Saturday, May 16, 2020

Virtual Tour of Spain: Day Eight: Granada and Alhambra (May 15, 2020)

Welcome to our "Virtual Tour of Spain" May 8 to 22, 2020!
Day Eight: Friday, May 15, 2020
Train to Granada; Night Visit to Alhambra
Arriving into Granada: Scene from "Interrail Train Route From Sevilla to Granada" YouTube video (below): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpmJhi-Bu_Y

Good morning everyone!  It's Saturday morning as we recap yesterday's train trip from Sevilla to Granada, our walk through Granada, and my fourth return to a night visit to the incredible Nasrid Palace, part of Alhambra, in Granada. We left Friday aboard the AVANT train 08335 from Sevilla Santa Justa station to Granada, departing Sevilla at 12:15pm, arriving into Granada about 2 hours, 30 minutes later, at 2:45pm. On arrival, temps were in lower 60's.  Below is a great YouTube video that highlights this trip.


Orientation Map: Granada Station to Center
On arrival into the Granada train station, it's either taxi for 20 minutes and 5 miles following the route of one-way streets, or a mile-and-a-half walk for 29 minutes. The weather's good and our roller bags are light, so we decide to walk. Below are two orientation maps for Friday. The first Google map is from the Granada rail station to our hotel, Apartamentos Real Suites Realejo in the center of Granada. With these Google Maps views, use fingers or mouse to navigate. Like we have presented over the past several days, you can navigate by zooming in with the + control on lower right, and then use two fingers to swipe left or right, or up or down to navigate position:


Orientation Map: Granada Center to Alhambra Palace
Our second Google map is the orientation map for our 16-minute walk to the Alhambra for our after-dark visit tonight to Nasrid Palace -- this is the best map for general orientation to the location of the Alhambra and the highly walkable Granada.


Our Google Street View for Friday evening takes us on the path from our hotel to the Alhambra, in time for the night tour of Nasrid Palace.  It's essential to buy tickets for Alhambra visits up to a year in advance, so we purchased tickets for Friday night at Nasrid palace and also for Saturday.  It is possible to secure tickets on a space available basis when the ticket office first opens each morning for that day's visits, but you may not succeed -- best to buy months in advance.  The night walk through the palace is stunning.  Because of its darkness, I could not find any reasonable quality YouTube videos of this experience.  There were several very dark and jittery night videos, but instead of those, I suggest that we take an exceptional YouTube tour of all of the Alhambra, including the Nasrid Palace.  We'll see that in a minute.  But first, our walk to Alhambra, with Google Street View.  We're layered up, as our night visit is a bit chilly with temps in mid 50's and light rain:

Tech notes about navigating in Google Street Views: When viewing the "Virtual Tour of Spain" daily entries on a phone, you may find that you can get "stuck" within a Google Street View while you are swiping up or down on the page. That's because the Google Street View image is live and responds to your finger swiping. Just swipe up or down on the LEFT or RIGHT MARGINS (outside of the Street View image), and your navigation up or down the page continues normally.


Eric Azares' YouTube Tour of Alhambra
Now for our exploration of Alhambra! Eric Azares' YouTube video (immediately below) provides a lot of historical background, gorgeous views of the architecture of Alhambra, and a lively tour in about ten minutes. Very well done! I hope you enjoy it!


Up next is a great 13-minute HD video of Alhamabra, with only music background, no narrative, and most unusual as nearly all of the video shows the Alhambra in great detail WITHOUT visitors in most every scene. For Alhambra aficionados, like me, this is a great 13 minutes of beautiful videography.


We wrap up our Friday in Granada with FOOD!!! Here's a foodie tour of Granada I think you'll enjoy! "He Goes She Goes" YouTube video presents their culinary exploration:


That's our DAY EIGHT!  Enjoy your Saturday, with our Friday adventures in Granada in mind! Coming up in next daily post: More of gorgeous Granada in our Day Nine (Saturday) post.

Abrazos
--Don

UP NEXT TOMORROW:  Exploring More of Granada and Alhambra
Links to today's post and prior days of our Virtual Tour of Spain:

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