A few weeks back, Marina (who was my roommate when I studied in Pamplona in 2008) and I were chatting, and she mentioned that she wanted to visit me in Granada before I left. I had exactly one free weekend left in May, so she bought some train tickets, and visited me. She had actually never been to Granada before so it was fun getting to showing her around.
She took the overnight train from Barcelona at arrived in Granada at around 8am on Friday. After some breakfast (the both of us) and a shower (her), we started our day. Tickets for the Alhambra had been sold out online long before, but they reserve tickets that you can buy on the day itself. So first we walked up to the Alhambra and bought tickets for the afternoon (morning sessions were sold out already). Then we spent the rest of the morning walking around the
Albayzín and checking out the view of the Alhambra from the
Mirador de San Nicolas.
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| View from the Mirador de San Nicolas |
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| The streets of the Albayzín |
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| The streets of the Albayzín |
After walking around the Albayzín, we had lunch at
Los Diamantes which had the most amazing seafood tapas (we were so hungry that I forgot to take pictures, but I would definitely recommend the place). We hopped to another tapas bar nearby for round 2, then after we were full, headed back up to the Alhambra. We started are visit at the
Generalife, whose gardens were so pretty as the flowers were in full bloom.
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| Gardens at the Generalife |
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| Gardens at the Generalife |
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| Generalife |
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| Patio de las Acequias, Generalife |
After the Generalife we walked to the main complex and checked out the
Palacio Carlos V and the
Alcazaba, which I didn't get to see when I
visited last December.
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| Alczaba |
The
Alcazaba was the main fortress part of the Alhambra, and from there you get the most stunning views of the Albayzín.
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| Alczaba |
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| View of the Albayzín from the Alcazaba |
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| View of the Albayzín from the Alcazaba (don't know what happened to the light) |
Then finally, it was time to visit the Nasrid Palaces. This was my third time to visit the Alhambra, but it gets more beautiful with each visit.
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| Nasrid Palaces |
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| Patio de los Leones |
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| Patio de los Leones |
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| Patio de los Leones |
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| Patio de los Leones |
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| Nasrid Palaces |
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| Nasrid Palaces |
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| Nasrid Palaces |
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| Nasrid Palaces |
We had actually done a lot of walking today, so after our visit, we headed back home and I cooked Marina some filipino chicken afritada for dinner, then we called it a night.
The next day we walked around the city center. In the morning we visited the Alcaicería and the Cathedral. Marina actually wanted to see some flamenco, and we lucked out and caught some performers in the plaza in front of the Cathedral. Flamenco is so beautiful to watch and listen to. Even if I don't understand the lyrics, I can feel the emotion coming from the singers and the dancers.
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| Saturday morning flamenco in the plaza |
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| Saturday morning flamenco in the plaza |
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| Saturday morning flamenco in the plaza |
We continued walking around Granada, then ended up in
El Revanteiro for lunch. It was a simple tapas restaurant, but they had the most amazing croquetas ever.
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| Tapas at El Reventeiro |
After lunch it was time to check out
Sacromonte, the gypsy neighborhood of the city. It was a warm but beautiful day, and made for a nice walk.
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| Paseo de los Tristes |
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| Sacromonte |
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| View of the Alhambra from Sacromonte |
We had a tea break in one of Granada's famous teterías, heard mass, and had dinner, then in the evening went to check out the Alhambra. The Alhambra has special tickets that allows you to visit certain parts at night. We got tickets to visit the Generalife. It was quite beautiful and romantic, and really interesting to see the details lit up. I would have loved to see the Nasrid Palaces at night.
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| Generalife at night |
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| Generalife at night |
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| Generalife at night |
On Sunday we took a day trip to
Almuñecar with Julie, Zed, and Lyle who had spent Friday and Saturday in Córdoba. We were hoping for a good day at the beach, but it was unfortunately quite cold and gloomy.
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| Gloomy Almuñecar |
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| Marina and Me |
We enjoyed each other's company instead and even had a
filipino lunch picnic at the beach.
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| Filipino food by the beach |
P.S. Marina took the most gorgeous pictures of the Alhambra and Granada which you can check out on her blog
here and
here. :)
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