Alhambra!

Yes! I got in! Without having procured a ticket in advance! Here's what I had to do:

I got in a taxi at 6:30 am and by 6:45 I was standing in line, in the dark, waiting for the Alhambra ticket office to open at 8:00 am. There were about 8 people in line ahead of me. Conversations, such as they were, were very quiet .... in Spanish, German, French...

For the first 45 minutes we stood in darkness, the line behind me growing. It was cold; we were all wearing jackets. A couple from Australia came to stand right behind me, and they were my salvation! We chatted happily and the time flew. Around 7:30, the lights inside the building went on! 

Look! They've turned the lights on inside!

By 8:00, when the doors opened, it was already light outside and there were hundreds of people behind me in line.

There is no way that my little photographs can capture the grandeur of this place, the magnitude. From the outside, it doesn't look like much more than a big fort. Inside, it's a wonder of light and grace, of lacy detail carved into every inch of stone on the walls, and into wood on the ceilings. Here are some little corners:

This is looking up into a corner at the ceiling in one of the rooms.  That's not wallpaper — it's carved stone.

Look up at the ceilings! They're carved out of wood. And the ceiling of each room is different.

And then there's this ceiling!

And then... look down at the floors!  These tiny little tiles, one-of-a-kind.  Is this a radish?  A beet?
(Thanks to Betsy and Nina, who point out that this is a POMEGRANATE! Of course! The apple of Granada!)

Between rooms...   graceful outdoor patios

and gardens...

reflecting pools...

and little peeks at the outside world. 

Outside the Alhambra proper, I walked through the "Wine Gate," which inspired Claude Debussy to write his "Puerta del Vino."

The Puerta del Vino separated the Alhambra from the Medina — the old city, long ago demolished. What remains is the ruins of the city and the fortress.  It was fun to climb it!

Yes, I climbed to the top of that tower! Very slowly!

At the very top!

Here are the two young Australians, Martina and Ruben. We kept running into each other as the morning progressed.

At the very end of the Alhambra, a walk through the Generalife Gardens, graced by the all-important water.

Come here if you can. Bring a friend along. And get your ticket well in advance!