Spain - Granada

2-6 April 2015

Madrid to Granada 4:13hr

Things had been going pretty smoothly for us, so something unraveling was on the cards.

We approached Granada with caution. The Albayzín area of Granada, where we were to stay for the next four nights, would be difficult to penetrate with its narrow, long winding cobbled one-way lanes. The street we needed to access was in a car restricted area, open only for certain hours on certain days. A last minute complication was that there were going to be Easter processions through the area on our arrival which made the only window of opportunity between 2-3 pm.

Within an hour of leaving Madrid we knew we had failed, we had not allowed for the congested Easter traffic. Trying our luck at accessing the apartment was a miserable exhausting and  stressful procedure. After numerous attempts at circumnavigating the 'restricted' area trying to find an entry we eventually gave up - too much stress in an overloaded over-sized car with no visibility and cars always hard up behind us. Complete the picture with children going a bit hyper in the back after being cooped up in the car for 5+ hours.

We pulled over a long way from the desired location to try to communicate via mobile our troubles to the apartment owner waiting for our arrival, another failure(no comprendo Spanish).  The only option left we could manage was to head to an easily accessible hotel with car parking and English speaking staff who could ring the apartment owner and explain we would try again tomorrow when the processions and street restrictions had finished. What a mess, but it was a relief to simply stop! - stress levels were very high! That night dinner was near one of the main squares of the historic center.
Quite a lot of interesting observations. I had a good laugh at a dog barking confusedly  at a 'yapping' windup dog toy in a stall. We couldn't miss a man walking around with a huge colourful parrot on his shoulders amongst all the jostling crowds.


Early evening entertainment in a main square

The next morning we were much better equipped to venture into the Albayzín . Still it was pretty hair-raising stuff as we drove through the one way winding cobbled lanes which got narrower and narrower as we proceeded. We only just scraped through (wing mirrors tucked in) at one point. Spanish drivers are so impatient too. Slightly shaken on arrival, we were then greeted by a very enthusiastic fast and persistent speaking Spanish women who we failed spectacularly to comprehend at all. Eventually she gave up and we agreed to not understand each other. The apartment we had rented was within a  Moorish house built in 1500(one of the last 5 cataloged in Granada). Through the door from our bedroom window we viewed the Alhambra perched on the opposite hill awaiting our visit. Things were rather odd in this apartment, a little renovated but quite a lot not. Nevertheless the location was incredible, so much action happening all around, which in turn lead to loud nights - another Spanish city that doesn't sleep and which has overly enthusiastic bell ringing going on all night(especially on Easter Sunday, midnight on wards  to be exact - I recall it painfully). Five am in the morning prayer chanting just tops off the whole problematic sleep situation. Add on top that you could feel every spring in the mattress too.


Apartment, a bit more 'rustic' in reality.

Apartment Location in the Albayzín .

Outside our door the environment had become somewhat more bohemian than the night before. I double took a highly pierced man with a dread lock almost trailing on the ground. At night the public playground/gathering place (cleverly built over the top of the car park) transformed to a slightly weird social gathering of  bohemian youth(mainly men with a lot of facial hair) sitting around smoking with instruments and dogs.  Even so, I was happy to take the boys to the playground there in the early evening, it was very nonthreatening  and pleasantly social. Ollie and Jarvis did note that the smoke didn't smell like 'normal' cigarette smoke.

Just around the corner from the apartment was the beautifully situated St Nicolas square. We took off to see this as soon as we had unpacked.  It is from here that everyone takes that photo perfect shot of the Alhambra over the Albayzín rooftops and the chasm of the Darro river valley.



 A view that is hard to believe(from St Nicolas Square),
snow on the distant mountain tops too.

St Nicolas Square in the Albazyin(just around the corner from the apartment).
A surprisingly large number of people for April.

 Jewellery-sellers, artists, musicians and a good place to  enjoy a drink.





The bell tower of St Nicola's church(suffering from decay and fire damage during the Spanish Civil war) was too tempting for the boys and had to be climbed unveiling an even better view of the Alhambra.


All smiles from Lachlan,  unless the bell 'rings'.




St Nicola's Bell, view of the Alhambra.


The next day we headed through the Albayzín to the historic center, Chris carrying a large bag we were hoping to post back to London.
The hill where the Albayzín is now situated has been occupied continuously from as early as the Roman period. It was a bit like an open-air museum.I loved wandering through the medieval narrow winding cobblestone streets, lined with gorgeous carmens - a  traditional type of house surrounded by a high wall  and including a small orchard or garden. It survived as the Muslim quarter for several decades after the Christian conquest in 1492. In 1994, the Albayzín was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO along with the Alhambra.


Just our luck that the Post Office was shut. Chris trudged all the way back up to the apartment to drop the bag while I took the kids to visit the 16th century Cathedral (Cathedral of Incarnation). A really beautiful Cathedral, it was built in different styles over 181 years - the foundations are Gothic, the main entrance is Baroque, the inside Renaissance. By the time we came out of it my mobile was flat so I had no chance of contacting Chris, stress levels rose. I managed to find an open Vodafone shop where I could charge up and make contact with Chris again .

Now bag-less, we wandered through 'Realejo', the Jewish quarter (later to be revisited on our Segway adventure).


Street art in the Jewish quarter, Realejo.

Following the course of the Darro river we walked down the street 'Carrera del Darro' with white-washed houses to the north and the looming Alhambra to the south. I was impressed by it's beauty, it is said to be one of the most beautiful streets in the world, but frustrated by constantly get shunted into doorways to make way for buses and cars. We took one of the narrow steep routes that lead back up to the Albayzín, we did get a little lost on the way back.



The world's most beautiful street? Maybe?

Part of my mission during this whole adventure had been to not over-book things when I haven't thought it necessary, just to give us a little flexibility. This was clearly a mistake in Granada when it came to not pre-purchasing the entrance tickets for the Alhambra  - quite a surprise for April. The only option left after discovering all tickets were sold out, was to try our luck at purchasing some of the tickets held back for door sales each day. Doors opened at 8:00 a.m, we had a plan.

Sun 5th April, Easter Morning.
The Easter bunny finds a way.

An initially enthusiastic Chris, keen to have a very scenic early run, was to  run (before the boys awoke to see what Easter bunny delivered) to the Alhambra to be first in line by 7:30 am.
Poor Chris, after a couple of hours standing (not first in line at all) in a queue in the freezing shade, managed to purchase tickets only to the lesser attractions(not the Nasrid Palaces) and returned not so enthusiastic but cold and starving. Fortunately, Chris and I have been before and to be honest the boys didn't really care what they saw so after breakfast we headed off for our walk to the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a Nasrid "palace city". It is one of the most visited monuments in Spain. It consists of a defensive zone, the Alcazaba , the Nasrid Palaces and the palace, and the gardens and orchards of El Generalife.  In the 11th century the Castle of the Alhambra was developed as a walled town which became a military stronghold that dominated the whole city. In the 13th century, with the arrival of the first monarch of the Nasrid dynasty (Mohammed I, 1238–1273), the royal residence was established in the Alhambra  .


The Alcazaba.

The Alcazaba

A little hot and tired by the time we got there (up and down two serious hills) the boys lacked any interest in anything except ice cream or soft drinks. However they did manage to get some enjoyment from the  Alcazaba with it's dramatic views(some back to St Nicolas square where we had previously looked upon the Alhambra) and it's elevated  'military' areas where they could run around playing battles, Chris included.

El Generalife

Unfortunately because of the large number of people it was a little hard to get a good overview of the Generalife,  the garden area which provided a rest area for the Granadan Muslim Kings.









It was now time to deliver, the Segway 'carrot' that had been dangled in front of the boys during the Alhambra now had to be eaten. I was quite happy as I had envisaged my freedom to explore the shops and lanes while Chris was on Segway duty.
While trying to make my escape when the boys were doing their first trials, I soon found myself on one too. Not contented with me just testing it out the boys soon dragged me into the "family team experience". Pretty fun really, even I had to admit that. So after our initial trials we went to the start point and did even more trialing, All this trialing plus the safety drill  did alert my cautious nature that it might actually be a little risky. Our guide was pretty keen to take us on, unlike his partner who admitted he was too nervous to do it with the children.

Fashion aside, I had to admit it was fun.

Off we went in a well monitored row, wearing our unattractive attire of yellow safety vest and helmets. Lachlan got pride of place at the front on the same Segway as our guide, too little to manage his own. Later he confessed that he didn't really enjoy it because he kept getting donked in the head. The rest of us had a great time. Our guide had chosen the easiest terrain for us, just a short 30min trip through the flat old Jewish quarter of Granada, the 'Realejo'. We stopped in a local's square where we could get up a bit of speed and film ourselves looking extremely dorky. It was a pretty fascinating area full of whitewashed houses and high walls that made for good canvas for the inspirational art scene. Loads of whimsical murals brightened the streets.  As our guide said "you have to get up early to see some of Granada’s best art", referring to the inspirational street art emblazoned on the shutters of various shops and businesses. The most well known artist being 'Raúl Ruiz' better known as 'El Niño de las Pinturas'. Approximately 75% of Granada's 80,000 students are art students. Not surprising then that Granada is a very artistic and edgy city.
Easter Sunday was surprisingly quite, celebrations had gone on earlier, churches had their doors closed.
I was really impressed at how well Ollie and Jarvis had managed, I think even the guide was quite surprised. Quite a lot of concentration was required in the streets of Granada, jammed full of people and bollards, darting motorbikes, cars and wonky bumpy cobbles.

It was wonderful to revisit Granada, our first visit many years ago being a little fleeting and grey in winter. A lot of restoration has happened since and Granada appears as a 'hip' youthful city with an incredibly well preserved history.