Granada, Spain
by Inka Piegsa-Quischotte
When I recently took up residence in Benalmadena Costa on Spain’s Costa del Sol some 30 minutes by car from Malaga, I had not only the fabulous beaches and warm climate in mind but also the fact that some of the best destinations in the south of Spain were within easy reach.
Sure enough, I discovered a travel agency just across the road from my condo which offered day trips at extremely reasonable prices. So, I didn’t hesitate to book the first of several, my destination of choice being Granada.
When we arrived, I told the tour guide that I would now make my own way and meet the coach in time for the return trip. “Where do you want to go?” he asked, apparently a bit miffed that I shunned his tour of the Alhambra which is of course the main attraction of Granada. But I had something else in mind. “I want to go to Sacromonte, visit the caves and follow the roots of Flamenco,`I replied.
“Tourist traps,” `he sniffed,” and anyway the performances are only at night”. Little did he know what I found.
Leaving the guide and my fellow passengers to explore the Alhambra, I asked a friendly policeman if there was a local bus to take me up one of the seven hills of Granada, Sacromonte, just opposite the Alhambra. There was, I hopped on and off we went, up and up through ever narrower streets until the driver told me to get off and continue on foot as the bus couldn’t go any further.
Granada, also known as the City of Music or the City of Guitars, is the place where the wild and passionate dance of Flamenco originates from. Or to be exact, the part called Sacromonte. A few hundred years ago, the Romani during their migrations from Eastern Europe, settled there and took up residence in the countless caves which dot the mountain side with the river Genil flowing at their feet and the majestic silhouette of the Alhambra in front. They created their own music and dance, Flamenco in its purest and most captivating form.
Many of these caves, warm in winter, cool in the summer, are still inhabited today, well appointed and furnished. Climbing white washed stairs from one level to the next, I came past many tablaos, the venues where nightly performances of Flamenco take place and which earned Sacromonte the byword of tourist trap. Up to a point this is justified, but if you know what to do and where to look you get to experience the real thing.
As soon as I climbed the first set of stairs, I heard a guitar and clapping hands. The door to a tablao was open and I peeked inside. Seven dancers and musicians were rehearsing and generally playing for their own entertainment and simply because the music runs in their blood.
They waved me inside and I was the recipient of a performance just for me and definitely a spell bound spectator to the real thing.
Another way of enjoying Flamenco at its best is to make the way to Sacromonte very late at night or, depending on your point of view, early in the morning at around 3 or 4 pm. The tourist performances are over and the musicians and dancers indulge in new compositions and guitar music, relaxing in tiny bars with (undiluted) red wine and maybe a slice of the famous tortilla Sacromonte, a specialty not for the faint hearted because it contains not only eggs, peppers and onions but also chopped bull´s testicles!
Any foreigner who visits at that late hour is automatically welcomed as an insider, regaled with stories of the Romani history and the best flamenco they will ever hear and see.
After my morning visit to the hill, I enjoyed the walk down along the river Guanil with the Alhambra on my left and ending up in the heart of Granada, the very pretty Plaza Nueva.
1.5 Hour Flamenco Show in a Cave-Restaurant in Granada
If You Go:
Granada has continental climate which means often snow and very cold in winter, hot in summer.
♦ If you want to visit the Alhambra as well, avoid the summer months when there are too many tourists. Most pleasant is early spring or late fall. Wear comfortable shoes whether you explore Sacromonte or the Alhambra.
♦ There is plenty of public transport in Granada. Take the local buses.
Private Tour: Flamenco Dance Lesson in a Granada Sacromonte Cave
About the author:
Born in Germany, Inka Piegsa-Quischotte has lived in Switzerland, the UK, Spain and South Africa and worked as an international attorney for over 30 years. Having traveled the world during her profession and seen nothing, she dropped everything three years ago and became a free lance travel writer, photographer and novelist and started her blog www.glamourgrannytravels.com . Her articles have appeared in GoNomad, offbeattravel, lighthouse digest, bootsnall, neos kosmos, literary traveler, Smithsonian magazine and many more. She continues to travel the world in style and luxury, seeking out unusual destinations, historical sites and beauty where ever she can find it. When not traveling she used to live between Istanbul and Miami but has recently relocated to the Costa Blanca near Alicante in Spain.
All photos by Inka Piegsa-Quischotte.
Thunder, then lightning flashed above the forest. Light rain fell, then more. My group, all passengers from my ship that had docked at Sochi, had quickly scampered ahead at the first crack of thunder. Somehow, suddenly it had happened…I was on my own, on increasingly slippery granite, limestone steps, roots and uneven chunks of clay.
It had become impossible for me to keep up with this very mobile group. At first I found it quite amusing to see the guide on the steps with her wobbly spiked red heels. After the third trip to see if I was still alive, she never returned to me again. That was not quite so funny! I was alone somewhere in this Reserve with a storm brewing and the dusk increasing.
I gently touched the fossils, lingering as long as I could with thunder, lightning and gentle rain as my companions. I fingered the ancient layers, marvelling that at one point in prehistory these same crustaceans below my fingers were once part of a sea. I tried to capture the eternity they held. I now knew being alone was a gift with which to experience this ancient place and I was so grateful for this solitary time.
I carried on, into darkness now. Surely it couldn’t be much further. Where was the rest of the group? I passed a lone statute of a leopard as if leaping. My steps quickened. Why was this statue here? I later learnt that this area is home to the Persian Snow Leopard, an endangered species.
Human habitation goes back 500,000 years and there are undisturbed remnants of 150 prehistoric villages. The area was a prince’s hunting reserve called ‘Kuban Chase’ in the l880s. In 1906 the area was returned to settlers. In 1924 the area was referred to as the Kavkazskiy Reserve. In 1999 it became a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site, 120 km east to west and 50 km north to south.
nhabiting this area are 384 species of vertebrates. There are 60 mammal species including wolf, bear, lynx, wild boar, deer, chamois and reintroduced European bison which are globally endangered. There are 246 species of birds, some endangered as well as l5 species of reptiles, 7 of amphibians, 12 kinds of fishes and 2500 recorded insect species from a projected total of 5000.
Beziers is ancient. It has been settled since neolithic times, predating the arrival even of the wide ranging Celts. The Phoenicians are credited as being the first settlers and the city itself takes its inception as 575 BC, only 25 years younger than ancient Marseille. The Romans re founded the city in 36 or 35 BC as a settlement for retired veterans renaming it Colonia Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum. Even the Islamic Moors had a short reign as rulers here from 720 to 752.
With difficulty, amid the winding streets of the old city where we actually came upon a sign pointing in two separate directions to the cathedral, we eventually found ourselves in a shaded square staring high up at the steeple of Saint Nazaire. To say it is awe inspiring is saying the least. It oozed poignancy; I half expected the stone to speak or ghosts to stare down from its heights.
The Albigensian Crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent III, a most ironic title at best, in 1208, against a growing religious splinter group known as the Cathars ( from the Greek Katharos meaning pure). The crusade was to persist until the last of the Cathar “parfaits” was burned at the stake in 1321. What the crusade missed the Inquisition finished. The Cathars, who have been referred to as the Buddhists of Christianity, held there were two gods at play in the world and the world of man was created by the evil god, the satanic god, and the only way to escape was to live a pure life and after several incarnations one would exit the vicious cycle. As part of the purity were such requirements as vegetarianism and celibacy. Of highest esteem were the “parfaits”, those who were most achieved in their quest for heaven.
On July 21, 1209 the crusaders appeared at the doorstep of the city and sent word the Catholics could leave and be spared the fate of the resident Cathars. In a remarkable display of loyalty the Catholics chose to stay with their friends and neighbours. The forces of the Crusaders quickly overran the defences and fell upon the inhabitants like wolves. None, neither man woman nor child, Catholic or Cathar, were spared.
Clambering down we emerged at the square below the heavenly directed spire. An emblazoned plaque sits as a silent reminder of the dark deeds of so many years ago. To be remembered. That is good.
The cheery pedestrian ways, squares and cafe’s brought us back to the present and the witnessing of the fact life goes on. And under the Sun of southern France colour and liveliness are even more rampant. Beziers is like its urban kin throughout southern France. It is beautiful and a treat to explore.
If you enjoyed the liberalism, museums and art galleries of Amsterdam, why not continue on less than an hour’s train ride away in the far less touristy yet decidedly more international ‘city of peace and justice,’ Den Haag (‘The Hague’)? As well as these kinds of attractions, Den Haag’s human rights law courts – the International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, and International Court of Justice – offer free, extraordinary experiences that can’t be had anywhere else in the world. Den Haag is also home to the 
Most people visiting Den Haag visit the Peace Palace. Currently celebrating its 100th anniversary, the Peace Palace established Den Haag as an international centre for human rights. At the visitors centre, Tuesday – Friday, 10 – 5pm (4pm in winter), you can enjoy a free short film and interactive exhibition about all that is housed here: the International Court of Justice (United Nations court that settles legal disputes between the 192 United Nations member states), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Peace Palace Library and the Hague Academy for International Law (visit takes 30-45 mins). On weekends, you can tour the palace and its courtrooms for €8.50. Book tickets 
Over in another area of Den Haag, the International Criminal Court – which places on trial alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity – also offers free tours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am – 12. Incredibly inspiring, the tour gave me an amazing insight into the lengths the court goes to, to enable victims of human rights abuses to testify: from organising visa-free travel to Den Haag, to teaching victims about computers and court rooms, giving them psychological counselling, and allowing them all the time they need to share their experiences with the court. BOOKING IS REQUIRED 1 MONTH ahead (2 months for groups of 5+) by emailing in the form found here. You can also watch cases. No need to book – just remember your passport. Check the 
I watched a case, actually two – not at the International Criminal Court but at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the first international war crimes tribunal since WWII. If you’ve travelled to Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia or Kosovo, you’ll be very aware of the 1990s conflicts that went on within these regions. Or perhaps you remember the horrific images in the news? Serbian soldiers holding the Bosnian city of Sarajevo under siege for almost 4 years, of refugees fleeing their newly declared nation of Kosovo, of mass slaughter upon mass slaughter. Perhaps while Europe suffered another genocide, you were in a classroom learning about Nazi Germany or in a movie theatre watching the newly released Schlinder’s List? The ICTY is today’s Nuremburg Trials.
Infamous war criminals such as Radovan Karadžic attract visitors, but for the little-known, I was pretty much it. After passing through security, I was escorted to a small room with a large window into a court room. Watching a live court case of this magnitude was fascinating: two men charged with genocide, a policeman either side; an American lawyer; a British judge; two additional judges; a witness; the British judge instructing the witness to refrain from looking at the accused every time he began to speak; simultaneous language translation into English, French and Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian; the American lawyer defining the word ‘payment’ as a catch-all term in English as opposed to its more specific meanings in Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian.
Leaving the ICTY, I notice the World Forum Convention Centre next door and decide to check it out. Glad I did. The interior is very, very interesting! There’s a world map carpet, zebra toilets, a basement themed by the world’s oceans, a ground floor themed by the world’s continents, a first floor themed by the world’s rivers, and a second floor themed by the world’s mountains. Den Haag has a lot of novel surprises like that. Effort seems to be put into making things that extra bit fun, revealing another way the city cultivates all that is good about humanity. You can see it everywhere: in the bike and pedestrian culture, in the bustling historical squares full of cafes and bars, in the parks and forested areas (outnumbering those of any other Dutch city), and in the culturally diverse shops and events. There are so many things to do that I haven’t even mentioned. Visit the 
Although the sea seems to stop a long way from the mountains, I realised they meet nearly every day; and that it is an ancient tale painted differently each time. Sometimes the sky expresses itself with bold snow; leaving a picture that demands your attention. Other times it impresses with light brush strokes of ephemeral rain; hiding the boundary between wet and dry land. If you look closely, it often seems to use two hands to do both of the above at the same time. Set against Bergen’s northern mountains, I noticed precipitation falling as snow and rain at the same time for the first time.
A combination of the visual splendour and memories of past hobo travels inspired me to walk to the Vandrerhjem Montana hostel half way up Mount Ulriken, where I’d booked five nights accommodation.
Passing the lake-looking Store Lungegardsvann; which is in fact the sea reaching around Bergen’s centre like a curling outstretched arm and big clenched hand; I walked up past parks decorated with Edvard Greig and Ole Bull statues to the colourful Logen theatre house.
Bergen’s distinctive docklands buildings are built on the original site of the city, dating from the 11th century. Its strategic location helped Bergen become Norway’s capital and the largest city in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages. It was a member of the Hanseatic League trading confederation, and there is a museum commemorating merchant life from 1360-1754 in the red, green and yellow wooden buildings on the eastern edge of Bryggen.
