Granada - The Alhambra Palace

Tuesday 24th November
The Alhambra Palace
Well - where do we start except to say that we were on our feet all day looking in amazement at the skill of the craftsmen 1000 years and more ago? In each room, the carvings on the walls of plaster and marble were so detailed that it was quite difficult to take it all in. They were perfectly beautiful, but it was difficult to concentrate. We had hired headphones which is usually a good thing, but in this case, (in Alec’s words) “ some ponce called Washington Irving “ was waffling on in very flowery language about columns, light, stars, the Koran, being a romantic and life in the 1830s , with no historical detail which was what we really wanted. We thought that they could have done a slightly more in depth version of how it was put together. However, nothing could really take away from its magnificence. We are the only English here (as usual with the Euro being as it is) but there are masses of Americans and it must be on their ‘European tour’. Some of them really are outstandingly large and we were glad not to meet them on a spiral staircase to the turrets. On the very highest turret there is a bell which was rung when the Catholics finally drove the Muslims out of town and is now only rung on 2nd January of each year.
Washington Irving seems to have written a great deal about all of Andalucia as most of the towns we go through, have the ‘Washington Irving route’.
We both really enjoyed the Palace of Charles Vth which was never finished and is now the Museum of Fine Art. Lots of great paintings by Spanish artists through the past 500 years. After resting up for a while we caught the shuttle bus back down the hill to try and find a map, look in on the cathedral where we interrupted a communion service and were then too embarrassed to leave and ate the most delicious Paella in a nearby square. Granada had a very festive air with a myriad of lit up fountains and the city centre was full of shoppers with Christmas presents and wrapping paper etc. It seems quite unreal that it is only 1 month away as we are still enjoying the heat. (and reveling in the fact that we are not going to send any cards etc!)
However fit we might be our legs never get used to going up of steep stairs. We were very relieved to get in to bed that night, age is a terrible thing!