Court of the Lions

Part Three: Generalife Palace & Gardens

Our visit concluded after a short walk up to the Generalife Gardens. A lot of this area showed the different styles and forces that were in power. For example, one part was actually only created in the early nineteenth century, while others were claimed to be from the Muslim era (but were actually much more recent). Passed an example house on the way and we were struck by how similar it was in layout to the ruins of Greek and Roman houses we had seen in Italy (with the small rooms clustering around a central pool etc.). Also passed the old Islamic baths, which were interesting (and again similar to, or inspired by, Roman baths).

The gardens themselves were quite nice – pretty. The audioguide was valuable in this part as it explained a lot more and told little stories, like about how the royals used to ride over to the gardens and then dismount in the “Courtyard of Dismounting” (although they used a steeper path than we did, which now doesn't exist). There was also a lawsuit that ran for 100 years, to do with who owned the gardens or nobles' rights or something.

Then there were some inside rooms and another cool courtyard or two, similar in style to the Nasarid Palaces. We finished up with a nice walk down past some oleander plants (native to Granada and previously close to extinction until efforts were made to restore them) and through an avenue of cypress trees, with the autumn leaves falling around us. Lovely.

But we were hungry, so grabbed emapanadas, a panini (in this case, more like a pizza sub), sweet treats (including the milhoja, similar to a custard square) and some tinto de verano in a 1.5L bottle. Relaxed at home to get up to date on the blog and do some reading (a book from the house we're in – Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett – an interesting book looking at certain topical issues of Spain from the perspective of a British journalist who has settled in Madrid). Then a cheap kebab for dinner.Read more