GRANADA
The Alhambra
The History
The Alhambra is the most well preserved example of Moorish architecture and, considering everything that has happened to it in the last five hundred years, that’s quite a feat. Today the Alhambra is made up of three sections and spans the entire mountaintop, but the first groundwork is thought to have begun in the 4th century as a military stronghold. The first mention of the structure in text happens in the 9th century with the establishment of the Alcazaba, the fortress like exterior that we see today. Then in the 13th century the interior palaces, under the Nasrid Dynasty, began construction. The Islamic Golden Age lasted about 200 years, in which many palaces, buildings, and courtyards are built on the grounds. Eventually the Christians showed up, battle ensued, and Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada and unified Spain under the Catholic Monarchy. That was the last of the Nasrid Dynasty. That was in 1492. The year Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Busy year for Ferd and Izzy.
The Moors were persecuted and forced into exile, which is why you see the Moorish trail throughout the southern tip of Spain and down into Morocco, where most of the exiled ended up. The Alhambra was abandoned, being used as a makeshift prison, barns for nearby cattle, and eventual bunker for Napoleon’s troops, to which we have to thank for much defacing and destruction of the complex.
The Tickets
As soon as you decide you’re going to check out this treasure, buy your tickets. Tickets are available on their website for up to a year in advance but can sellout easily as there is a limited number sold each day. When I went in December 2021, tickets were selling out in September. Their website is kind of hard to understand and navigate, and there seems like a lot of options, so I’m going to break it down for you.
There are multiple types of tickets you can buy, shown below:
General Day Tour - €14
This tour gives you access to the Alhambra trio: Generalife, Nasrid Palaces, and the Alcazaba during the DAY, with a specific entrance time to the palaces.
Gardens Day Tour - €7
This tour only gives you DAY access to the Generalife gardens.
Nasrid Night Tour - €8
This tour gives you NIGHT access to the Nasrid Palaces, justice gate, and pavilion, with a specific entrance time to the palaces. This tour does not give access to the Alcazaba or Generalife gardens.
Gardens Night Tour - €5
This tour gives you NIGHT access to the Generalife gardens and the pavilion. This tour does not give you access to the Nasrid Palaces or the Alcazaba.
Alhambra Experiences - €14
This tour gives you NIGHT access to the Nasrid Palaces, at a specific entrance time, and DAY access to the Generalife gardens and Alcazaba that day or the next consecutive day.
Dobla de Oro General - €19.65
This tour gives you DAY access to the Alhambra trio and three consecutive days access to the Andalusian monuments.
Dobla de Oro Night - €14.65
This tour gives you NIGHT access to the Nasrid palaces and three consecutive days access to the Andalusian monuments.
I know this seems like a lot of info, and it is. They definitely make it a lot harder than just buying your tickets a la carte. It really depends what you want to do and see, and that’s asking a lot if you’ve never been there. I went simple and bought the classic trio for the day. This was made easier because they didn’t have night tickets available. However, next time I’d probably buy a trio again and the Dobla Night package. The time you’re there isn’t enough to fully absorb and it’s hard to connect with mobs of tour groups everywhere. Regardless of what you choose, know that when you choose your tickets, you will also be asked to choose a time to enter the Nasrid palaces. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. This is not negotiable. If you get lost in another area or don’t know where you’re going, you may miss your time slot. There are no second chances.
Navigation
When I visited, I picked an early afternoon to visit even though I knew it would be getting busy by then, just to account for the time it would take to get to the hotel, to get my bearings, and whatever else. Good thing. I clearly can’t read a map so I walked all the way up the hill to the top of the complex, clearly walking past several other points of entry. BE WARNED: at the top of the hill near the ticketing office and entrance is where all the tour groups meet. It looks like sheer fuckery. There are people everywhere as far as the eye can see. You don’t know where you’re going or what you’re supposed to do, and if you ask anyone else, they’re as completely clueless as you are. Walk past everyone. Trust me. Yes, it will feel like cutting the line at Disney but it’s not. Get past these people and get into where you they take your ticket. You MUST have a printed copy of your ticket and your passport. Honestly, everywhere you go in Europe they want your passport. I don’t know why, but I’m of the opinion it’s a good way to lose your passport and get stuck somewhere so make a photocopy and carry that around instead.
Once inside it is very hard to know where you’re going and what you’re supposed to do. Don’t rely on your senses or the other idiots around you; use the map. I did not, and I was an absolute mess. Keep in mind you have to be at the palace’s queue at your specified time. This is important while you’re walking around because nowhere does it tell you that you only have admittance to each of the trio once. So if you get turned around and they punch you into Generalife but you have to be back at the palaces in half an hour, you’re fucked. No re-admittance.
The queue line is in the middle of the pavilion under a big tree opposite the line into the Alcazaba. There is no sign differentiating where you need to go, just a velvet rope that is closed. Eventually some woman will come out and start yelling and everyone will look around, unsure of themselves, stressed, looking around for more instruction. They gather you up and take you all in together. If you miss the corral, you are, again, fucked.
Obviously the best time to go is early morning, right when they open. I feel confident when I go next time that’s what I’ll do. But I preface that by saying it is an ancient city, built hundreds of years ago, with streets that make no modern rhyme or reason, now stuffed full of thousands of visitors, none of whom speak the same languages. Choose your entrance time wisely.
Backpacks
Fair warning: I’m about to really go off about my experience regarding the backpack policy and while it makes ABSOLUTE SENSE, the way in which they go about it feels a lot like I imagine TSA acts when you bring a loaded weapon through security.
So I enter the complex with a very small personal backpack. I’m moving along the crowded corridors with the rest of the crowd when I think I feel someone touch my bag. Concerned I’m being pickpocketed, I turn around and there are guards pointing to my bag, but they say nothing. I thought perhaps it was open. Finding that it wasn’t, I continue on my way. Then another guard stops me and begins tapping my backpack. It wasn’t open so I wasn’t sure what was happening. Then there were several of them in front of me, all tapping their chests but continuing to stay silent. It was like Charades. I began to get stressed, the crowds of people now bustling past me. I wondered if it was some Muslim tradition they were trying to express regarding my cleavage. I’m a foreigner in another land with very large breasts; it wouldn’t be the first time I’d offended someone; however, it was winter and I’d dressed quite modest. By then, other tourists were stopping to watch. It turned into a mob of people all gesturing and speaking in different languages. It was incredibly overwhelming and it became quite clear that everyone knew what was happening except for me. I looked around frantically for anyone else that might speak English. Finally I shouted “What the fuck is going on?!”
After all of that, a woman speaking broken English finally shows up and informs me that I need to turn my backpack around and wear it on my chest. Had just one person said “Please turn your backpack around so as to preserve the antiquity and keep from rubbing against the walls” I would certainly have complied. But no one said that. They just walked around tapping their chests like Neolithic Charlie Chaplins. I was thoroughly annoyed. Nowhere, not a single damn sign, says anything about your bag being carried on your back. Much later, while writing this page, I would see a warning on one of the website pages that small backpacks are allowed but discouraged, hidden on some ungodly unimportant page with an asterisk beside it. Do yourself a favor and leave your bag at the hotel.
Your Fortune
The streets leading up to the Alhambra course through the city. The Alhambra is at the top of the mountain so a trek through the nieghborhood is imminent. If you see old ladies with pieces of rosemary in their hands, avoid them at all costs. Do not make eye contact with them, and keep your hands in your pockets. Do not slow down. Do not engage. Pretend to be blind, deaf, and dumb. Otherwise they will force whatever sprig they could find into your hand. They’ll proceed to tell you your fortune, even though you don’t know that’s what she’s doing. My two semesters of Spanish failed me miserably. Then they will demand payment; they want paper money, no change. They’ll yell “Pull out your wallet. Show it to me!” Now all of a sudden the granny gang speak perfect fucking English. I declined and declined, but the shakedown was ferocious, and I was all alone. I ended up giving her all the change I had in my pockets. One and two euro coins add up, and I’m sure she got at least €15 out of me, but was still visibly disgusted that I could not give her more. This is a common practice all across Spain so be on the lookout for the little old granny gangs.
