The Moorish Kingdom in Europe

Another early travel start to finally make it to Granada.

A 7.30 train from Madrid, with one change to a bus, got us into Granada about midday. After finding our hostel and dumping our bags it was a quick power walk up the hill to the Alhambra to try make our timed entry into the Nasrid Palaces.

The Alhambra is the most visited tourist attraction in Spain. With it being August in Spain, it is the busiest month and tickets are booked out a month in advance. We were lucky to get our hands on some... however we then couldn't get train tickets to Granada the day we expected due to the rail works around Granada and a nationwide taxi strike. We made it to the gate at 1.02pm, two minutes after our allotted entry time ended, and even though we pleaded and begged with the entrance guard, we were not allowed in. Pretty gutting,

although we did spend four hours in the rest of the grounds.

The Alhambra was built in the mid 13th century by the Nasrid Dynasty who ruled the Emirate of Granada from 711 until 1492 as an Islamic Kingdom. It was then converted into the Christian Palace of Ferdinand and Isabella and is where Christopher Columbus got the money to fund his expedition to the new world. So many layers of history here.

Although we couldn't go into the Nazrid Palaces where each dynasty had built/influenced the buildings in their own way, the rest of the grounds and buildings were amazing. We explored the Summer Palace, Generalife, the mosque/church, Charles V's palace, the museum and the Alcazaba (the military wing). It was so hot wandering around, but there are water fountains everywhere so that you can fill bottles, drink from or dip yourself in to keep cool! The whole Alhambra has a view of the Sierra Nevada, which still has snow on it. After the disappointment it was still an amazing four hours.

Afterwards we wandered back down the hill and stopped for a beer and some tapas at one of the local bars that had mist spraying out

the front over the seating to cool everyone down. Our next lesson in Spanish culture, if you order a drink here, you get a free tapas. After ordering a beer each and two plates of tapas, a plate came out that we hadn't ordered. As the waiter couldn't speak English, we had no idea what was going on and ended up accidentally having a delicious dinner with our beers. Cheap night out.

Back to the hostel for a night of trip planning to make sure we can do what we want to do in Spain and actually make it to Switzerland!