Today is a full day in Granada. We had the walking tour early first thing in the morning. Our walking guide was called Paco. He was an elderly gentleman in his late 60s I think. Be had a good sense of humour. He took us to the old corner of the city called the Albaicín on the mountain. The view from there was amazing. You could see a good chunk of Granada and the snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains.
The Albaycin is the old Arab Quarter. It comprises approximately the area between the hill of the Alhambra, the hill of San Cristobal, the Sacromonte and Elvira. The Albaycin is like a different world within Granada. This is due to the strong Muslim influence in this area. It was the place where the first Siri court was built in the eleventh century. We walked to the market, saw an old church which gave us a great view of the Alhambra, and went to the royal chapel where King Ferdinand and Isabella were buried.
The Royal Chapel is located between Granada Cathedral, the old Fish Market and the Church of Sagrario. The construction of the Royal Chapel of Granada was ordered by the Catholic Monarchs in 1504 as a place of burial for their bodies. We were able to see the actual coffins of the king and queen, which was pretty cool. They were iron boxes.
After we visited the church, we had lunch in a cool moroccan restaurant. It was fun to see all the moroccan influences on Spain. We were given free time to enjoy the city until we went to the Alhambra at 3pm. I checked out the Granada museum first. Entrance was 1 euro. It was hard to understand because it was all in spanish. After I decided to try to walk back to our hotel. I definitely got lost 3 or 4 times and took the long way home, but it was a nice trip.
The Alhambra is the most visited monument in Spain, more than 3 million tickets to the Alhambra are sold every year. Alhambra means “the red” which is what material was originally used. The palace was originally an arab fortress. The original palace was built in 1237, and was added to by each additional king. In 1492, King Ferdinand and Isabella took it over and converted the palace to Christianity, however you can still see the arab influence. For example, the king’s courtyard where he kept his many wives. And the garden of eden and the summer house.
For dinner we ate the buffet at the restaurant, which was alright and went to a pub after dinner with live music. Be warned the band doesn’t start until midnight and the pub is empty until then too.
