Alhambra at Sunset

This is a view of the Alhambra in Grenada, from the San Nicolas Mirador (viewpoint) in the Albaicin district of the city. The Sierra Nevada range is in the background, with its early snow. It's worth a large view.

We reached the Mirador just a few minutes before sunset. It's clearly a late day gathering point--quite a crown had assembled. We had just visited the Church of San Juan de Dios in the main part of the city and then had trouble catching the right bus. San Juan is billed by our old Michelin guide as one of the most important churches in the city--it is incredibly richly decorated in gold gilt throughout, absolutely everywhere we looked (a sort of hispanic-christian counterpart to the Alhambra--I must say I prefer the latter).

The Albaicin is the Arabic district of Grenada, on a series of hill opposite the Alhambra. It is full of narrow, winding streets which complicated our bus ride.

Tomorrow we are off to Ubeda, which with its near neighbor Baeza is a UNESCO world heritage site--they have extensive, well preserved Renaissance architecture.