Granada, Spain: Alhambra
Brian and I arrived in Madrid, Spain around noon and got lost for a while. Then we wandered our way through the park in the general direction of the bus station. This trip, we would soon discover, would involve lots of time waiting and traveling. We waited for about 3 hours for our bus and caught our 5 hour bus ride to Granada, Spain. Things I took note of in Spain: friendly people, not much english spoken, but probably understood, rat tails, facial piercings and lots of cigarettes. There are also lots of olive trees along the hill sides on southern Spain.
We arrived in Granada at 9 or 10pm and found a nice little tourist information booth with recommendations for places to stay. Since we had no reservations and only our trusty guide books, real life help and larger maps were welcomed. The city bus was simple enough with some direction and our hotel wasn’t too difficult to find. We found some overpriced microwave food and wandered around a bit before some sleep. We arose early to make it to the Alhambra before the crowds.
On this trip I decided to take on a different photographic approach. I brought a heavy medium format TLR camera and light meter to slow myself down when taking photos. This proved to be nice for taking photos of buildings and architecture but terrible for snapshots of people. It was a good exercise and I am glad I tried it out, but I will not bring this camera traveling again. Here are several of my favorite photos at the Alhambra. The most visited tourist destination in Spain.
Lots of cool doorways
This reminds me of the gardens at The Getty, but with a fortress instead of a museum
I either avoid tourists or embrace them
I have started a theme of tourist photos when I travel
I just like the line and shape with the light here
Shape and light
Lots of intricate detail in this fortress
Moor doorways
This gardener was a good sport for a photo, his friend was shy
Alhambra was very nice
Gibraltar is next.