We agree with Washington Irving

I hate the word awesome. I think it has been demeaned by adolescent overuse by people of all ages. I hated that overuse even more yesterday as we explored the Alhambra in Granada. This was a place that was truly awesome, and the accurate adjective had been stolen by nailcolours and sparkly cellphones.
We began our day quite early, which worked our well since we had extra time to go and find churros and molten chocolate. It was awesome. Hah! The bus ride to Granada took about 1 1/2 hours through pretty countryside, rough and rolling. It was easy to find our way across this city of maybe 600 000. We got off at the Cathedral and began our trudge along the edge of the Moorish section toward the Alhambra. The climb was quite steep and we quickly appreciated those churros and chocolate which helped power us to the top where we found the ticket office and entered an old and fabulous world.
The Alhambra, or the red fort, began life as a Ziridian fortress from the 800's. It was a rough and derelect settlement until the 1300's when it was converted into a palace for the Nasrid dynasty. In just over 100 years it was taken from the Moors by the Catholic kings, aka Ferdinand, and his wife Isabella. It was here that the charter was drawn up which sent Christopher Columbus to the new world. The Catholics held on to the Alhambra until it became property of the country of Spain.
There are 4 distinct parts. There is a military area where military stuff happened, the palace, where the royals lived, the Medina where the merchants lived and worked and the area called the area of general life where food was produced and the farming community lived. Each part was very sophisticated with running water used for cooling, sewage systems and to beautify the grounds. For the most part the Medina and the military area are now foundations which have been unearthed. The palace however is truly awesome. We have read what we can find and it is unbelievable how quickly this was built considering how ornate and huge it is. I hope that the pictures give you some idea of its grandeur.
Washington Irving, an American writer, artist, philosopher and diplomat came to Spain in the late 1820's and was given rooms in the Alhambra by the Governor. He stayed for about 3 months writing and thinking. His book, TALES FROM THE ALHAMBRA, made the area world famous. He is featured in a detailed display on the site and it is clear that he loved this place and considered it special. We agree.
We walked until we couldn't any more, and we still didn't get to everything. We had had no lunch until we got back down the hill. We were glad that our daughter in law wasn't there. She's tiny, but she gets really grumpy in those circumstances. After a lunch of which my sons would have approved. We strolled through the Arab marketplace and made our way back to the bus. Our day was wonderful and memorable for so many reasons.