Alhambra

“This is where you will probably spend most of your time” said Inma, showing us round our Airbnb. We had wound our way up to the top floor of the Arab-style house and Inma pulled open the French window leading to the balcony. In front of us, floodlit and deep orange , the Alhambra stretched on its rocky outcrop against the evening sky. High behind the collection of moorish palaces lay the white snow caps of the Sierra Nevada, and to the West the sunset was made up of the most vivid Spanish colours – yellows and reds and all the shades in between.

Inma was right. We have spent many hours this week on the balcony gazing at the sunset behind the Alhambra, a panorama of rose and ocre, beautiful man-made buildings against the natural backdrop.

A week ago, if the question had come up on a TV quiz show of where the Alhambra is, I might have shouted out: Granada. But if the choice had been between Granada, Cordoba, Seville I might have hesitated for a moment. Today I am amazed by my recent ignorance. However I have a policy not to read up and know too much about new places before I visit them. In this way I avoid disappointment and open up the possibility of surprise.

Today the world’s beautiful places are spoiled by busloads of tourists busy taking pictures of themselves. It is difficult not to be distracted and to be able to experience the surprise and joy that early visitors must have felt when they first saw a wonderful site.

I try to avoid the tourist trail, to give the crowds the slip, and find my own way around a new place. I’m looking for freedom, or at least the illusion that I might discover something new all by myself. The Alhambra, which previously I only vaguely knew of, has not disappointed me.