Our last day in Spain is also a transition day – and a long one at that. Up early to get showered, packed and out to the Alhambra in time for our 9 am visiting time to the Nazrid palace. We had no idea what that actually meant until we got there but afterwards it all made sense. There reallly are no words to describe the Alhambra adequately – Versaille is the closest comparison I can think of but that still doesn’t fit as the timing and the details are wrong although the scale is pretty close.
It is a set of palaces that were first built in the 13th century and then added to by a series of sultans before the Christians took over in the 1500s and built their own buildings (churches of course and Charles V needed his own palace.) While factual and correct, that description even come close to describing the amazing architecture, ceramic work, and intricate moldings and carvings that cover every square inch of wall floor and ceiling in every room of all the palaces. The lion plaza was all dug up as they were restoring the lions and doing archaeology work in the courtyard so we couldn’t fully appreciate what is apparently the centerpiece of the palaces but we were impressed nonetheless.
The views from the tower walls of the mountains and the city of Granada were breathtaking. And there were the gardens of the Generalife (???) which were nothing short of stunning with flower arbors and beautifully trimmed hedges on multiple levels and fountain after fountain. The guidebooks suggest planning for 3 hours for your visit – we were just shy of 4 hours and we didn’t even try to see everything – there were entire sections that we didn’t have the energy for – even after stopping for a cafe con leche and a snack!
What was almost as impressive as the sight itself is the precision with which the tourists are handled by the staff. I’m sure there are military manouvers that aren’t as well planned and orchestrated! The timed entry tickets to the palaces make sense because there are so many visitors that you need to control the flow of people through the buildings – we were in a time slot that was not sold out and it was still very crowded. I’m tempted to make a joke about the two Japanese tour groups we had to contend with but I think I’ll leave well enough alone! In addition to having a specific time slot for palace entry, there are sitogns everywhere helping you to “decide” how to continue your visit. No decision really – you will go through the grounds in the order and manner that has been dictated for you. There are a few places where you actually get to choose where to wander on your own but they aren’t the important things that you want to see.
And keep those tickets handy! There are several sections that you are clearly told that you only get to visit once and they scan your ticket before granting access to those areas. And they scan them again at random other points in the grounds and we weren’t quite sure why. All in all though, it made the extra drive to Granada well worth it – even if the MC Escher exibit in the Charles V palace was temporarily closed because they had just finished a music festival there… 😦
And so we wandered around Granada a bit more – making sure we made the most of our last day in Spain before having our last late lunch (with sangria of course!) and then beginning the drive south to Malaga for the flight home. I wish I could say I was looking forward to it but that would be lying. If you have never flown Ryan Air, think of Greyhound but with wings. They really define “budget” airline – there is a charge for *everything* including water, priority boarding and online check-in. This is the airline that was rumored to be considering coin operated lavatories and standing room tickets. Yup, that cheap. We didn’t choose it for the price but the destinations: it’s one of the few airlines that still flies into Prestwick airport which is no more that 5 miles from my cousin’s house and therefore extremely convenient! I didn’t like the 9:30 pm departure time which meant that someone would have to come pick us up at midnight but Stephen’s a champ and came through even though he has to work tomorrow.
But the big question remained: what about the sword? We had paid for a checked bag each (more than the actual tickets I think) but now we had 5 checked pieces. Two hours before the flight was due to depart, they opened one ticket counter for check in (yup, one) and we all queued up. After about 30 minutes, it was our turn. We had no problem with the actual cases as we had worked very hard to make sure they were all under 20k (I paid extra for the 20k limit – it’s cheaper if your cases are less than 15k but we couldn’t be sure). But we had 5 items not 4. Had we declared this when we booked the tickets, it would have been an extra 45 euro – assuming they would let it on the plane. Now we had this weird green shrinkwrapped thing (we paid the guy at the airport to wrap it in cellophane to protect it) and it wasn’t expected and doesn’t look like a suitcase. They stared at it, asked what it was – it had become a “decorative wall hanging” for this situation – and decided that they’d let it on but of course we’d have to pay the “2nd bag paid at the airport” fee of 80 euro! Grrrr…. It almost made me wish we had paid the 140 in Toledo and avoided all the pain. The guy behind the counter looked at me expectantly as if I actually had a decision to make – if I didn’t pay, it didn’t go ergo, we paid. Frank owes me big time for this one….
After that the flight was relatively uneventful. We grabbed bad airport food before standing in another queue to get on the plane and participate in the free-for-all of finding seats. Luckily we got two sets of two right in front of each other and the three hours of boredom began. But we landed on time in blissfully cool 14c weather and were promptly collected and taken to the Bargh household where minor revalry commenced before a very late bedtime.
Three things we noticed today:
- Tourists in a particular city run into the same tourists everywhere. The couple in the lobby of our hotel when we checked in were on our tour of the Alhambra then next day. The family sitting at the table next to us in a restaurant for dinner we see in the shops later that day. It’s a little creepy actually.
- RyanAir is an example of the ulitimate in capitalism: bare bones, no frills and they even sell advertising space on the overhead bin doors so it’s a little like flying in a subway car – especially since the seats don’t move.
- European airport security doesn’t want you to take off your shoes. Really, please don’t.
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