Today we visited the Alhambra of Granada. Our reservation allowed us general access from 2pm until 8pm with access to the Palacios Nazaries at 5:30pm. Before heading up to the Alhambra, we picked up some sandwiches and drinks for lunch from Greens & Berries in Plaza Nueva.

We started our tour in the Generalife Gardens. As we were walking up the hill to the gardens, we noticed that water was flowing down man-made streams/gutters along the side of the road. Once we entered the gardens and started reading the Rick Steves guide, we discovered the flowing water plays a big role in the Alhambra. You can see fountains and streams everywhere. The gardens were fairly pretty and are a modern take on an ancient Moorish garden.

We continued our tour to the old Alcazaba, which doesn’t have much of historical interest in it, but does offer great views of the Albayzin and Sacramonte area. Next up was Charles V’s palace which is interesting because it is square on the outside, but has a large circular courtyard in the middle. There were a few couples taking wedding photos in the courtyard.

The most heavily trafficked location in the Alhambra is the Palacios Nazaries, which was used by both Moorish sultans and Spanish kings. Its claim to fame is as the location where the Moors surrendered to the Spanish in the 15th century. In my opinion, the most spectacular part of the palace is the recently reconstructed lion fountain (fountain mounted on top of several lion statues), which really highlights how majestic this building once was.

After a long day of walking, we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at Damasqueros. The service and food were spectacular and the prices were reasonable for the quality. I would definitely recommend it. If you make a reservation at 8:30pm, you will have the whole restaurant to yourself, as Spaniards don’t seem to eat dinner until at least 9:30pm.