take more pictures even if you'd just seen the same view on the last rampart.  And we were blessed with another beautiful day too so that added to the desire to take pictures.

Shortly after 11 we were on the bus again and heading to Malaga.  Part of the drive was through the countryside and part was along the Costa del Sol and both were beautiful, although I personally like the views over the Mediterranean better. 

Because our rooms weren't ready when we got to Malaga, we went to a nearby town or suburb called Torremolinos and had our lunch on the beach.  The beach area was lovely and there were a lot of people out enjoying the sun, sand and water so it was nice to have a break there.  However, we only had 1.5 hours so by the time we found a restaurant we liked, ordered our meal, got it and ate it, it was time to head back to the bus so there really was not any time to enjoy the town or beach.  

We then drove to our hotel, only about 15 minutes away, and checked in.  The hotel is right on the beach but in a much more deserted area so I can see why we stopped for lunch elsewhere.  There wasn't much choice here.  They obviously aren't very busy because we all got really large rooms with beach views and balconies.  And it was only mid afternoon so we had time to enjoy the beach and pool!

It was really windy and almost cool even though it was almost 30 degrees.  I don't know whether it is always this windy here but we kind of thought so.  In some places on our drive the trees seemed to be pretty bent over as if the wind lashed them permanently.  Anyway, I did not go in swimming in the Mediterranean.  Some of the others did but I chose to stay put in the pool area and just read.  The hotel is nice but it didn't even have towels available for people.  When the folks got out of the water they had to find a bit of sun that was out of the wind just to stay warm and dry off.

Of course, just as they were drying off, it was time for water aerobics and the guy and girl running the program were very persuasive so about six from our tour group joined them.  Later on they had a stretch class so a couple of us also did that.  We were to do it outside but, since some of us were still a bit wet and cool, we convinced them to move inside.

I should also mention that some of the tour group was off on another adventure.  They left shortly after we checked into the hotel and drove to a small village up in the mountains, which they later said was really nice, and then came back down to some beach-front restaurant or resort for dinner, which they later said was okay but nothing spectacular.  And for the price they paid for this optional tour, everything on it should have been spectacular.

Later on our group of six got together for happy hour on one of the balconies and it was very relaxing visiting and enjoying the sea view.  We then walked down to the promenade and had dinner.  All of us had fish of one kind or another and everyone enjoyed their meal.  Together the six of us paid less for our meals than it cost for one person to go on the optional tour and have dinner!  

After dinner we took a stroll down the promenade and back to the hotel.  Some continued walking but I went in because there was a magic show starting in the hotel.  It went until 11 p.m. so it was a bit late for me given our early wake-up calls, but it was quite good.  He did various tricks of illusion including, at the very end, turning two white doves into a big white rabbit.  I know it's all illusion but he certainly made it seem pretty real and I couldn't figure out how he was doing any of it.  I could have stayed around to have my picture taken with him but alas, I was tired and it was time for bed so I left others (mainly kids) get their pictures taken with the white rabbit.