Spain - Granada

The drive from Valencia to Granada takes around five hours. Nothing much happens in the first four hours and the scenery is pretty bleh. But hey, zero tolls! Once you enter Andalucia though, the scenery becomes a bit more dramatic and beautiful.

Granada is best known for the Alhambra, a fort that's been around since the mid-1200s. It's one of the most visited places in Europe. Even though its tough to impress people who've seen a ton of Mughal architecture in India (Taj, Fatehpur sikri, Agra Fort, etc.), this is still well worth the visit. Also, Granada has been continuously inhabited by humans for the past 2,500 years (wiki.) So there's gotta be some history around here. If none of this excites you, you can get a cerveza and a tapa for 2 euros. Come onnnnnnnn.

Here's a quick summary of what we did, followed by some advice if you visit, fun facts, and some of our favorite pictures.

• Stayed at NH Collection Victoria Hotel
• Tapas at Avila, traditional Spanish food
• Tapas at Om-Kalsum, Moroccan food
• Old Town walking
• Alhambra
• La Tana, traditional Spanish food
• San Miguel de Bajo square
• Mirador de San Nicolas

Advice if you visit

• If you plan to visit Alhambra in the summer, definitely go in the morning time slot. Your options are either 8am or 2pm entry. Additionally, try to get your timeslot for the Nasrid Palaces to be around noon. This will allow you to start the walk at Generalife and work your way down to the palaces.
• If the tickets on Ticketmaster are sold out, you can likely still get them at Tienda librería de la Alhambra. It's a small bookshop near Old Town. They take credit card only (no cash.)
• It's worth bringing your own lunch for the Alhambra tour. Even though there is a cafeteria inside, the options are limited and expensive. There's plenty of free cold water fountains, so be sure to bring a water bottle.
• We enjoyed the food that was tucked away from the main streets. Not only did it have a lot less people, the food was cheaper and just as good. Mohit's favorite tapas place was Bar Avila while Fate's favorite was La Tana.

Fun facts

• Hot pants are all the rage across Spain. But some of them are getting seriously out of control... and not in a good way ;)
• We play a people watching game with categories like: spot the most ridiculous hot pants, or find the first Indian family. But we hit a jackpot in the Alhambra. We spotted the elusive, serious umbrella-hat wearer!
• At Om-Kalsum you can get eight tapas and a bottle of wine for 14 euro, or swap the wine to a pitcher of beer and the price drops down to 12.5 euros. 

Summary of pictures

You see a lot of orchards or olive tree fields driving around in Andalucia 

Here begins the main highlight of Granada, the palace/fortress Alhambra visit

You got to have symmetry unnatural in nature in gardens 

This was the leisure area for the kings

Asian tourists hiding behind the bushes

They typical Persian garden layout

On to the fortress area

You get great views of Arab quarter

Some of these were rooms for soldiers and scarily tiny

Entering the Nasrid Palaces

This ceiling is an illusion we don't remember how to explain

Pictures don't do it justice

Interesting to see Islamic architecture with Spanish tiles

Our future backyard

Past residents of Alhambra

Charles V had to make his own style of palace in the compound too

Alhambra at night as seen from a hill on Arab quarter 

We had to watch our toes when cars drove past