La Alhambra

La Alhambra, ¿porque no demé suerte? Well, as you may have guessed, I wasn´t too lucky during this trip to Granada. Being one of the only three attractions of this city, which incidentally was the last foothold of Ottoman soil in Europe, the Alhambra is la mejor of them all. (The other two being the real Sierra Nevada and the Federico García Lorca´s home.)

Anyhow, this was the third time I had to hike for 25 minutes (5 mins from where I´m staying to Calle San Anton, another 10 from Calle San Anton to Calle de la Alhambra, and finally another 10 mins to go arriba la montaña.) Dios mio. Why the third time? Apparently you can´t just go any time you like (3pm in my case) and queue up hoping you get a general ticket. (The general ticket is the same as a garden ticket plus access to the Palacios Nazarínes and Palacio del Generalife, the 2 main attractions of the Alhambra.) The only sane way to get it other than queueing up bfore it opens at 2 PM and hoping that you are among the first 50 is to book it at least 2 days in advance from a travel agent or any BBVB (un banco) branch in Granada.

Guess what, I procrastinated until the 2nd and final week of my stay in Granada. The result: three gruelling 25 min hikes on 3 separate days only to end up with a garden ticket on the last since the only other choice was to leave Granada w/o visiting the Alhambra. Despite not being able to have seen the main attractions of the main attraction, the 3 gardens (Alcazaba, Jardines del Partal, and the Generalife Garden) offered a scenic and unforgettable experience (nevermind the fact that I managed to tour the whole Alhambra minus the palaces in just under 3 hours, when it usually takes 4).

Ai, and I also missed today´s evening cultural tour on the history of Granada. Darn.