Day 20 - All toured out

Granada

For people who "don't do tours", we certainly made an exception today! We started off with our standard free walking tour of the city. This one had amazing reviews so we expected great things, unfortunately the guide wasn't that great. He was certainly qualified, with a PhD in history, in fact it's quite sad that there seems to be an entire generation of very qualified people who by necessity end up in basic jobs. Unfortunately our guide was a bit on the dry side, such a shame, however he dangled the carrot of a flamenco evening that was promised to be pure and original so we signed up for that for about 7:30pm. 

Before that though we had the Alhambra to tackle. All you hear about the south of Spain is "you have to go to the Alhambra" - so of course we went to the Alhambra. We had left it quite late to buy tickets, so they were all supposedly sold out. However we were able to book a guided tour at €55 each (normal entrance fee is €15), we decided we had no option but to pay the money as we may never be in Granada again. We have since realized that the reason the tickets are sold out so far in advance is probably that the tour companies buy them up leaving very few normal tickets left for sale.  

We decided to walk to the entrance of the Alhambra as it wasn't meant to be very far..... unfortunately google maps took us on a 30 minute climb up a hill via some steps and then down the other side, great short cut! At least we're able to justify our daily ice cream!

We arrived just in time for the call for English speakers, we joined the masses with their microphones and finally entered the Alhambra. The microphones are actually a good idea, the guide can talk while we are walking and everyone can hear him. This guide had exceptional English, all the others apart from our guide in Málaga haven't been that great, and sometimes  difficult to understand. We spent the next 2 1/2 hours touring the massive, Alhambra complex and learning interesting facts like, how to tell the difference between a Muslim fountain and a Christian one. A Muslim fountain has a low soft bubble up of water, a Christian one springs in arches.  

The trip back to the city after the Alhambra was a speedy 10 minute downhill trek, so we made it in time to join our flamenco evening tour. We started off with a drink at a roof top bar while being given a history lesson of the dance before arriving at the tiny venue. There were two dancers, unfortunately it looked like a tired middle aged mother paired with her 30-something son. He was very passionate and she did her best, a little disappointing, but still worthwhile.

By then it was around 11pm - perfect time to do what the Spanish do and go have dinner - more Moroccan this time.