Exploring the Incredible ALHAMBRA
Hello there and welcome back and welcome to day two here in beautiful Granada. Today we are going to what Granada is really all about, the stunning Alamra Palace. Not a tourist guide, just a casual wander around and we’ll see how we get on. And you are invited. Here we go. Well, I think we’re in. It’s a little bit chaotic trying to get in. They need to see your passport. They need to see your ticket that’s been downloaded. There’s loads of different checks. They’re very security conscious here, but I think we’re in. So, should we uh start to have a look around? Come on then. Yeah. So, we’re definitely in. There’s lots of people here already and it’s still only What time is it? 25 9 in the morning. Imagine what it’s going to be like a little bit later on. And just imagine what this would be like in midsummer. But it’s the 1st of May today. It is a national holiday here in Spain as it is across most of Europe. Not the UK though. That’s a Monday, isn’t it? And here we are in the Alamra Palace looking across at the edge there of the Nazri palaces. We’re going in there a little bit later on and the old town the Albertin across the way. And if you’ve seen our previous video about Granada, which should be the previous one to this on this channel, we finished off with the trip up to the Miridor San Nicholas, which is a church on top of the hill on the other side where you get a fabulous view of the Alamra Palace. And although the wide angle on the GoPro doesn’t really do it justice, you can just see that church across the way on the other side of the valley just to the right of center of your screen. That’s a fantastic viewpoint. Reminds me where’s the nearest loop? Behind you. Behind you. So, we’re approaching first of all the Henipe Palace, which I believe means the the palace of life, the palace of gods. And as we climb up, the views just keep getting better. View right across the city of Granada over there and the mountains in the background. I think this is definitely a good time of year to come midsummer. It’s going to be hot and really, really crowded. It’s busy today, but not too bad at the moment. Yeah, we’re doing all right so far. Hang on this way. Yes. Look at this. takes some doing to get these everywhere you go. Just superb views. Just look at this. Palafio del Kennalipe. Yeah, sorry about the dreadful pronunciation. Anyway, no, it’s not a mutual assuran society. It’s a beautiful palace as part of the Alamra. Ah, orange trees everywhere. Right, let’s go in, shall we? [Applause] [Music] Uh the Henipe gardens are just beautiful. Apparently, it’s in this part of the Alamra in the summer where they have the Granada music festivals. That’d be amazing, wouldn’t it? [Music] So, that was the Henipe Palace part of the complex. I think we’re going to go back there a little bit later, but we’re heading over to the Nazri Palace, which is the main part of the Alamra Palace because you have to be there at a certain time. So, we’re going to head off across there and have a look inside. Yeah. So, if you want to enter the main part of the Alam, you’re given a certain time to do that. We’ve got 11:00. It is now, well, I got plenty of time, but you’re told to be there 15 minutes before. And apparently the main entrance part is still about 10 minutes walk away, but we’re just going into the the old walls of the Alamra right now. So we’re just heading towards the main entrance now. And the biggest thing is you keep getting caught in the middle of tour groups. So uh so far today I’ve become fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and most difficult of all Japanese. Yes. I didn’t realize, but there’s actually a hotel in the middle of the Alamra. You can stay there, no doubt at a certain cost. So, this is where we’re headed for. So, let’s head off and have a look at the Nazair’s Palace. And as a lady told us as we were entering, the Alamra isn’t just a palace. It’s actually a city within a city if you like. So you’ve got shops, restaurants, hotels and all sorts of other places as well. It’s 42 years since I last came here. 1983. I don’t remember a lot about it apart from lots of gardens and fountains and honeycolored walls. But it’s fantastic to be back. [Music] And here we are just on the edge of the entrance to the palace itself, the Naza’s Palace, which is the main part of the Alamra. And looking across there, that’s where we were last night. You can see that on the previous video on this channel at the Miridor San Nicholas where you get a fabulous view not only across the Alamra but also the snowy mountains behind of the Sierra Nevada. And it looks like we’re in more passport checks than at the airport. Would you believe it already just to get into this part two different checkpoints have been looking at the passports and checking the tickets which are on the phones as well. I know they’ve got to be secure, but seriously, I’ve had less checks going through Heathro and into the next bit. You probably won’t pick it up, but the detail on these walls is just incredible. The room we were just in had the verse of the Quran carved across it. Quite amazing. It’s amazing who you bump into in these places. Oh, hello. Hello. This is fantastic. It’s incredible, isn’t it? What do you think of the Alamra so far? Wonderful. Every corner you turn, it’s got something different. Look at this. I should get a nice reflection just here. The detail everywhere quite incredible. There’s not an inch of wall that hasn’t got incredible detail when you think that most of this is 800 odd years old. So there they were, these craftsmen working with just very rudimentary tools. No power drills or anything like that. Look at these three. Tired already, eh? Well, I think we found a perfect little spot here. So, let’s see what’s through here. I love little passageways. I can see people raising their phones. So, there must be something. What do we have? Let’s have a look. Oh my goodness me. [Music] Well, you can if you want to get an official guide to take you around. I think it’s a 3hour tour for about 30 38 per person, something like that. We didn’t bother with that, but even just wandering around on our own without really any proper clue as to what we’re looking at, it’s still just mind-blowing. My mind is well and truly blown, that’s for sure. It’s hard not to just keep taking photos. Actually, I’m going to end up with about 200 pictures that all look very similar, but you just can’t not really, can you? Better to have too many than not enough. The detail on the height. How did they even get up there to do that? Very rudimentary scaffolding, I suppose. Every bit of every wall in this part, it’s covered in old Arabic inscriptions or whatever language they were speaking at the time. And obviously, I can’t read it, but I’m guessing it’s all about the greatness of God. Just everywhere, every single inch is covered. [Music] A lot of the main restoration here at the Alamra was done by Leopoldo Torres Balbas. And there’s a bit here. A lot of this was done in the 20s. Quite incredible. So the picture on the left is how it was in 1923 and on the right 1925, etc. Look at the difference. So it was virtually derelictked before that. Look at that for example. Quite incredible. So from a little shady square to a bridge across and then the view and on the right hand side of the hill you can see part of the old city wall. Looks like the Great Wall of China almost the Great Wall of Granada. Yeah. So, if you look down at the bottom there, you’ve seen our previous video walking around Granada and the Kaledaro, that was where we were walking. And then we continued to walk all through there up to St. Nicholas, which is the viewing point top left of your screen right now. And our accommodation is somewhere just over to the left. So the acoustics under here are amazing. I’m not quite sure what all this complex of empty rooms is, but when you come out into this beautiful shady courtyard and even on a warm day, it’s cool and refreshing down here. And as we come out, there’s three people here. I’m just going to walk past them. I don’t few uh local rag muffins that they’ve allowed in. The guides, not quite sure who they are. And then back out into the sunshine. Look at this. So, we’ve seen the three main palaces. 14th century the last palace. So there you go. Now you know. Right. So you can see on here what we’ve just done. We’ve just done the Palafio Nazaras. All this section here. We’ve still got to go all around to the Alcazaba. And then look what we’ve got just in front of us. I’ll just wait for these people to come down. And then look at this. Just amazing views at every turn, isn’t it? What do you think of the uh Alumbra so far, ladies? Fantastic. Yeah. Right. So, we’ve been to the Kona bit earlier on, although we may well go back again later. So we’re heading off towards the Palaio Carlos V and then the Alcazar bit of the Alamra here in stunning Granada. Ah, so the museums in there. We’re going up here first. This looks rather nice. Wow. It’s almost like a ball ring, but it isn’t. Isn’t it [Music] [Music] fabulous? So off this big auditorium area, there’s lots of little doors. Each one has something different in. It’s all part of a museum here. So this is the the tapestry bit. Let’s have a look at this. Okay. Definitely getting busier. Anyway, in we go to the Alcazaba. So it seems to be this is the third part of the Alamra. We started off in the Hener Alipe. We’ve done the Nazeri’s Palace. And here we are now at the Alcazaba, which looks like an old Arab fortress. Here we go. More security checks. So we have two more checks there. Passport again. And another one for tickets. And I think there’s another one for tickets coming up. Unbelievable. Incredible. Still, it’s worthwhile. So, we’ve come up some steps. This is what’s called the Tore del Kubo, the Kubo Tower, looking across where we’ve just been, and then down into the city again. And a view right the way across Granada. [Music] It’s not one of Spain’s biggest cities, but at the moment it just looks [Applause] enormous. Albastine as they call it and the old city wall going up the hillside there. Once again, this place is just blowing me away. Yeah, the security checks everywhere. They are really, really security conscious. And I guess in this day and age, you can’t really blame them because if anything was to happen to this wonderful palace, this wonderful place, it would be just a national tragedy. But it’s worth it. And I highly recommend you do it if you come into this part of Spain. Even if you’re on the Costas down on the Costa del Soul, go a couple of hours on a coach or hire a car, come up to Granada. But one thing you’d need to do is to make sure you book first. And the very end bit of the Alumbra complex is this tower here, which we can see from our accommodation. Shall I go up there? Uh, the things I do for you on YouTube. Yeah, of course. We’re going up there. Right. Come on then. and the start of a long climb. There we go. Let’s see how long this takes. Of course, if you watched any of our previous videos on this channel, I don’t have a good record of towers in castles. Yeah, just watch our we got lost in chepto castle video. Yeah, if my friends uh the CR or Colin are watching, they’ll know what I’m talking about about getting lost in Castle Towers. Anyway, here we are at the top of Tori de Lavella. And let’s see what sort of view we get. Could see these flags from our accommodation. Oh, looking down. I can see the railway station where we arrived yesterday and a view straight across the city of Granada. Yeah, vista of the city of Granada. Right in the center, you’ve got Granada Cathedral there. And then just coming into the right hand side on the top, you can see the railway station where we arrived yesterday. And the mountains in the distance. And then somewhere just over here is our accommodation, I think. Isn’t it? Can you see it? Do you see there’s a brown? We’re down there somewhere anyway. the alcohol zabit. You can see the old barrier. I believe this was an old military barracks below us here and the castle, the henna palace is the white building behind. And then I don’t know if you can pick it up, but the distant mountains with snow on the top. Yeah, what a view. Feels like you’re on top of the world here. and even snow on the mountains behind as well. Right, so we’ve exited the main part of the Alamra. We had to show our passport again to get out, would you believe? I don’t know if you can pick that up, but the snow on the mountains behind. And then a beautiful walkway. And we’re heading back towards the Herna Raleife, if I could say it, gardens, where we went a little bit earlier on today, but we didn’t have time to see it all. I won’t bore you much longer on this video, I promise you. And here we are back in the Henna Alipe Gardens and a walk through that beautiful row of arches of roses. Less people around this part than there was this morning. There’s Nina on her phone. Get out of my shot, you. What? What are you taking? Taking that. Oh, yes. Not bad. [Music] [Music] and there’s where we’ve been earlier. And this is the bit we didn’t get to go to earlier on. Definitely worth coming back for. And so here we are at the highest point of the Henner Leifa Gardens. And I think this is probably a good point to end this video today. I hope we haven’t gone on too long for you. I appreciate there’s been an awful lot of it. But to be honest, every cornier turn, there’s been a different view and it’s all been absolutely stunning, hasn’t it? So, thank you so much for watching. Uh, if you fancy subscribing or giving us a thumbs up, that would be amazing. If not, just enjoy the rest of your day and hopefully you’ll join us again for the next film very soon when we will be in Cordoba. Cordova, watch out. That’s coming next. I see. I see.
The ALHAMBRA in Granada. One of Spain’s most visited attractions. This place just BLEW US AWAY! Join us as we explore this incredible place. Unbelievable buildings and STUNNING views!