A day in Granada, Spain

(This is long overdue...but it's beter to be late than never).

We just about to enter the Province of Granada.

Granada was first settled by native tribes in the prehistoric period, and was known as Ilbyr. When the Romans colonised southern Spain, they built their own city here and called it Illibris.

The Arabs, invading the peninsula in the 8th century, gave it its current name of Granada. It was the last Muslim city to fall to the Christians in 1492, at the hands of Queen Isabel of Castile and her husband Ferdinand of Aragon.

Inside garden of the Generalife.

One of the most brilliant jewels of universal architecture is the Alhambra, a series of palaces and gardens built under the Nazari Dynasty in the 14th C.

This is part of the ruined palace. You can see how they built it, composed of compartments. The blue horizon is just the range os Nevada.

This mighty compound of buildings – including the summer palace called Generalife, with its fountains and gardens - stands at the foot of Spain's highest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, and overlooks the city below and the fertile plain of Granada.

This is the plain of Granada. We took the view from the top of the ruined palace.

Because it was the last city reconquered by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, Granada has an unmistakable Arab flavour. Its cuisine, crafts and urban layout are a consequence of the city's glorious history. Fountains, viewpoints, and the villas surrounded by gardens typical of the city, add to Granada's unforgettable charm. Not in vain was one of its oldest districts, the Albaicín, declared a World Heritage Site, together with the Alhambra and the Generalife.

We were sitting in the plane and alas! Got the top view where we stand. It was really a tough day when we climbed the top...not to mentioned my 5 month old tummy :-)

Walk through beautiful gardens, charming narrow streets filled with flowers, sit down in one of those typical taverns to have some of that famous ham and local wine, and breath the centuries of history around us...

Here, we deserved a share of Spanish cuisine...Gracias!