Albaycin and Alhambra

A final walk round Albaycin, already in the low 30s, and I notice adverts galore for chi kung, tai chi, yoga, pilates, dance and singing classes. Plus a health food store or two set among the many bars, tapas joints and food shops. This is definitely the part of Granada I'd live in, if I chose to live here. High up with fantastic views, cobbled streets and only a 10-15 min walk from the centre, though somewhat more back up again!

The Alhambra, yesterday overwhelmed my senses. The Generalife gardens, with mazes of evergreens, cross shaped irrigation systems, fountains and ponds with lily pads. The air was alive with the sound of swallows and heady with the scents of hundreds of roses, scents I'd never previously associated with natural sources. The air was balmy in the morning, hot in the sunshine, and cooler in the shade.

We saw the baths, the complex and ingenious irrigation systems that covered the whole complex, designed to supply hundreds with the calming sounds of running water.

There were squares designed purely for contemplation, longer than they were wide, after business or prayer, fountains trickling, cool marble floors and shaded terraces.

The palace itself filled my eyes with such a multitude of multi-prism carvings, gold, arches, columns, tilings in orange, green, black and blue, that they didn't know how to respond. We saw the bedrooms of two sisters, with their own marble courtyard and fountain, connected, as always, to the complex pathways of irrigation and other waterways.

The lighting was beautiful in the palace, in some places lit by eight-point star shapes cut out of the ceiling, creating a dancing dappled effect on the floors and walls.

I'm still not sure what to make of it all, my mind having taken in a month's worth of beauty in about seven hours. Truly a place I'd recommend spending a whole day visiting.

For now, this is me. We're leaving Granada today, bound for a yurt in a national park further south. Hoping to hit the beach and get some swimming in...

Just two pics some of you will have seen - one from the palace in the Alhambra, one from it's gardens. I promise there will be more in a few weeks!