Almeria and Alhambra

October 6, 2016

We had another night of smooth sailing as we skipped westward from the Costa Blanca and arrived at a dock early in the morning in Almeria, Spain. Almeria is only about a quarter of of the size of Alicante, with 200,000 people to Alicante's 800,000 people. Almeria doesn't have the same kind of historic landmarks and tourist attractions that are around Alicante, but what Almeria had for Gym and Mrs. Gym, was its relative close proximity to Granada and the world famous, Alhambra.

Alhambra has inspired many artists and authors over the years. It has been the subject of numerous books, poems and songs. It is not just a single site, Alhambra is actually a complex of palaces, inside the sturdy walls of an ancient fortress that is flanked by the beautiful gardens of Geniralife, where our tour would begin. It is thought that there has always been a fortress of some kind on the site but in 1238 the Muslim Rulers of the area started too get serious about building something special. Then in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella took Alhambra from the Muslim king when the Catholic armies defeated Sultan Boabdil in the Battle of Grenada. This was the final victory in the Reconquest of Spain by the Catholics and it would result in the expulsion of all Muslims and Jews from Spain. Then of course very shortly after Ferdinand and Isabella took over the palace in Alhambra, they met with Christopher Columbus right there in the Muslim King's former throne room. Gym and Mrs Gym would stand in the same spot as Columbus did for that very historic meeting.

Within two hours of docking in Alicante, Gym and Mrs. Gym were seated in a comfortable Mercedes touring bus and were on the way to Alhambra. This turned out to be one of the best excursions that we have taken in a number of years. It was a two-hour drive but as we negotiated our way from the dry desert at the coast, through the Sierra Nevada mountains and then into the broad, green and lush valley that Granada sits in, we got to see a lot of Spain. More importantly, we got to see Alhambra!

Alhambra is one of those places that you really must visit. You can watch a documentary about it and you might find it fascinating but without having been there, it wouldn't really stick. Once we picked up our local guide and we began to tour through the gardens of Geniralife and the nearby palace complex of Alhambra, we knew this was something special. I won't continue to try to describe it, I will just let you see the pictures and you can follow the captions.

I took tons of pictures and so did Mrs. Gym.
I was hard to show you only some of them

Mrs. Gym

Lots of expertly pruned trees delineate different "rooms" or sections of the gardens

A door to another section

there is plenty of fresh water coming down off of the Sierra
Nevada mountains and most of it moves aided only by gravity

This isn't even the best time of year 

looking across the moat to Alhambra

 

Again looking across the moat at a Catholic church built after 1492

Entrance to the summer home and guest house in Geniralife

inside the courtyard of the summer home/guest house

Inside the fortress now, looking at the ruins of the homes that former residents of
Alhambra lived in that were inside the walls. In the background is a Franciscan monastery.

Outside the Palace of Charles V

Inside the Palace of Charles V. Yes it is square on the outside and has a round
courtyard on the inside

 

A Muslim interior

The throne room where Colombus met Ferdinand and Isabella

 

El Patio de los Arrayanes

A beautiful moorish domed ceiling

a view of the old part of Granada from the palace

a courtyard in the palace complex

looking back towards Geniralife gardens

water running beside the stairs

a nobleman's former patio - the house is gone

more beautiful gardens inside the fortress

The fortress walls

After the tour we had a great lunch in a country estate just outside of Granada and then returned to the ship. That night, at 1am in the morning, we would pass through the straights of Gibraltar and leave the Mediterranean Sea. The next stop was Cadiz, on the Atlantic coast of Spain.