This morning started long before sunrise. We had a two and a half to three hour drive to the city of Granada and a timed ticket for the Alhambra palace for 9:30am. With instructions to be there early we left Seville by 5:30am, ugh. Driving in complete darkness almost the entire way there the trip seemed to take forever. We only started to see the countryside we passed through about twenty minutes from our destination and we finally realized just how hilly the area was. In the distance you could even see snow capped mountains!

Thankfully we arrived in plenty of time and were able to park close to the entrance. This, however, was not close to where our timed ticket was for. We still had to walk the entire length of the grounds in order to get into another line just to see the actual palace. There, a lovely older gentlemen told the entire line of people, in five different languages, that if you had a backpack you needed to wear it on your front throughout your entire time in the palace! This definitely made stairs a bit of a challenge but at least I didn’t end up hitting anyone with my bag today.

The Alhambra palace remains of the last Moorish king in Spain. The one who built it went for opulence, even if he had to cheat a little. Many of the materials were not of the strongest quality and this has helped lead to its decay. Many of the more intricate designs were done in a type of plaster so many areas are missing large parts. Restoration, cleaning and archaeology are constantly being done so it seems like one area or another always has some scaffolding concealing a bit of the palace. This did not, entirely, take away from the beauty of what remains.

We didn’t even make it off the palace grounds for lunch but we ended up with an excellent meal anyways.

After lunch we headed into Granada to see the area known as Alcaiceri or Little Marrakech and is known for its North African residents and shops. The shops were a bit of a tourist trap but interesting. Not sure that it is worth heading through unless you are seeing other sights in the town itself.