Day 6 The Alhambra--Spain and Portugal in Depth trip

Casa Grande, AZ

One of the highlights of the trip was a tour of the Alhambra.  In AD 711 the Moors crossed the  Strait of Gibraltar and claimed Granada as the site to build their citadel.  

Our guide showed us the perfect spot to take a picture so the reflection from the water would be perfect.










 



The  citadel  construction  began in the 13th century and lasted over many centuries.

Our tour also included the gardens. We had to show our passports many times on this tour.  One thing we found traveling throughout Europe is a lot of companies buy up all the tickets for major sites.  Say you wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower, there are few tickets left for those who buy them at the venue because all these companies are buying advance tickets and then reselling them.  Hopefully, showing ID to match your ticket will stop those companies from doing that.

The group enjoyed a demonstration of how this man inlaid wood into some beautiful pieces.

I was surprised how inexpensive his prices were for a shop located in the Alhambra.  I think I paid 5 Euro for this box.

After the Alhambra we decided to relax  on the top floor terrace of the hotel.  Of course, we also needed beer and wine. Here's Estefi and Bill laughing about the topless lady in the swimming pool.  The lady was no spring chicken!

The views of Alhambra from the terrace were spectacular and showed how enormous the place was.

Estefi wanted to show us around Granda so the whole group joined her for another walking tour.

Estefi would lead us down narrow streets to some surprise place which only a local person could find.

Estefi stopped by a local pastry shop and bought some specialty pastry from the area for everyone.

When Estefi told us we were walking to our dinner spot tonight all I could think of was going back to the hotel and tipping my feet into the bidet.

Lucky for us the Tapas bar was right around the corner from the hotel.  

This wasn't just any Tapas bar, that we had all to ourselves,  the owner was personal friends of the famous bull fighters.  The walls were filled with interesting memorabilia.

Here's Bill, Hal, Sue, Ken, Betty and me.  You couldn't ask for a better group.  There was a lot of wine and laughter.  The Tapas were wonderful.  We were told that we would sample three.  I thought the three on the "small" plate were our three.  It turns out we had three plates of different ones.  Every time you took a sip of wine, they topped off your glass.

Then we were treated to music and I'm sorry I somehow cut off the rest of the band in this photo.  Estefi was dancing along and showing us how to use a fan.  It's a good thing we didn't have far to walk back to the hotel.  

This is a brief part of a typical day on this tour.  I've been with other companies that wouldn't do as much as we did in a week.  It's hard to explain how busy we were but it was so much fun, you just never slowed down until you collapsed in bed at night.  

Turtle Safely.........