This morning, I got up to join the walking tour at 11. The guide was from Argentina, but he and his brother both do tours in the city of Granada. We joined in the square and started off our walk to the Muslim section of the city. The history has been really fascinating to see how the Jews and Muslims lived peacefully here until the Spanish came in and conquered it. Granada unfortunately was instantly rebuilt with Spanish Renaissance influence in the architecture, but luckily, they weren’t able to wipe away every building that existed in these parts of the town.
We walked a lot up hill during the tour as we ascended the hillside next to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is the most visited destination in Europe, and it towers above the town below. It is definitely a sight to be seen. On our ascent up the hillside we weaved through tons of alleyways and roads that the Muslim neighborhood had built. The architecture style can be seen by the smaller windows and the thick walls keeping these houses cooler in the hot summers. We continued our route up the hill stopping at various places. One place is where the King and Queen were buried, and where Christopher Columbus had come to declare the world as being round, and received the payment for going to discover the new world. It’s amazing how much history happened here, and to be standing on the same ground as Columbus before the Americas weren’t discovered by European powers yet was really cool.
After the tour, I went to a place for a lunch with the girls from the tour. We had a vegetarian lunch and I had a great salad with avocado, pear, almonds. The strange thing was when I reached for the oil and vinegar, the oil came out fine. The vinegar however was in a spray bottle. It was weird to spray the vingar on the salad, but i admit, it was definitely an effective method.
I then headed out to see the little alley ways with shops selling the souvenirs and such of the Muslim area. Everything was pretty much the same unfortunately. After finding my way back tot he hostel, I got changed and ready to head to dinner as Shane was back at the hostel. We had a great dinner and watched a street performer a while before we headed back after a quick walk to have an early night. I have my train to Madrid tomorrow and didn’t want to be out late.