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.
Then the Rock of Gibraltar, in all its glory, came into view. The Rock rises some 426 meters above the sea. As such, it’s almost a small mountain! Even though it’s a limestone rock, the Rock of Gibraltar is very green. The Rock has lots of vegetation and an abundance of wildlife. On its higher levels there is the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, which includes various migrating birds and the famed Gibraltar Barbary macaques.
When the taxi stopped, I was some 300 meters above sea level. Upon vacating the taxi, a few of the Rock’s Barbary macaques surrounded the entrance to the cave. Gibraltar is the only destination in Europe where you will find any Barbary macaques.
The tour continued towards the northern side of the Rock. It was there that we reached the Great Siege Tunnels which I briefly walked through. Their entrances are located at a point of the rock that overlooks Gibraltar’s airstrip close to the border.
Gibraltar Beaches
I settled in on the first two days, and on Saturday visited Montjuic Park for the marathon expo; to collect my race number and timing chip. The Museum of Arts towers over the front of the park; above cascading fountains framed by rows of steps. Musicians and giant dolls entertained in the square at the bottom of the cascading fountain.
I returned in the night to watch the Magic Fountain show. Every fifteen minutes between 7pm and 9pm the circular fountain at the foot of the hill seems to be awakened by music, spraying water high in the air while changing colours.
After about four miles the circuit took us past Camp Nou; the 98,000-capacity home of FC Barcelona is the largest stadium in Europe. That night I joined 68,000 people at the stadium to watch Barcelona beat Rayo Vallecano 3-1. Climbing to a seat about five rows from the top of the 150-feet-high stadium was hard work, but worth it, with the sensation of emerging into the steep-sided seating above the bright green pitch reminding me of the Lost Horizon story of a Shangri-La hidden in the Himalayan mountains.
Antoni Gaudi was Modernisme’s most famous artist, and a couple of miles later we passed the movement’s crowning glory. La Sagrada Familia is still under construction a century later. The 13,000-capacity cathedral’s size distinguished it from other cathedrals while passing, and on closer inspection so does its blending of nature into the design. Gaudi liked curves rather than straight lines, claiming there were none of the latter in nature; and some spire-tops are decorated with balls of fruit-colours.
The sky cleared the next day, and temperatures rose into the 60s Fahrenheit. I took the train out to Monistrol de Montserrat, and hiked to the Santa Maria de Montserrat monastery. To the north-west, snow-capped Pyrenees signified the border with France, while the Mediterranean Sea was visible to the east.
The next day I returned to Montjuic Park, going past the Arts Museum to the Olympic Stadium, which brought back memories of the 1992 Games. I walked past torch-pillars and the Telefonica tower to the tree-filled green zone leading up to Barcelona’s castle. Cannons point up and down the coast and there are great views of the city all the way to Tibidabo Mountain, overlooking Barcelona on the western horizon. The castle has a chequered past, being used to hold and execute prisoners in the civil war and other twentieth-century conflicts.
I had read in a guidebook that on Sundays at noon local Barcelonians gather together to dance the Sardana in the square by the Barcelona Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter where my hotel was conveniently located. The Sardana was on my “to-see” list, but I only had one Sunday in Barcelona and I wanted to spend the day hanging out in Gaudi’s “must-see” Parc Guell on the other side of town.
When I wasn’t watching the dancers’ feet in exasperation, I found myself alternately intrigued by an elderly man in one of the larger circles and two young couples who had formed their own circle on the periphery.
While tourists streamed in and out, I stayed for the entire performance that lasted almost two hours. At one point a Sardanista, who “worked the crowd” to solicit donations for the local Sardana organization, accidentally hit me in the back with her foot. I was fine, but profusely apologetic, she kept coming back to me every fifteen minutes to assure herself that I was okay. After the performance she told me, through her French-speaking friend (I know some French), that I must return the following day (Sunday) at noon for the next Sardana performance.
The 14th century Cathay Gothic cathedral in the Plaza de Pio XII, and its surrounding area, miraculously escaped destruction in 1558 when Barbarossa, the pirate Red Beard, attacked and destroyed the town with his Turkish mercenaries. The cathedral’s ornate Baroque style Chapel of the Souls was added in the 17th century, when much of the town was finally rebuilt. Then in the 19th century, it was finished with a neo-classical front facade. It still also contains a small minaret from the mosque that occupied its space before it was turned into a cathedral on the orders of King Alfonso III of Aragón, who took the island from its ruling Moors in 1287.
The square is edged with grand palaces on the cathedral side opposite the imposing Town Hall and theatre. Next to the theatre is a magnificent viewpoint looking out over the harbour. A couple of pavement cafes sit beyond this next to the corner that leads to the steps down to the harbour, which is lined on this side with popular restaurants.
The natural advantages of the waters of Mahon meant that the British based themselves there and declared it the new capital of the island. But the clerics of the time refused to move, so Ciutadella retains its cathedral and its religious superiority.
Unlike Ciutadella, Mahon town occupies only the southern side of the port. The opposite side houses the naval base. It is also where new resorts are being developed alongside some wonderful villas that include one where Admiral Nelson and Emma Hamilton are said to have had some romantic trysts.
Back on the harbour side of Mahon, if it’s time for a tipple, you can head for the centuries old Xoriguer Gin Distillery, famous for supplying unique Menorcan gin to Admiral Nelson’s British sailors. Or there are plenty of good bars and restaurants on the landward side of the harbour road, or up in the town above.
