Alhambra and Nostalgia

As it turned out, not having tickets to the palaces at the Alhambra worked out fine for us! We still got access to the hilltop fortress known as the Alcazaba, which The Clash would have called the "casbah" (before rocking it). And we got to walk the landscaped and forested grounds, which are beautiful in their own right, and to visit the Generalife, a 13th-century palace on an adjacent slope, which offered great views of the Alhambra (above).

The place was positively teeming with Spanish schoolchildren in big, loud mobs -- and when I looked back in my journals to read about my visit in 1994, I complained about mobs of people then, too. So this is not a new phenomenon.

The cat above sought refuge in the sun beneath a cannon perched on the hillside overlooking the city. Lots of people were taking its picture, and I told Dave, "I bet there will be 600,000 pictures of that cat on Instagram today."

I took plenty of photos, but it's easiest to show you our experience via a short video.

 

First we visit the Alcazaba, or fortress, and go up in the highest tower, from which we get the best views of Granada and the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains. Then we walk a path with artfully trimmed juniper and box hedges to get to the Generalife, where we see its fountains and ornately carved interior.

This is a picture of me, in March 1994, when I was 27 years old and visiting the Albambra for the first time. I'm atop the Torre de la Vela, or bell tower, having come over from Morocco, where I was working in the Peace Corps. I met a friend from Florida and we toured around Spain for a week or two.

Dave and I decided to recreate the picture yesterday:

It's almost the same time of year, so the trees look similar, though some of them are much bigger! No surprise there, after 32 years. I look like I have a pom-pom atop my hat but that's just a tree behind me.

Anyway, after descending from the Alhambra, Dave and I got a coffee and a type of sweet custardy treat called piononos in the Plaza Nueva. Again, back in 1994, I took a photo of a bar facing the plaza, and I wanted to see what it looks like now:

Left, my photo from 1994; right, the same place today

I blogged about this photo years ago, and I knew the bar was no longer there. I'd say the building has lost some character, don't you think?

From there, we headed to the cathedral.

In my journal from my 1994 visit, I described the cathedral like this: "It had a pretty window of orange stained glass in a sunburst shape at the end of the nave, and the walls were white-gray marble. I told (my friend) I wished I could fly when I walk in those huge cathedrals -- with those soaring arches and spaces, you really yearn to touch the ceiling. He said, imagine building such a thing today -- the time and the cost. It really puts into perspective what an indescribable treasure those places are."

I couldn't describe it better now.

After that, Dave went back to the room for a nap and I continued wandering the city on a slight nostalgia binge, visiting the Hotel Reina Cristina, where I stayed back then. I remember watching MTV in the room there -- it was the first time I saw "Beavis and Butthead," and I also remember Bjork's "Violently Happy" and the Cranberries' "Linger" videos being on heavy rotation.

I stopped in the shady Plaza de la Trinidad for a beer and a bocadillo, or small sandwich, and soaked up the atmosphere.

Finally, last night, Dave and I went to a tapas place called Avila around the corner from our hotel. We lined up with a mob of Spaniards for the 8 p.m. opening and got a table right away, and dined on lemon-fried boquerones, or anchovies, as well as chicken fingers with honey-mustard dip and of course a plate of sliced pork. Oh, and sliced tomatoes, just to get a vegetable in.

Today we're headed back to Málaga, and guess what! The trains are out again! At least this time we knew what to do -- we went straight out and hired a car and driver. I did not try to faff around with buses. I'm not thrilled with the added expense but we gotta do what we gotta do.