We were late in meeting up with our Australian friends, John and Linda by an hour and a half (sorry again guys) so we left a note on their camper and headed into the Alhambra hoping to meet up with them inside. The Alhambra is huge and probably takes 4 hours to see everything. Julie and I managed to see most of it in around 1 hour. We tend to walk faster than most people, a habit we started in Germany. We do take everything in, but we just don’t stop at everything like most tourists, we just stop at what interests us. So we bypassed most of the dead gardens along the walking path towards the Palace. We had to visit the Palace in the allotted time on our ticket. We passed many tourist shops and a huge building that reminded us of a Gingerbread house because of the texture on the large stone blocks used in its construction. The entrance to the royal palace was stunning. Two large wooden doors opened to an open ceiling with vines almost everywhere. Julie wants one now, too bad I had to break the news that we live in Canada, not southern Spain. After that it was into many rooms, some large and enclosed, others were open but all had impressive stucco ceilings and lovely marble floors. Fountains can be found throughout the whole area, as well as in the Palace, one stood out for me. It was in a large open roofed area, fountains were at either end of the pool that was in the centre and white marble was used throughout. The amount of detail that went into each room was stunning.
After the palace we made our way to the mostly ruined fortress. There wasn’t too much to see here, but the tower provided great views of the city below. Our feet were sore at this point, something that hasn’t happened too often on this trip (we figure it was because this was our first day back from resting) so we made our way back towards the main gate. There was another section to check out, the General Life. This was mostly made up of fountains and gardens, since it was the middle of January, we opted to skip this and head back to the van. The Aussies later told us there was a nice palace in the general life as well, oh well. It was a great sight to see, but we left feeling short changed. It was extremely expensive to visit (20 euros) and was impressive, but only to a point. It was funny to find out that John and Linda felt the same way about the Alhambra. When we made it back to the van, we had a quick bite to eat (grilled cheese) and then made the decision to move the van over to the same parking lot the Aussie’s were in. Luckily for us, John and Linda were back at their camper and they told us that a German couple were heading to a great place to stay, further up the hill, for the night. So we all got going and after a drive on some very narrow paved, and some not, roads we arrived at our resting spot for the next two days. That night we sat in our van and shared information on where to stay, free internet, where to avoid etc. Since we were heading to Italy and John and Linda where heading to Portugal, the exact opposite routes. It’s a shame that we couldn’t have traveled longer together, but that’s what happens. The following morning/afternoon John, Julie and I went for an incredibly long walk into town for groceries. Turns out it was 8 km round trip, but walking up a hill the entire time with a load of food sure sucks. We were all pretty tired when we made it back to our vans. Linda had just fallen asleep, as she wasn’t feeling well. So John gave us some beer while Julie made stew for dinner. We spent the night in their van talking until late in the night. The next morning we said our goodbyes and made our way to Almeria, as John and Linda went off to find some thermal spas.
After the palace we made our way to the mostly ruined fortress. There wasn’t too much to see here, but the tower provided great views of the city below. Our feet were sore at this point, something that hasn’t happened too often on this trip (we figure it was because this was our first day back from resting) so we made our way back towards the main gate. There was another section to check out, the General Life. This was mostly made up of fountains and gardens, since it was the middle of January, we opted to skip this and head back to the van. The Aussies later told us there was a nice palace in the general life as well, oh well. It was a great sight to see, but we left feeling short changed. It was extremely expensive to visit (20 euros) and was impressive, but only to a point. It was funny to find out that John and Linda felt the same way about the Alhambra. When we made it back to the van, we had a quick bite to eat (grilled cheese) and then made the decision to move the van over to the same parking lot the Aussie’s were in. Luckily for us, John and Linda were back at their camper and they told us that a German couple were heading to a great place to stay, further up the hill, for the night. So we all got going and after a drive on some very narrow paved, and some not, roads we arrived at our resting spot for the next two days. That night we sat in our van and shared information on where to stay, free internet, where to avoid etc. Since we were heading to Italy and John and Linda where heading to Portugal, the exact opposite routes. It’s a shame that we couldn’t have traveled longer together, but that’s what happens. The following morning/afternoon John, Julie and I went for an incredibly long walk into town for groceries. Turns out it was 8 km round trip, but walking up a hill the entire time with a load of food sure sucks. We were all pretty tired when we made it back to our vans. Linda had just fallen asleep, as she wasn’t feeling well. So John gave us some beer while Julie made stew for dinner. We spent the night in their van talking until late in the night. The next morning we said our goodbyes and made our way to Almeria, as John and Linda went off to find some thermal spas.
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