Spain: The Feeling of Granada
I can’t tell you the sigh of relief we felt leaving Barcelona. We were pretty anxious about staying in the city after new updates after the terror attack on the victims, perpetrators, and the potential for more attacks. But, after flying from Barcelona to Málaga, we immediately felt at ease.
After landing and hitting the road in our rental car, we made our first pitstop in Nerja for lunch. Nerja is a quiet little beach town an hour away from the larger city of Málaga. Sitting on the Balcón de Europa we had the best view of the Mediterranean with great seafood to boot. Walking through the heart of town, we saw much more national pride flying the Spanish flag as opposed to the dominant Catalan separatist flag flying throughout Barcelona.
After our pitstop on the coast, we drove north and inland into Granada. It was set to be scorching hot during our time there, so luckily we got to our Airbnb place before the hottest part of the day. We spent most of the days indoors staying cool, and only ventured out in the mornings and evenings, which limited our sightseeing a bit. However, we were still able to see a lot in this beautiful Moorish city.
The place we kept returning to was Plaza de Bib-Rambla at the center of the city. It’s a really peaceful place during the day with its central fountain serving as a focal point, and shops and restaurants lining the plaza.
I found this quaint artisan shop at the plaza with trinkets that captured the spirit of Granada. Check out this little cutie!
Granada is one of the most popular places in Spain to experience flamenco. Thus, one of the favorite parts of our trip thus far has been the traditional flamenco show we saw in Granada. We got to the Casa del Arte Flamenco for the first show of the night, and it was nothing short of spectacular! Hailing from a long lineage of famous flamenco guitarists, we had the honor of listening to the melodic strums of Rafalín Habichuela all night long. We also really lucked out because there was a visiting singer — who I’ll call El Mexicano — and he pierced our hearts with his rich baritone and soul-baring voice. If that wasn’t enough, the dancers were off the charts amazing! El Caballero was really, really good, but La Dama was the dancer who really stole the show. She had sharp features that matched the timber of her heels every time she perfectly pounded the floor. Their unparalleled performances come together to define this feeling of el duende, or the spirit of evocation. It gave us chills and touched our souls so much so that we felt the pain of their life struggles expressed in every flamenco beat.
After the show we walked through the Albaicin quarter, which was buzzing with nightlife. It really felt like we were walking somewhere in the Middle East because the Moors left their mark on every corner. For example, Calle Calderería Nueva has a middle-eastern style market with lots of goodies for sale. And, the Alcaiceria served as a modern recreation of past Moorish silk markets lined with local shops selling salt, silver, spices and silk. The tiny shopping lanes are packed with merchants and shoppers giving it a very middle eastern vibe, too. Although stores mainly sold commercialized products for the tourists, the character of the place still remained faithful to its Moorish heritage.
There was a nice little shaded courtyard where the tourist info center was located called the Corral del Carbon, which is one of the only surviving structures where ancient merchants stopped to rest their camels on the Silk Road. And, we also got to try good Moroccan food at Restaurante Arrayanes with appetizers that really hit the spot: hummus, baba ganoush, salad shirazi, and some sort of carrot-cinnamon salad mixture. Noms!
If East met West and had a love child it would be Granada. No better example of that was in our next stop — the #1 location to visit in Granada. The Alhambra is a historical fortress-palace that served as the capital of Spain after the Spanish reconquered the lands from the Moors in 1492. The Alhambra felt like ancient Roman and ancient Middle Eastern civilizations came together to create a cultural amalgam of epic magnificence.
It was very necessary to take a three-hour guided tour of Alhambra and pre-book tickets well in advance because the place was a zoo! It was hard to find our tour guide at the beginning, and there were plenty of times I got lost in the fray. But, luckily we had earbuds in directing us to his location and to learn more about the sights. Even with the crowds and rapidly rising temperatures, the Alhambra tour was worth it. There was so much to see throughout the compound. Every room was decked out with such ornate detail that it was physically impossible to comprehend it all!
Muslim architecture uses geometric patterns and the written word to adorn their buildings because capturing the image of God and those in his image (e.g. people) is considered to be blasphemous. Thus, there are some 10,000 inscriptions carved into the walls, ceilings, and floors of the Alhambra. It has taken scholars centuries to go through and interpret everything that has been written on it, and they’re only a quarter of the way done! It’s as if you’re walking through the pages of history; turning the corner into a every new room feels as if you’re turning the pages of a book. Here’s our tour guide at one point singling out the word “Allah” or “God,” which is written about 800–900 times throughout the site.
Courtyard after courtyard and garden after garden, they were as endless and as gorgeous as the building interiors.
Our favorite find in the gardens were the trees with the city’s signature fruit: pomegranate or granada.
And the view of the city from the palace was incredibly beautiful as well.
The final morning of our visit, we visited the Capilla Real. This is where the tombs of King Fernando and Queen Isabella reside. Their wooden coffins were on display in a glassed-off room downstairs from their tomb effigies. There were no pictures allowed inside the Royal Chapel, and I thought it disrespectful to snap a picture of their wooden coffins — which another couple secretly did (bad patrons!). So instead, here’s a professional photo from a random tourist site.
I had to take a seat and just let the emotions wash over me. The royal decision altered the course of human history and set in motion the domino effect of the colonization of the New World. They were the original venture capitalists subsidizing Columbus’ voyage to find a new route to India for the spice trade. While he’ll go down in history as a corrupt despot who abused his power and people of the West Indies, the royals didn’t fall much from grace and enjoy their legacy in a beautifully built tomb in the capital of their former kingdom.
I couldn’t help thinking about how their lives connected to my own. Without their vision and risky investment in Columbus, the Spanish would have never washed over the New World spreading their love, hate, and everything in between. Intertwining so much so that they created imperialist systems while at the same time creating new races and ethnicities! The entire mestizo identity sprang from that fateful decision and I felt this pivotable point in history along with what came after it flooding over me as I wept in the chapel. Their legacy came full circle as a brown girl of native and Spanish descent from the Americas stood in front of His and Her Royal Highness in their royal chapel. Overwhelmed is an understatement!
