This was our second attempt at a non-ship tour. But, this time it went very smoothly. A driver, Monica, was waiting for us at the end of the gangway. To our surprise, there were several other people from the ship on the same tour.
It was still not clear exactly what was itinerary for the day, and Monica knew only a few words of English. So all we could do was get in the van and see what happens.
What happened was we had a 2 hour drive directly to a visitor center outside the Alhambra. Our confusion continued until we were all registered with a bigger group, given our “whisper” devices, and our tour guide, Marco, showed up.
As we set off on the tour, it became immediately apparent today was going to be a challenge – the walk to the entrance was up a huge hill.
To give you an idea of the tour, here is a high level map of the Alhambra. I think it would have helped to have something like this with us as we went through.
Granada (which apparently means “pomegranate”) was the capital of Moorish Spain for hundreds of years. The Alhambra was the central building of state – the sultan and his government lived and governed from there; his family (all the wives and children) lived there as well.
At some point I asked Marco if the word “Alhambra” in Spanish was a masculine or feminine word – I was courious as to whether it was “El ALhambra” or “La “Alhambra”. Apparently it is “La Alhambra” – “Alhambra” is an Arabic word meaning “Red woman”. No clue as to why the seat of government would be called “red woman”.
Because of the prohibition of depicting human image, all the wall decorations are intricate geometric designs and/or verses from the Koran. Only a few walls and ceilings still retain some of the original color.
Here are a couple of examples of the intricate, geometric designs:
Marco was an entertaining tour guide, for sure. He kept up a constant patter of words, a never ending flow – I found myself getting lost in the river of thoughts, and not a whole lot was sticking. For example, if you notice on the map above there is a section labeled “Medina”. I do remember Marco mentioning “Medina”, but of all the many photos we took, I couldn’t tell you which one(s) were of the Medina. It all kind of blended together.
I think this ceiling was from the “throne room” – it shows intricate woodworking, depicting the 7 levels of heaven. The tiny copula at the top and center is “7th heaven”.
The best preserved rooms were in the Sultana’s palace. The “Sultana” was the wife who was the mother of the “throne heir” (as Marco called it), which to me meant the “Crown Prince”. Typically the eldest son was the throne heir, but if he had lots of brothers he had to watch his back. They were all scheming to kill him to become the throne heir. The Sultan himself also had to watch his back, as his sons were also scheming to kill him to become the Sultan. Just another episode of Game of Thrones.
Here is an example of the sultana’s quarters.
After traipsing through room after room all exquisitely decorated, we finally emerged outside. We had a brief bathroom break, and then on to the fort, the Alcazaba.
The Alcazaba had a ton of stairs up to this beautiful view:
Next we walked back across the entire Alhambra to the Generalife (“hen-er-ah-LEE-fey”), a tremendous series of gardens:
It was now 1:30 and the tour was over. The question was – what to do about lunch? Monica was waiting for us back at the van. We tossed around a bunch of alternatives, changing our collective minds about 5 times. We ended up with some of us grabbing snack at the visitor center {I was so proud of myself for using several words in Spanish, though I would’t call what I produced a coherent sentence}, going back to the ship and then grabbing something from the buffet there.
On the drive back watching the scenery go by, I noticed how groves of olive trees stretched for miles and miles and miles of the countryside.
What an exhausting day! But well worth it.
As a random ending/side note, a conversation with the cruise director later that evening revealed that the ship had tried to set up tours for the Alhambra and the Sagrada Familia and had been totally unable to secure a vendor. That makes no sense to any of us, but what do we know.
Tomorrow: Sevilla!
Maryland Meshugas 