Today was a full-day trip to Granada for one reason - to visit the magnificent Alhambra! Granada is a 3-hour bus ride away from Seville. We'd booked our Alsa bus tickets online and got to the bus station bright and early.
The bus ride was smooth and comfortable. The bus left on the dot at 8.15am and was expected to arrive in Granada at 11.15am. Would you believe it, as the clock on the bus turned 11.15am, the bus rolled into Granada bus station! And you thought Japan was the only country that kept perfect schedules. I'm beyond impressed.
From Granada bus station, we took a cab to Alhambra. It's a 15-minute ride through narrow alleyways and uphill. One tip: from the ticketing office, it's a 15 to 20 minute walk to the main entrance of the palaces. If you want to save yourself the walk, you can ask the taxi to drop you right outside the entrance of the Palace of Charles V.
A little about Alhambra: it's a palace, fortress and self-contained city all rolled into one, originally built in the 13th century by the Islamic Nasrid emirs of Granada. Similar to Seville, it was made Christian in the 15th century when the Catholics conquered Granada. It's a UNESCO world heritage site.
The main attractions of Alhambra are the Nasrid palaces. Like most tourist attractions in Spain, you need to book in advance and in half hour slots to enter palaces. This sounds very stressful because you can't be late or they won't let you enter, and once you've booked the timeslot, you can't change it. But I guess it allows them to control the crowds. We saw tourists being turned away because they were late. They begged, saying they had travelled all the way from Germany and ran all the way in, but the gatekeepers to Alhambra attractions are as unmoving as the Spanish Inquisition. I suggest giving yourself lots of time to get there. If you book the 2pm timeslot, for example, they will usually let you in from 1.50-2.30pm.
There are three main sections to the palaces, built at different times by successive emirs. Alhambra has been the setting and inspiration for many movies, such as 2016 Assassin's Creed. There's even a popular 2018 korean drama called Memories of the Alhambra based in Granada.
It reminded us a lot of the Alcazar in Seville. The design is distinctly Muslim.
This is the Court of the Lions, which is possibly the most iconic area of the Nasrid Palaces.
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| 12 marble lions symbolise power and sovereignty |
The Nasrid Palaces open out onto a very pretty courtyard and garden.
After the Nasrid Palaces, we walked towards the Generalife ("Architect's Garden"). This used to be the summer palaces of the emirs, and includes a vast stretch of beautifully landscaped gardens with water features.
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| "I'm getting me an orange!" |
The entire visit took us about 4 hours. We were too early for our bus back to Seville, so we decided to have dinner at a restaurant just outside Alhambra...
...with the now customary glass of tinto de verano. Wine glasses are de rigueur on the dining table in Spain. From what I've seen, the Spanish drink alcohol at almost every meal and who can blame them? It's ridiculously cheap here and restaurants don't serve water for free. A glass of wine or tinto de verano costs about €3 versus a soft drink or mineral water which is usually around €2.60! We've seen bottles of wine sold at the supermarket for €2.50 each (about S$3.75). It's unbelievable. Once we return to Singapore, I'll never be able to buy our S$20 bottles of wine without wincing.
Finally, we took a cab back to Granada bus station to catch our 6.30pm return bus to Seville. In case you're wondering, Granada bus station is large, modern and with all the conveniences you need - a cafeteria, clean toilets and so on. We've been very impressed by the Spanish transportation system.
It was another three-hour trip back to Seville, which went without a hitch. I would say that Alhambra is truly a great cultural experience and well worth a visit. If you don't want to stay overnight in Granada, making it a day trip from Seville is very manageable.
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