Allegedly, the most visited attraction in Spain is the Alhambra in Granada. I can imagine it’s true, after all, it is a beautiful composition of buildings, palaces and gardens, you can check for pictures yourself. What interested me the most was the richness and diversity of patterns.
But let’s start with the visit. When I started researching for tickets etc. I came across lots of rules, regulations and tips of how to plan the visit. There are many different ticket types to choose from, so it’s a bit important to know what you want beforehand. Navigating the Ticketmaster’s website that’s selling the tickets is more or less a pain in the behind as things are very hard to read and comprehend and the user interaction appears to be from the last century. So, after my research and my visit I had these crucial findings:
- If you want to visit the Nasrid Palace, you need to plan ahead well. When I wanted to buy tickets, the Nasrid Palace was sold out for the next 7 days.
- There are different times slots for the visit: morning and afternoon and also nighttime for some attractions.
- We weren’t able to visit the Nasrid Palace, “only” the rest of the Alhambra in a morning slot. We were a bit scared of the warning about long lines and waits. My experience was: we were there on time (a little before 8:30 in the morning) and it was neither packed nor did we have to wait in any lines. It was totally relaxed.
- Sometimes, it’s good to unfollow the masses and do the opposite of what’s recommended. So, if some guide tells you to visit this first, then don’t…rather visit that first ;)
Back to my patterns. I love patterns. Always have, that is the truth. I knew this but Alhambra reminded me of this fact. Throughout the whole site, I found beautiful, simple, complicated, colorful patterns everywhere – the whole spectrum. The patterns are a crucial part of the then Moorish design and of Islamic geometric patterns in general. I just enjoy staring at these patterns…and getting lost in them. I’m a patternoholic.
