Whirlwind Tour

After a huge snack supper in the hotel bar, washed down with a bottle of cheap Rioja from a nearby gas station shop, we touched base with home, thanks to the excellent in house wi-fi network, with its rigorous security protocols (one device only per user). Then we turned in, coping with the heat of the night, rather than the noise and chill of the zealous air conditioning system. We were up at dawn and heading out into the rush hour traffic for the last 11km stretch into Granada, by 8.30am, making for the Alhambra's hillside car park. By 9.10am we were walking down the tree shaded path below the Palace walls, enjoying the cool mist from irrigation system sprinklers which bathe the trees with water during the day. A very special way to start and finish a walking tour around Granada, where summer temperatures of 35-40C are considered normal.

We followed the road up the side of the Darro river which flows through the valley below the walls of the Alhambra Palace, then climbed up through the Albayzin barrio for a beer and a tapa in the Plaza Larga, before visiting the Mirador San Nicolas to take a selfie or two to send to the family. Owain is the only one not to have been with us on various previous outings to Granada. I was so glad at last to put this right.

Work on San Nicholas church has progressed somewhat since I was here this time last year. The chancel rood has been removed entirely and reconstructive work on the top of the walls goes on before a new beams and tiling can be added. Before making our way down to the city through the back streets of the barrio, I took Owain to show him the new Granada mosque which is quite near the Mirador. It's not open to the public at the moment, only at the prescribed times for prayer for Eid el Fitr. 

Outside there was a young woman, plainly dressed, wearing a hijab, engaging three girls in English whom I think were American or maybe Spanish tourists, dressed down, as westerners do, for the heat, reliant on the mercy of sun-cream to compensate for their lack clothing. It was, apparently, a dialogue of the deaf, which left the young muslim woman with a look of exasperation on her face.

I wished her 'Eid Mubarak' and we chatted with her for a while. From her speech, she might have been an English speaking Swiss German or Austrian convert, in search of a new authentic way of life, and eager to give an account of her new lifestyle choices to anyone willing to take her on. It's one of those cases of learning by doing. She had a lot to say, overlaid with presumptions about the nature of others' faith, but wasn't too good at listening, yet. 

After a while we parted company, with a mutual blessing. I wondered about her journey of faith and who was helping her on her way. Owain and I spoke about spiritual struggle in Christian spirituality and jihad in Islam, as we wound our way down steep narrow streets to the main street. From there we made a brief excursion into the old town area where the Cathedral and Chapel Royal of Los Reyes Catolicos are situated, but as it was getting really hot we decided this was enough of a taster visit for Owain, and headed back up to the car park.

On the way there, I found an open door in a gateway which gave us access into the area in between the Alhambra Palace and the Alcazaba fortress known as the Patio de Machuca. I recognised where we were, but had forgotten this part was open to the public without the need for booking tickets. This enabled Owain to have a glimpse at the domain from the inside, which was most pleasing to be able to share. By 1.30pm we were on our way out of Granada, heading for the autovia that would take us back to Salobrenia on the coast, and on to Nerja. It's such a spectacular journey to share. We parked in the main surface car park in Nerja, walked about and saw something of the beaches and the Balcon de Europa, before lunching on beer and tapas at Biznaga in the Plaza El Salvador, which is a favourite place for Clare and I.

Suitably refreshed we headed back to Malaga, at a lazy pace alone the coast road all the way. We ended up hunting for petrol in rush hour traffic, having missed an opportunity to refuel on our way into town, and this took us all over the inner city, nearly on empty. It was gone six when we reached the apartment. Owain went for a swim while I did some Monday shopping, then later we ventured out in the cool of the evening to eat at the Cafeteria Flor across the street. The food was excellent. It was a little too noisy for eating out doors for my comfort. Owain was happy however, tucking into a generous portion of pez espada, one of our family favourites - swordfish. A nice memory to take with him back to Bristol. It's been lovely to have quality time together. More of the same would do us both good, I reckon.

  

  

Granada revisited

After another humid night's sleep I woke up at first light and resolved to go out for the day. By 8.30, I was on my way to revisit Granada, enjoying the spectacular views which the Autovia gives as it rises through the Alpujarras, skirting huge reservoirs on long tall viaducts. Nowhere to stop and take photos unfortunately. Next time I must make sure to take a passenger or have someone else drive.

The Autovia goes over the 860m pass known as the Puerto del Suspiro del Moro before descending to the plain where most of the modern city lies. It's said to be the last place on the east-west highway from which the Alhambra Palace on the hillside above the plain, can be seen. The Moor's sigh was that of Boabdil, the last muslim ruler of the city as he went into exile after the city was conquered by a Christian army. It was none too easy in the morning haze to identify anything in the distance eight miles away.

I followed the bypass road which took me straight to the Alhambra Palace, aware that I'd find parking there, or at the large public cementario close by, but I missed the turning first time and ended up on a tour of the city centre, before finding my way to a tree shaded space inside the permiter of the Palace tourism area. From there I walked right down into the old quarter and up the other side into the Albayzin, where we stayed ten years ago when Anto and I came out for a flamenco guitar course. Here are the photos from that occasion, back in September 2004.

Despite recently reviewing the photos I took at that time, only as I walked around did my memory seem to re-activate and associate with the environment. The mini market where we used to buy food during our stay seems to have closed. It was too early in the day for many of the restaurants to have even laid out their tables. Miguel's bar was closed too, but I found the Bar de las Quatros Esquinas open near the top entrance to the barrio, serving breakfast and morning coffee to local clientele. It's a district still remarkably free of garish advertising. There are still a number of tumbledown properties being renovated, as ever in a quarter of old buildings, but they are different ones. It all feels well cared for. If there is prosperity behind the walls facing the streets, it's not for display.

Right down the bottom end of the barrio, I discovered an open gateway to the garden and ducal Palacio de los Cordova in it, which I don't recall being open a decade ago. It may have been under renovation at the time. It was handed over to the city for development as a city archive centre back in the late seventies. It was lovely to discover such a fine place. I look back at my old photos and realise how much we did see, but there's still so much more to see, as the city is so rich in historic buildings as well as those of the Alhambra Palace. Photos from my birthday visit in 2005 are here.

From the Albayzin, I made my way down into that part of the city centre containing the Cathedral, which feels so closely wedged into the surrounding streets. It's an immense building, but in a way it fails to be imposing as it might be because there are few places from where you can get a perspective on its grandeur, much like Malaga, Valencia and Tortosa Cathedrals, visited in recent years. Attached to one end of the Cathedral is a grand Capilla Real (Chapel Royal) dating from just after the reconquista, 1505.  It's the last resting place of Fredinand and Isabella and several others, honoured by the Pope with the Catholic Monarchs in tribute to the achievement ending moorish rule in Spain. Later Spanish monarchs were interred at the El Escorial monastery near Madrid.

The Cathedral, in Spanish renaissance style, rather than Gothic, was established soon after, on the site of the city's main mosque, and took a century and a half to build. Unlike others, it wasn't a site that was once a church being reclaimed from Islam. Like others, this site was at the heart of the ancient 'central business district' as we'd call it today. Clearing a much larger site to give the new buildings a decent aspect would have been an imposition not worth risking for the conquering monarchs.

It's interesting to observe, since my last visit, that many of the streets in this now fashionable stylish old trading area have sun canopies suspended from their sixth storey roofs. It's not something I recall from a decade ago. The persistence of higher than average temperatures inland call for some measure of this kind from a public health perspective, with so many visitors all day every day, who are not always as sensible about going out in the heat of the day, and don't take a siesta. Neverthless the light brown canvas awnings providing shade detract from the aesthetics of the built environment. It will be interesting to see in the long term what innovations emerge to provide a pleasing solution. 

Malaga has opted for avenues of well managed trees, over and above the traditional ones in places where people walk or ride their horses. In Granada, the hillside on which the Alhambra Palace sits is covered with trees shading visitors as they walk to and from the town. The hill has a good supply of water and both trees and ground vegetation get a good soaking during the day. This may be too costly a solution in times of water scarcity, however. Learning to live in cities with consequences of global warming is of of the great challenges facing the next generation. Perhaps we'll start building downwards into the cool earth, and cover our public spaces and buildings with huge photo-voltaic translucent powering them - Hobbit cities.

By one o'clock, I'd been walking non stop for three hours and the temperature was rising. Rather than exhaust myself, I headed back to Nerja and a late lunch, already thinking about a further visit with Clare and another sojourn in the Albayzin, fondly remembered. Photos from today's visit are here.