[April 24, Granada]
Though it is only April, we have been dismayed at the unexpectedly large crowds here in Spain and were not looking forward to sharing the Alhambra with massed formations of group tours. We had the happy idea to see the Alhambra at night, when most groups are being stuffed with Spain's notoriously late-hour dinners or treated to an "authentic" flamenco dinner/floor show. We had seen the palace of the Moors by day many years ago and a night visit offered a certain romantic charm.
It was a good decision. After the usual annoyance of long ticket and waiting lines and poorly presented directions, we entered into a magical realm of ghostly columns, luminous stucco, and pools of moon-lit water. There was almost total silence. The other visitors shared our feeling of awe, and even boisterous children were attentive.
These photos hardly do justice to the visit, and the colors in particular are not true: some too warm because of incandescent lighting and some to ghostly gray when I used flash. Interestingly, the guards did not raise the usual objections to either flash-less or flash photography. Another example of "Hispania waves the rules".
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