NOTE TO READERS: Former Clay County, Fla., school board member Wayne Bolla is on a sailing trip to the Mediterranean Sea, along with a couple of friends. He will chronicle his adventures in an occasional article on this web site. This is the third article, a visit to Granada, Spain.

By WAYNE BOLLA

Granada

The winner takes all and gets to tell everyone what happened. According to the Spanish, the last Moorish king to govern Granada surrendered the fortress Alhambra to the Spanish without a fight, and “cried like a baby” as he left paradise on earth.

We arrived at the airport aboard a Vueling Airlines commuter jet from Barcelona, Spain.

The Fortress Alhambra overlooking Granada at night. (Photo by Wayne Bolla)

Most Americans, of my generation will ask, “Why didn’t you take the train?” In Europe right now there is something of a price war going on between the railways and the Airlines. Flying, as in America, is roughly half the price of getting there by rail and a whole lot faster. A three euro bus ride brought us from the airport to the central business district with lots of new construction on the outskirts of the city and  stately four- to five-story older buildings downtown.

Our 50 euros hotel, the Molinos, turned out to be clean but a bit noisy. If you find yourself sitting around your hotel wishing you had a fancier room, it’s probably time to get up off of that thing and go do something.  The first order of business after the bus let us out on the Grand Via was to stop at the nearest newsstand and get a map so we could find our hotel. The second was to ask from the guy we bought the map from for directions. I read some place that you could get by in Spain on about 138 words of Spanish. With that I can just about carry on a conversation with the neighbor’s 3-year-old.  So when the next foreign tourist says to you with an anxious look on his face, “I like toileta?” give him a break.

A Granada street scene. (Photo by Wayne Bolla)

Most of the older sections of the cities in Spain are part of or were built over Roman ruins with narrow streets, which, although fairly straight, seldom run parallel to each other. After getting lost the second time, we spotted a young mother trying to negotiate a baby carriage down a flight of stairs.  After helping her we pointed on our new map to where we wanted to go and in perfect English she said just follow me.  She turned out to be from Southern California studying Spanish at the University of Granada. Granada has one of the biggest and best universities in all of Europe and has the feel of maybe Gainesville, Florida, or Madison, Wisconsin. Granada has a big student population with lots of young people and many businesses catering to the student condition.

That night we walked most of the way through narrow terraced residential streets to the walls of the Alhambra. On these walls graffiti has reached almost to a fine art form.  On the way down we stopped at an outdoor restaurant complex set up in the church courtyard. Maybe four cafes, which seemed to be working out

A restaurant on the way down from the Alhambra. (Photo by Wayne Bolla)

of the same kitchen, an apartment that opened onto a side street off the square.  I suspect dad worked the bar, the son was the waiter, and mom worked the kitchen.  She sure could cook!

A Little History

Granada, founded in pre-historic times, is located in the foot hills of Sierra Nevada Mountain chain in southern Spain, about 60 miles north of the channel that separates Europe from Africa. It has a great mix of new and old and each neighborhood has a unique feel. The Romans took over from the Visigoths, the Moors took over from the Romans, and then the Spanish took over from the Moors in 1492. It was a very good year for Ferdinand and Isabelle.

Parks andgarden at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, one of the largest tourist attractions in Spain. (Photo by Wayne Bolla)

The Alhambra

By far the biggest and best attraction is the site of the Moorish Kings seat of government, the Alhambra.

You have to reserve tickets via the internet to get into parts of the Alhambra. Unlike Disney, they strictly limit the number of guests that are in sections of the Alhambra so you get a much higher quality of experience than jamming through serene spaces with 300 other babbling tourists. My impression was that the Alhambra was one of the first planned communities, combining a fort for security, private palace residents for the best of the best, and common gardens/parks throughout the complex. There was a common plumbing system in this near desert environment that to this mechanical engineer was nothing short of awesome. Every major room in the King’s palace had a “water feature.”

Granada was recommended to us by at least two “experienced” travelers as a not to miss place in Spain.  It has my vote.