APR-02: Almeria, Spain

Sunrise today was at 0800, so we arrived in the port of Alemira in the dark, docking at 0730.  

Tour Description:  Granada & the Alhambra

Discover the Alhambra—the dramatic highlight of historic Granada—on this unforgettable tour. A number of interesting sights will be visible from the coach along the 2½-hour drive to Granada, and your guide will introduce you to local traditions and history as you travel. The city of Granada is beautiful, but nothing in the whole of Spain compares to the wealth of architectural art to be found in the city’s Muslim-Hispano complex—the 14th-century Alhambra. Walls and towers surround this breathtaking example of Muslim architecture. Inside, palaces, military buildings, a fortress and an administrative center can be found. Explore this remarkable structure whose detailed mosaics, prism-style cupolas and stone-cast latticework offer a stunning grace and sophistication. The nearby Generalife gardens surround the summer residence of the Moorish kings. Lunch is included.

Tour Experience

We left the port of Alemira and ascended the coastal mountains, passing through Puerto de la Mora at 1380 meters before descending into the Granada.  Along the way we saw many huge greenhouses.  Our guide told us there are 70,000 hectares under cover in the province.  The greenhouses (made out of plastic) are quite ugly but economically make the province of Andalusia one of the financially healthiest in Spain’s crippled economy.  Higher up in the mountains we can across a wind farm that extended for miles.  Further on were solar farms.  Southern Spain appeared to have made a heavy investment in alternative energy.

As we climbed higher the snow-covered tops of the Sierra Nevada Mountains were clearly visible.

We skirted around the city of Granada, going straight to the Alhambra were we dismounted the bus, met our local guide and began a 3-hour walking tour. 

[NOTE:  For anyone planning to visit the Alhambra, it is important to know that only 7,700 tickets are sold for each day.  Pre-orders by tour companies and travel agents today resulted in all the remaining tickets being sold within the first 30 minutes the ticket office was open.  The take-away is to pre-order tickets.   In addition, the flow of visitors is controlled, including an access time on the ticket.  Since we were on a guided tour, everything had been choreographed for us, but if you traveled there on your own this would be something else to keep in mind.]

Picture taking was difficult given the crowds, the frequently confined space and the prohibition of using a flash indoors.  Here are a few that hopefully will give you a sense of this impressive site.

Some of the interior walls, ceilings and arches were particularly stunning.

Visiting Alhambra was well worth a long bus ride.  

The trip back to ROTTERDAM was uneventful.  After dropping things in our stateroom we went on deck for a daylight view of the fort and the port.

The Captain elected not to have tugs assist ROTTERDAM in getting off the dock she was held against by a 30+ knot breeze on her starboard beam.  The thrusters and propellers stirred up the harbor bottom considerably before ROTTERDAM was in a position to move out of the harbor.

Local sunset was 2034 giving us an extended evening as we headed for the Straits of Gibraltar in relatively calm seas.