Granada: A Flotilla of Fountains

Granada: A Flotilla of Fountains
15 November 2001

Location	Granada, Province of Granada, Andalucía. The highlight of this holiday was no doubt my visit to Alhambra. I set off before dawn from my hotel because I thought it would be a very long drive. It turned out that I was there at 9 when they opened. That was good because it got rather full later on, just as the guidebook warned. On the other hand it was terribly cold. On the third hand it started raining in the afternoon. That would have prevented me from getting some of the lovely sunny pictures of the Generalife. On the fourth hand, oh, never mind. Let's just say it was worth the freezing. Overview of my holiday in Spain.

Weather	It was freezing most of the time. In the afternoon when the sun disappeared and it started to rain it was simply awful.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

	It's not often that I take photos of rosy-fingered, saffron-robed Eos. I had to make a great sacrifice to get them so enjoy them, please.

The mountains are the Sierra Nevada. The temperature according to the car thermometer was -1°C. And the place was a motorway restaurant and motel. The police who were gathered there, stamping their feet and blowing into their hands, looked curiously at me, the obvious tourist.

	My first picture of the Alhambra! The excitement was mounting. I couldn't stop saying "Wow!". Still, this is just a nice picture of a bench in the shade of some trees. It might as well be in Denmark with the ochre-coloured walls.

This is inside the Palacio Nazaries. It is a prayer room behind the Mexuar, where visitors where received.

	In the courtyard called Patio del Cuarta Dorado, these doors caught my eye. The doors themselves look new but the surrounds are definitely Moorish.

Beside the entrance to Mudéjar Cuarto Dorado, the Golden Room, there were little niches like this one. They are meant for flowers and incense.

	Inside the Cuarto Dorado, even without furnishings the opulence is obvious in the richly decorated stucco.

Inscriptions in Arabic form part of the decorations. According to the audio guide these are prayers and poems. I love the idea of having script as part of the decorations but if I could actually read it, I think I would get tired of it very quickly.

	Back outside, the watery November sunlight casts a horseshoe-shaped shadow on the wall.

This still, rectangular pool is found in Patio de los Arrayanes, the Myrtle Patio. The surrounding buildings belong to the official home of the emir or sultan.

	Countless postcards have been sent with this picture of the Patio de Leones, Lion Patio. This was my only disappointment in the Alhambra. The lions are actually quite ugly and at this time the water that is supposed to flow through their mouths, was turned off. Still, the surrounding forest of slender pillars supporting decorated stucco was beautiful. It would have been better with a nicer fountain. One that actually works, for instance.

The Alhambra is famous for its many fountains. Here is yet another one, a rather crudely sculpted flower shape in a small patio outside the Baños Reales, Royal Baths. I thought it was charming with the water running down the outside of the petals.

	Created to be seen from the part of the harem devoted to the sultan's favourite, these gardens have a box pattern that works best when seen from her balcony, above.

But the fountain is attractive even from ground level.

	Walking from the Alhambra to the Generalife, I took a break in the sun, sitting down on a bench next to one of the many Alhambra cats. It was a ginger tom who promptly settled in my lap, purring like a lawn mower. This is a fountain in the gardens outside the Generalife, the Architect's Garden.

Used as a summer palace for the Muslim rulers, the Generalife is much smaller and daintier than the buildings for year-round use. This is the Patio de la Acequia with a long pool with spouts along its length.

	At the end of the patio, there's a hall that is probably pleasantly cool in summer. It has this view over the town of Granada down below.

Looking back at the Long Pool it's not hard to understand why the Generalife is famous.

	In the Patio de la Sultana, a square pool forms the middle of the courtyard.

This is how fetching it looks from above from the Jardines Altos, the Upper Gardens. After Alhambra I walked down to the town of Granada. There I had an excellent meal in the old, Moorish part of town and bought myself the quintessential Granada souvenir - an alpaca teapot.