Granada

We flew from Barcelona to Granada (one hour and ten minute flight) and settled into our hotel in the old part of town. It was quite a small hotel with quite a small room but it had a heated towel rack which made it easy to wash and dry clothes. The owner/manager was very nice, but he was a strange mixture of Basil Fawlty and Manuel - but without Basil's nastiness. I'm not sure if he was from Barcelona or not.

Anyway, we found Granada to be a lovely city; very geared up for tourists but that comes with the territory. We saw over the cathedral, next to which Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand's burial chapel is. It is a very impressive cathedral. Those Roman Catholics know how to do gilt!! (I think I've spelled that right).

The Alhambra fortress and associated palaces is the thing to see here. We hadn't booked two months ahead so the best way to get in (besides queuing at 7.00 am in the morning) was to take a guided tour. This we did the following morning and were very glad we did.

The Alhambra is yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site (we're notching them up). In this case it is so because, constructed in the mid 14th century by the Berber rulers of the emirate of Granada, it is the best preserved moorish ruins in the world. As well as that, it includes extremely well-preserved 16th century and later christian buildings.

Again, it is impressive for its size alone, but also for the amount of building that has survived and the advanced technologies underpinning it - such as its intricate series of water channels that supply the whole city (2000 people at its height). The Spanish government is restoring significant parts but this will take a great deal of time and even more money - not sure how much spare they've got at the moment.

That evening we did the obligatory gypsy flamenco thing in a "cave" but we would have to say that we were a bit underwhelmed. Maybe we saw the real thing or not, but as a piece of theatre I think they might have been going through the motions.

Oh yes, the photo below is another WTF!!? moment. We saw these boomerangs in one of the trashy market stalls that line the laneways behind the main streets. Spanish boomerangs!! Who would have thought? And coincidentally Spain's indigenous people use the same painting techniques and motifs as ours!