Showing posts with label Alhambra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alhambra. Show all posts

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Virtual Tour of Spain: Day Nine, Day Ten: Granada (May 16-17, 2020)

Welcome to our "Virtual Tour of Spain" May 8 to 22, 2020!
Days Nine & Ten: Saturday, May 16, Sunday, May 17, 2020
Granada: Alhambra By Day, Walking the Town
Wandering Granada, a scene from a beautiful 14-minute YouTube video about Granada from Canal Andalucia Turismo, narrated in Spanish. See full video below or visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mud8VqCAH70

Good morning everyone!  It's Sunday morning as we recap this weekend's stay in Granada.  A bit of heavy rain yesterday afternoon just for about an hour, and today is sunny and beautiful ... a bit of rain expected for about an hour at 6 tonight. Friday night we were captivated by our hour and a half walk through Nasrid Palace by night.  Saturday and today, Sunday, we've been wandering the streets of Granada, enjoying amazing food, and going back to a very leisurely daytime visit to the Alhambra, Nasrid Palace by day, Generalife Palace and gardens, and simply taking in the beauty and history of this city with roots in the Moslem, Judaic, and Christian heritage of Andalucia.

Our first treat is our virtual walk through the small cobblestone streets of Granada.  First, let's look at an orientation map of where we will be starting, the Plaza Virgen del Carmen:

Orientation Map for Walk from Virgen del Carmen
to Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo

... then our virtual walk through Google Street View:

Now for our virtual walk using our Google Street View, above, we start from Calle Virgen del Carmen. Go straight ahead until you enter the Plaza Virgen del Carmen. Go past the dog by the fountain in the center and continue diagonally across the Plaza to Calle Almez. Continue straight until we start to go up the Callejon Algibe de Trillo, passing the Plaza Algibe de Trillo (not so much a Plaza but steps up the cobblestone street). The street narrows to an alley with steps as we pass a parked motorcycle. We continue onward as the street turns 90 degrees to the right, more steps. Say hello to the woman we pass by ... gorgeous purple flowers overflowing from the top of the whitewashed wall as we continue on Aljibe del Trillo ... when we come to a "Y" in our walk, take the left side, continuing up the steps at Placeta Comino. Another "Y" on our walk, take the left (Cuesta de las Tomasas). As the street continues past the car barriers, make the right to continue straight up the hill where the street changes to Callejón de las Tomasas. We jog to the left, continuing on Calle Carril de las Tomasas. We pass Placeta de Abad. And walk past the church on our left at the Plaza del Salvador ... continue on Calle Panaderos ... continue up the hill to the Mirador de San Cristobal at the Carretera de Murcia as the view across Granada opens up to the left. From this vantage point we see the whole city below, and a river in the distance. You can walk further, down the hill, using Google Maps to get to the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo.

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.

Some great YouTube videos will allow us to virtually -- and visually -- experience this weekend.  First, is the 14-minute YouTube video from Canal Andalucia Turismo, narrated in Spanish.


Next is a very well done YouTube video from CNN:

Up next we spend three minutes with Rick Steves:


We wrap up our weekend in Granada with a 12-minute YouTube video of "the top ten things to do!"


That's our DAYS NINE and TEN!  We just have a few minutes before we are packed and off to the Granada rail station for our Sunday, 3:45pm AVE 99596 train to Malaga arriving at 5:21pm. Coming up in next daily post: Our adventures in Malaga for our DAYS TEN to TWELVE of our Virtual Tour of Spain!

Abrazos
--Don

UP NEXT TOMORROW:  Malaga
Links to today's post and prior days of our Virtual Tour of Spain:

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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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