Granada

Our day in Granada was very very pleasant. I was completely and totally burned so I put on a breezy dress and we went to explore Alhambra. As usual we started our journey around the hottest time of the day after having a bit of lunch and walked up the hill to let it settle for a bit.

Alhambra in huge. They actually sell separate tickets for separate parts, because you don't really have time to explore everything with an audio tour in one 6 hr. general ticket session. We only had one day so we just tried to do as much as we could. When you get up to the main entrance there is a huge line to get tickets and the ticket window says cash only. Mike got in line and told me to go find out the lay of the land. What I found was that a little hidden and off to the side you have credit card machines where you can buy tickets with absolutely no line for an extra fee of 1.30 euros per ticket. I came back and told him in Russian for minimizing the stampede to the ticket machines. Great success :)

We started our visit by exploring the Palacio de Carlos V. which was started in 1527 and completed in 1957. The Spaniards sure know how to take their time building things :). Now I know where the waiters get their speed from. Mike thinks that all of the stone that went into making the columns was sanded down, but it feels great to the touch. Once we were done exploring it, we went down to the Mezzanine floor and went through a museum where there were artifacts from the time of Alhambra. Here is a blurb on the Palacio from the Alhambra website:

The origin of Charles V Palace (Palacio de Carlos V) was the need for a place that would include all the comforts of the time for the Emperor and his family, as the palaces, which were their summer residence, did not cover their needs. 

The Emperor ordered the construction of the palace next to the Alhambra in order to enjoy its wonders. The architect in charge of the works was Pedro Machuca, an experienced architect in love with the Renaissance. The works started in 1527 and were totally finished in 1957. The construction went through several stages, the lack of financing resources, revolts that stopped the works, etc. The building was sometimes neglected to such an extent that the ceilings collapsed. 

The palace is square and its main façade is 63 meters wide and 17 meters high. Its circular patio is unique and it is the most important building of Renaissance style in Spain. Only the southern and western façades are completely decorated. The northern and southern sides are not because they are connected to the palaces of the Alhambra.

Once we were done we went to the Generalife gardens which were amazingly pleasant to walk around in. On our little walk we saw the most PIMP cat in the world, he was taking a nap on a bench in the sun in the Generalife Gardens in Alhambra - and I thought my life is pretty nice :) I have included a picture for your general enjoyment. We were just finishing our pleasant stroll when my alarm rang meaning that we had to make our way back to the Nasarid Palaces. The way that the General Ticket for Alhambra works is that there is you can walk anywhere you want, but you have a specific time that you have to be at the Nasarid Palaces which is the biggest Alhambra attraction.

The Palaces were very beautiful with an insane amount of intricate detail. It is still inhabited - at least by a bat that I found sleeping in a nook of the Myrtles. I wished that we had a guide, but we didn't get one for Alhambra. I kind of regret that decision now. Mike and I discussed whether or not the Nasarid Palaces were a little much. I think that they are beautiful, but I do see what he is saying. There is no place for your eyes to rest - it's a little overstimulating. I understand the need for fountains and water in palaces of this style, as it's the only place where your eye can rest on something calm and non busy. While taking pictures we met a couple who just came from Madrid and gave us a food recommendation for El Mercado de San Miguel which turned out amazing, but I will get to that later.

Once we got out of the Nasarid Palaces we tried to sneak in a visit to Alcazaba - but the park was closing and all we got was a chance for Mike to run up and take in the view. On our way out we heard beautiful classical guitar music coming from the theater of Generalife. We asked some of the people who worked at Alhambra what that was and they stated that a guitarist was practicing for a July 23 show. I later looked it up, and the show is called Duende. I'm not really sure what it entails but it looks like music and dancing and flamenco. After a lot of work I found out that the guitarist we heard is probably Luis Mariano - a Granada local. I would not mind finding out more, but for some reason it's unreasonable difficult to find any info on it online. We polished our day at Granada off with a nice dinner (I had an ox burger) while listening to a street guitarist. It wasn't quite as good as what we happened to hear in Granada, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Mike went walking after I went to bed and met another Madrid native who gave him other Madrid site recommendations along with food and alcohol - so we were all set for the last city of our journey

The next morning we bought a couple of souvenirs and headed towards Madrid. Our plan was to stop by Toledo and have a little dinner. About an hour away from Granada Mike found a small town and proceeded to instruct me in the art of driving stick - insert joke here. I started off in the small town, but then Mike had me go off towards the hills on windy roads. I was completely exhausted after about an hour of total stress - but I can say that I have driven stick now. YAY!!!!

After another hour or so on the road we saw a ruined castle and decided that we need to see it up close. It was a little bit of a hike to get up there, but we are adventurers and this is what we do. The ruined castle is home to many pigeons who we successfully disturbed. I think the whole side trip took us no more than 30 minutes and soon we were on our way again towards Toledo.

The town looked beautiful and old, but we didn't really have a chance to walk around in it. We stopped by several different bars for beers and tapas and settled on a restaurant for a nice meal. I have to say that at this point of the trip I was pretty tired and was really looking forward to going to bed in Madrid. On the way out of Toledo my navigation skills got us to incredibly narrow streets and we ended up scraping our car - which woke me up quite a bit, but we managed to get to Madrid and into bed without any further incident.