Granada-Madrid

I mentioned in my last post that my initial impression of Granada was quite favorable. I´ve decided that Ronda is still holding the top Spain position, but Granada is a close second. It´s very different from the other cities I´ve been in--gritty, full of life, a bit untamed. I frequently felt that something--anything--could happen there. Elese and I witnessed our first bag snatching (Elese was actually pushed out of the way by the sprinting thief), saw homes built in caves, wandered through a gypsy neighborhood, and had numerous other unique experiences.

Tourists (lots of them) go to Granada to see the Alhambra. I´d highly recommend going there, but don´t make it your primary reason for visiting--the city itself is more interesting. The Alhambra, like the Alcazar in Seville, is a massive palace complex inMoorish style (in the case of the Alhambra, it´s authentic; at the Alcazar it´s someone´s idea of what Moorish style should look like). All you see is the physical structure. I wish that someone would put some time into bringing the place to life, either through the audioguide or through some furnishings or pictures. It´s very hard to visualize what the place looked like when occupied. The gardens are lovely, and have great views of the city.

This isn´t to say that I didn´t like the Alhambra; I just was a bit bored by it. I definitely preferred the two walks Elese and I took up into Sacromonte (the gypsy neighborhood with cave houses) and the Albayzin (an ancient Moorish neighborhood with winding streets and a phenomenal view of the Alhambra. We watched the sunset from the San Nicolas viewpoint, a view made famous by President Clinton´s visit while he was in office. Sacromonte was fascinating--it didn´t exactly feel unsafe, just unpredictable. I didn´t see many gypsies living there (Granada apparently has a population of 50,000 gypsies, the largest in Spain)--the area has been taken over by ¨drop-outs¨, for lack of a better term. Granada teemed with these people--a youngish, international crowd of unwashed, dreadlocked, haven´t-called-home-in-several-years crew. I definitely got the feeling that the city is a place you can disappear in.

Another reason to love Granada: free food. Bars serve a dish (we had fried fish, paella, and numerous small sandwiches) with every drink you order. It´s awesome--the beers cost about $1.50, and you can nibble all night.

The weather is still coolish (though rapidly getting hotter), which has actually worked in our favor. It´s much easier to tour cities this way (I can´t imagine how tourists normally deal with the Alhambra--we were in the direct sun for 6 hours there, which is hard enough to take when the weather is below 80, let alone 100). We´ve changed our plans yet again to take advantage--Madrid, Toledo, the beach on Sunday and Monday, then back to Madrid.

We´re touring Madrid at a leisurely place. Last night we visited the Reina Sofia (modern art) Museum. I really enjoyed it, despite the fact that I only liked 2 sculptures and 3 paintings out of the entire collection. Odd. I can´t quite put my finger on why it was still a good experience--maybe the setting? The lighting was great, and the crowds were minimal.

So far today we´ve walked from el centro (where we´re staying) through the various famous plazas to the plaza de espana and back along the gran via, the main shopping street. We stopped at the Palacio Real (royal palace) for a brief tour. If you´re into palaces, it´s a painless one to visit, and is quite attractive (it´s the third best in Europe, after Versailles and the Schonbrunn in Vienna). The crowds were nothing like those I battled at Versailles.

We much preferred an art exhibit we stumbled into across the street. The new cathedral (a spectacular work of modern architecture) had been completely turned into a museum space dedicated to works about the Virgin Mary (pretty much just her--no pictures of her holding the baby Jesus). They were grouped thematically--Mary with Saint Anne, Mary standing on top of a snake, Mary in dark blue, Mary in light blue, Mary with angels, etc. It was fascinating. Each piece listed where it was from--whoever curated the show really pillaged the churches of Spain. These weren´t small works--many were 20 foot statues or 40 foot paintings.

We also more-or-less stumbled into a publishing exhibit on Don Quixote at the National Library (Elese likes libraries, so we went a bit out of our way to see this one). The lower level was dedicated to first editions of the book--over 300 of them. The first printing ever, the first illustrated edition, the first Africaans edition, the first edition in two parts, etc., plus numerous hand printed and bound copies. Oddly, they didn´t have the edition illustrated by Picasso, the art from which is plastered all over Spain.

This afternoon: the Thyssen Museum. We´re saving a day next week for the Prado.

Elese´s comments:
As usual Alicia sums things up very well. I agree with Alicia that the Alhambra wasn´t all I was expecting it to be - the gardens at the Alcazar in Seville were definitely more stunning - but I don´t want to give short shrift to the beautiful tile work and ceilings in the actual palace (Palacio Nazaries) in the Alhambra. I loved Granada in general. It felt very "other" and exotic.

Alicia has been very game to trek to see libraries so far on this trip & I would like to thank her for that. The last library on the list is in El Escorial (a day trip away from Madrid) ...

A few more unordered thoughts about Spain:
- The big male hairstyle here, and in Austria & Switzerland, is the Duck - a mix of mullet, faux-hawk & rat-tail. It´s awful and it´s everywhere.
- There appear to be no paper products in Spain, outside of toilet paper.
- After a full day of sightseeing, it´s difficult to stay up late enough to take advantage of the Spanish nightlife.

Oh and I´m adding these comments to the post after we visited the Thyssen-Bornemizsa Museum & I know that Alicia will have a lot to say about it but I give it two thumbs way up. I was overwhelmed. It was inspiring.