Granada,  the Southern wonder

There are few cities in the world as beautiful and magical as Granada. Not only for its multicultural legacy, but for its people, leisure activities and food. Witness of an important part of Spanish History, it stills offers a whole new world for the travellers that set foot in this city.

Granada is a small city and has one of the most important cultural inheritances in Spain: the Alhambra and Generalife… The passport to an antique world, which is so well conserved that is really thrilling to walk through its rooms, all in an old Muslin style…

You can reach Granada by bus or train from nearly every Spanish city. There is also another good option: you can reach Seville by plane and then go to Granada by bus… There are also low cost airlines that fly to Seville.

As it is a small city, any hotel is near everywhere that is worth to be seen; nevertheless, Plaza Nueva is the main point for means of transport. You can take there the “minibuses” that go up to the Albaycín neighbourhood and the Alhambra buildings. There is a nicer option if you want to walk up and up: strolling from the “Albaycín bajo” (low part of the neighbourhood) to the “Albaycín alto”(higher part of the neighbourhood).
If you are in Granada, you do have to go to these places; it is advisable to book the entrance for the Alhambra in advance, to avoid the long queues for the daytime visit. There is also a shorter night visit, that is as worth while as the daytime one: the Muslin fortress lit by night is something you will remember during your whole life.
You can visit all the places during daytime: the Alcazaba, The Nazaríes Palaces and the Generalife; during night, you can exclusively visit The Nazaríes Palaces. If you choose to go during the day, keep in mid that it takes at least 4 or 5 hours.
But if you´re planning to see some other historical buildings as well, such as the Cathedral, the Cartuja Monastery, the Real Chapel (where you can visit the final place of the Catholic King and Queen´s bodies, Fernando and Isabel, and also her daughter´s, Juana “the crazy one”), it is better to buy the “Bono Turístico de Granada” (Granada Tourist Pass) that includes many entrances to these buildings and 9 trips on normal buses (including the “minibuses” for the Alhambra). It also offers a whole day on the Tourist Bus. You can buy it at many of the historical buildings.
And there´s also the food. In Granada you can have tasty “tapas” anywhere and, as it was in the original times, they are free of charge when you buy a drink. This is not like this in every Spanish city these days, but it is in Granada! You also have to keep in mind the size of their toast: if you ask for one piece of toast, they will serve a whole piece of bread cut in the middle, so you will really have two pieces of toast; so if you just want one, ask for “half a piece of toast” (“media tostada” in Spanish). They have a really good and original option for breakfast: olive oil and a lot of tomato on top, similar to the ones you can have in Catalonia, but much tastier and bigger.

But if you want to go for drinks (as they put it, “ir de copas”), you should try Elvira street, right downtown and full of different bars and restaurants with Andalusian food, “tapas”, discotheques and Arabic food and teas. This is something interesting: the tea is served in special tea houses, where you can also smoke tobacco with flowers in long narguilles, (this special pipes, nearly like bottles, that mix tobacco, flowers and water). They are always full of people, so try to be there quite early.

You can look for more information about the city and what it offers at: http://www.granada.org/ and http://www.granadatur.com/.


The Alhambra and its buildings

After the Civil War in the XII century, the taifa (small kingdoms which were part of the abolished Córdoba califato) of the Ziríes –which was the “dynasty” of Granada whereabouts- moved their capital to this city. The Ziríes settled near the Albaycín neighbourhood, where there were some Jewish communities already living in the area. The Alhambra we can still see and visit started to be built in the XIII century, under the Nazarí dynasty, by the initiative of its founder, Al-Ahmar. This dynasty was the last sultanate of the peninsula, until the Catholics re-conquered it in 1492. The Alhambra is a city that was designed for the use of the officers and the servants. All the buildings are surrounded by a protective wall that was connected with the “general” protective world around Granada.

Nowadays, there are many changes that the Catholics introduced from 1492. For example, Charles V palace, which is a building of great historical interest, but far more familiar for European people than the Muslin buildings.