Thursday March 8 we arrived at Malaga, a resort community on Spain's Costa del Sol, and were treated to another beautiful Spanish sunrise. The port at Malaga has recently been enlarged and expanded to accommodate huge cruise ships. Michael remembered the times when the Silversea ships used to dock at what is now the entrance to the harbor, practically at street side. The intimate personality of the port has been lost. This time we docked a quarter mile out on a new pier with a huge passenger terminal while luxury yachts occupied the close in spaces. The port area nearest the actual city was filled with tourist shops and eateries. The passengers on the big ships may never get past this area, designed to part them from their money or see the real city. The tourist area is also something of an attraction for the locals, at least until the novelty wears off. The long distance to the city mattered more to Michael. He had the morning free to walk around Malaga before his afternoon tour of a nearby mountain village. He found it was a long walk back to the ship.
I was on my way to the Alhambra. I had booked the all day tour and boarded my bus at 8:15 a.m. I got only glimpses of Malaga as we made our way to the major highway just outside of the city.
The bus trip started in dry coastal conditions. The bus guide said that there had been no rain in more than three months making the dry landscape even more parched than usual. We passed through some rugged but low mountains. I saw another Osborne bull atop a rugged hill. The landscape got greener. For several hours, we passed olive groves and almond farms while the guide told us more about olive oil than any of us wanted or needed to know. We reached Grenada in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and passed through a tunnel in a hillside to the site of the Alhambra.
The actual tour, with a trained guide supplied by Spanish tourism, was spectacular. Again, I took many, many pictures. At the conclusion of the tour, the guide gave each of us a map of the complex. I was surprised that in well over two hours we had seen only about a third of the buildings. Some sections were closed for restoration work and others, less significant, appeared to have been omitted due to time constraints. Visitors get timed tickets so we had to keep moving. The Alhambra is such a popular tourist site and the structures so fragile that the tourism board limits the number of visitors to a thousand a day. That seems a rather large number to me. They manage the crowds well, one never feels crowded and tour groups rarely overlap.
The complex begun in 1238 A.D., extended, and embellished through the 1400's was the fortified palace and grounds of the last Moorish ruler in Spain. Conquered by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, parts of it are overlaid of Christian structures: the mosque became a Catholic church, an Italianate palace was added and the Generalife or summer palace reached by bridge across a ravine had a jarringly blocky Spanish Christian style structure added atop a delicate first floor pavilion. The Arabic palace has a simple sandstone exterior but intricately decorated rooms and passageways in the interior. The colors have faded and most of the stained glass is gone but loving restoration has preserved a real marvel. We walked through a maze of connecting rooms, courtyards and balconies. The intricate interior is decorated with arabesques and flourishes made of cast plaster, mosaic and once had gold and silver embellishments that have long since been removed. Rooms opened onto balconies with stunning views or hadelaborate windows providing glimpses into peaceful courtyards..
The world heritage site is significant not only for its historic importance but as an example of the height of Islamic art in Spain. It is something that, I think, anyone who appreciates both art and history should see if at all possible. The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca for all its size and embellishment doesn't compare artistically.
The tour included an elegant, lengthy lunch at the best restaurant in Grenada followed by a brief bus tour of the more or less modern city and a two-hour drive back to Malaga and the Silver Wind. Our next stop, after a full day at sea, would be Ibiza one of the smaller Balearic Islands off the Spanish coast.
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