Un recibo, por favor

Not only is Dave tired of blogging today, he's tired all around.  That's because we spent the last 11 hours at the La Alhambra. I will blog quickly, because we are meeting Cliff and Karen for dinner in about a half hour.  I'm sure Dave will add photos later.

We started off the morning by getting up at 6:00 to get a taxi to the Alhambra.  We got a taxi instead of taking the mini bus because it was dark, we don't know a ton of spanish, and we didn't know where the bus actually would be going.  We got a taxi instead of walking for all the previous reasons, plus it's completely uphill from everything else in Granada. The hotel desk girl thinks we are idiot Americans, but oh well, join the club.

We get to the ticket line at 7:15 after zipping around through a maze of dark alleyways and then heading straight up the hill.  There is already a line, but not too long of one.  When the ticket office opens at 8:15, they send out a girl to talk to everyone in line to tell them they probably won't be getting morning session tickets.  So many people visit the Alhambra that you can visit either in the morning or the afternoon.  We get up to the window and get timed-entry tickets for 14:00 (2:00 pm American time).  There are places you can go that you don't need a ticket for entry so we decide to take it slow, go see all those things, and then be ready to enter the ticketed places at 2:00.  Also, there's an Escher exhibit going on, so there's all that to see as well.

All in all, it's a pretty amazing place. Occupied by the seat of the Moorish empire for 700 years, and then taken over by the Spanish, it's pretty posh.  We saw the room in which Christopher Columbus requested funds to go exploring from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.  We saw the sultan's summer place, where he went when it was too hot and crowded in the main palace.  We saw battlements and baths and where all the little people worked in service to the royalty.  We saw high school groups, middle school groups and elementary school groups touring just like us.  And groups and groups and groups of senior citizens.  All with those audio things stuck up to their ears.

We went for lunch in a cafe in the middle of the Alhambra (there are some hotels and shops right there in the middle as well - kind of strange).  I looked up some phrases to make things so a little smoother, not quicker, just smoother.  Eating in Europe is not a hurried affair.  Dave laughed and said he doesn't know what I'm saying, but at least things seem to happen when I talk to someone.  Ok - so those Spanish classes came in a little bit handy.  And I can follow what people are saying and make an attempt at answering.  And I always ask for the receipts (un recibo).

That's all for now - I'm sure Dave will post some photos of the amazing stuff we saw a bit later!!