Granada and its graffiti

The main reason to go to Granada is to visit the Alhambra and it was certainly worthwhile as I needed up spending a whole day there. I bought my ticket online prior to visiting for 14 euros then collected it on arrival from a ticket machine. It was an afternoon ticket, which meant I could only enter the Alcazaba and Palace of the Goodlife after 2 pm and my entry to the Palaces of Nasrid was at 2 pm precisely. After the steep climb up the Alhambra, as it is on a promontory overlooking Granada and its surrounds, I then spent the next few hours looking around the “free” part. This included the Palace of Carlos V, which was built in 1492 after the Catholics took over, and the nearby church both of which were newer and constructed during the Christian era of the complex. Stone lion faces with rings through their noses decorated the Palace Carlos V, which was basically just a square block but had a nice circular courtyard inside. Nearby and much older from the Muslim era was the remains of a Hammam or traditional bath house. The remains of one bath could be seen with some blue and white tiles still attached. There were nice gardens in between with blooming roses in many colours under the shade of some larger trees. A climbing plant with purple flowers also hung down covering some of the shaded walls.

However it was the Palaces of Nasrid that is the real attraction. They date from the 13th and 14th centuries when the Moors and Islam ruled southern Spain, hence it has many of the same features of buildings seen in Morocco. It is a rambling mass of palaces, courtyards, balconies . . . . . . With pools, fountains, climbing plants and hedges in the courtyards, often with a portico at one end with a series of arches looking towards the courtyard.

Very attractive, very serene and very relaxing. It is so easy just to sit by and relax, as long as you could get out of the hot sun (it was high 30s). Inside the buildings was where the major decoration occurred. In fact it reminded me of the slowly disintegrating Glaoui palace at Telouet in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. Mosaic tiling in greens, blue, black, white and mustard is geometric designs covered the lower metre and a half of the walls.
Higher was carved stucco or plasterwork with a mixture of symbolic representations of plants, calligraphy symbols and geometric designs including lines and shapes. Sometimes this is used as borders, at other times it will be the top metre and a half on walls, often with arch shapes incorporating different patterns.
Then there was the wood ceilings, either with intricately painted designs painted on the wood or with wood pieces fitted together to form geometric design on the roof. When looking at this it has to be remembered that Islam forbids the depiction of human or animal figures, hence the extensive use of geometric designs. Outside were more reflection pools surrounded by designed and manicured gardens with meandering paths, often with hedged borders forming triangle or square or semi-circular shaped mini gardens. More flowers, in addition to roses there was blue plumbago cascading down a wall, palm trees towering above a pool, citrus trees, the smelly flowering privet, pencil pines lining walkways, lavender, jasmine - so all very pretty, especially when the twinkling of water from fountains are interspersed regularly.

The huge park areas around the Alhambra including the large trees are actually irrigated with huge sprinklers to keep them green, unlike the surrounding countryside which is very brown, just like southern Australia in Summer. The Nasrid Palace and surrounding medina was home to the noblemen and their families, the Alcazaba was the military garrison and the Generalife was the palace and garden area in which the Granadian kings relaxed. The entire complex is surrounded by high earthen ramparts with many watch towers interspersed. This sets it up as an ideal fortress.

The Generalife Palace

Granada also had a HUGE cathedral that was quite spectacular inside, an interesting archeological museum, lots more churches and lots of outdoor cafes to sit at in the evening as the temperature slowly cooled. I couldn’t believe how many icecream shops there were - not sure what happens to them in Winter!

From Rabat to Granada

From Rabat to Tangier it was about a 5 hour trip with no changes of train, arriving about 1 pm. Then came the saga of getting a taxi from the train station to the port. Of course a tout approached me and said 50 dirhams to the port in a Grand Taxi but I told him I wanted a petit taxi so I joined all the locals out on the street corner in front of the station. No lines or order of any form here, but instead it is all for oneself. Some taxis that already have one passenger in stop to see if anyone else is going in the same direction. Eventually I got one on my own to the port and the driver gave me a guided tour of Tangier (in French) as we drove along - the Grand Socco is up there, the Kasbah there and that is the Hotel Continental . . . . . . And most surprising of all is that I understood most of what he was saying! On arrival at the port I gave him 20 dirhams, which was how much I wanted to pay and since he was busy negotiating with a couple of potential passengers he only looked when I put in in his hand and didn’t argue!

A simple task to get the ticket - I got a return one for 760 dirham as that got a 10% discount. Then through immigration to line up next to the ferry to get on. While waiting I meth this American guy, who had also got on the train in Rabat, and talked to him while on the ferry trip. He is a post graduate student who had been awarded a fellowship to come to Morocco for one month and study Arabic, while the weekends were spend sightseeing around Morocco - the desert, Fes, Marrakesh etc. leaving about 2.15, the ferry crossing was smooth with blue seas and blue skies but because of the one hour time change it arrived in Tarifa at almost 4. It is theoretically a 35 min crossing.

I spent the night in Tarifa staying at Hotel/Pension Focunda where I got a room for 30 euros walking in off the street, which was cheaper than normal price. My room had an attached bathroom but most in the hotel had shared facilities. It had a very central location. I couldn’t believe how touristy Tarifa now is, but it is probably 3 years since I last passed through there. Every third shop seems to be a kite surfing shop offering lessons and gear. Plus lots of cafes and other shops but the town has a nice relaxing feel about it and the old part is fun to explore.

Leaving Tarifa early next morning, I caught the 8 am public bus to Algeciras, then a 12 noon train from there to Granada. The bus trip from Tarifa only took about 30 min, past the wind turbines and even through the clouds for a short while. I had a wander around Algeciras as had plenty of time - the port there is huge!!

The train trip to Granada took 4.5 hours and can be divided into two halves: the first half to Ronda and the second half to Granada. Most of the first half involved winding through the mountains, through at least 10 tunnels, past flowing mountain streams bordered by baby pink and crimson flowering oleander, through villages with two storey white-washed houses with tiled roofs and stopping at small stations where there buildings were always white with mustard trim.

Every station was clearly signposted and sometimes we had to wait for another train, with names such as Gaucin, Cortes de la Frontera, Jimera de Libar and Benaojan. There was a couple of structures we travelled over that I would call a cross between a tunnel and a bridge - closed in on one side and the roof, the other side was semi-open with archhways looking out across the scenery. We past a few cork trees, where all the lower bark had been removed (to make cork) revealing a dark tan layer underneath unlike the rough grey bark above. There were also many gum trees, some with pale yellow flowers. A very scenic section of the trip.

Ronda I had visited previously, a lovely white village but the train takes about 30 minutes to wind up to the plateau on which Ronda is found. Leaving Ronda and almost all the way to Granada, the rolling hills were home to thousands of olive trees: olives in rows, olives in grids, single olive trees, clumps of three olive trees, recently planted olive trees - they just went on and on. Now I can see why the production of olive oill is such a big industry for Spain. Mind you in the stony, dry, sandy soil I am not sure they could grow anything else anyway!

After a very pleasant train trip, I finally arrived in Granada where the next saga was to find the hotel I had booked. That is an another story The train was very comfortable, air-conditioned, fast but no food or drink was available on the train. A highly recommended train trip and it cost just under 20 euros.