The Last Kingdom

April 16.17, 2009

Granada, Spain

Did you know that, for awhile in the 1200’s or so, the part of Spain ruled by the Moors was the most civilized in Europe? They had Universities, built beautiful buildings and in general had a prosperous thing going. This was at a time when most of Europe was in the dark ages. In the 1300’s the last Moorish kingdom fell to the Christian armies and their final stronghold was Granada.

La Alhambra sits on the hill that dominates the city. It is a vast complex of palaces, walls, gateways and forts all in various stages of ruination or restoration. Touring the area is not always easy since they only sell 2,000 tickets a day to the public and you have a certain time that you must be at one palace or you can’t get in at all. We had to walk up the hill, in the dark, at 6:30 am to get a ticket when the office opened at 8:30.

I have to say the Moors really knew how to live. The palaces all have extensive systems of fountains, pools and channels of water throughout. There is even a staircase where the banister is open at the top and water runs down the inside of the railing. The gardens are amazingly intricate and there are enough fruit trees to keep everyone stocked up on their Vitamin C. The fort looks like one out of a young boy’s adventure book - complete with dungeons and towers. Starting to get the picture?

Washington Irving, the American writer, lived here among the ruins for a few months in the 1880’s and wrote a number of books and stories based on it. There is even a little plaque on the wall of the one room commemorating it.

The old city beneath the fort is full of narrow cobblestone streets and buildings dating from the period after the Moors when the Spanish Court was based here. There are tons of restaurants, statues and plazas to make it picture perfect. On the other hand, it can be expensive and there are many tourists.

Nice place. Glad we stopped. Didn’t mean to originally but the bus trip to Barcelona was going to be too long by itself and we ended up taking two days here. Now we get on an all night bus trip to Barcelona. Love in sleeping in my clothes.