Visiting La Alhambra - Granada

After plenty of anticipation, we finally checked off location #9 of our Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travel book which was given to us as a gift when we began to plan our trip. Visiting a “top ten” in the entire world was an experience like no other for us. The Alhambra has a lot of great history which I will summarize below; however, the experience is much more interesting visually which is why I’ll begin by letting the pictures tell the story. Disclaimer - This is the first time since leaving that I regret not having my SLR, but choices had to be made...

Although the Alhambra's three palaces are certainly its' most impressive feature and hence, tourist draw, it was more than just that. It was a city fortified by an alcazaba similar to that of the one we toured in Malaga. Construction began in the 9th century and continued for hundreds of years with many updates and modifications along the way. Throughout the visit, I couldn't help but notice the Christians and Moors clashing within the architecture of this place.

Washington Irving, former U.S. Ambasador to Spain and original Author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be reasonably credited with popularizing the Alhambra in modern times as he wrote and published the book "Tales of the Alhambra". A free public domaine online/kindle version is available, and can be found here.