Granada means pomegranate in Spanish... Situated at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains (which explains why it is a lot colder than the rest of the Southern Spanish cities that we've visited!), it is a Moorish city...
The whole city has very strong Moorish influences and Morisco constructions can be found throughout the city...
And of course, the world famous Alhambra... now a UNESCO World Heritage Site... is what makes Granada a hot tourist spot...
I think I vaguely remember studying about Alhambra in Sejarah during high school in the Islamic chapters... If I remember correctly, it's supposed to be the place where the Islamic artists and intellectual scholars used to congregate during the Muslim rule in the Europe...
We had to wake up at about 5.30am in the morning to get there as our allocated visiting slot was 7.30am in the morning... our hostel was on the opposite side of the town where the Alhambra is, and the palace is actually on top of the hill! This meant that we had to allow ourselves time to trek up to the palace...
Thankfully, the palace is really beautiful and it made our early morning efforts worth it... Moorish poets used to described it as "a pearl set in emeralds"... and not to disappoint... there are many gardens complete with cascading fountains and reflecting pools to keep to its theme of "paradise on earth"...
Due to its mountainous site, the temperature here was significantly lower... and so when the sun came out... we wasted no time to sit around in the sun to warm ourselves up! :P
The Alhambra mixes natural elements with man-made ones... the art and decorations within the palace are a testament of the skills of Muslim craftsmen of that time...
Do we look like directors??? hehehehe...
Since we woke up so early... the guys couldn't resist taking a nap in the sun! hehehehe....
We didn't do much after spending half a day at the Alhambra... the remaining of our time was spent walking around the city centre and shopping (again!)... although by now, we have all conclude that the shopping king is Wally as he ended up with more shopping than anyone else including the girls!!!
Well... this concludes our Espana Extravaganza of touring Andalusia... think I'm catching it from the Brits... but I find myself loving Spain more and more!!! :)
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