Spain's Costa del Sol
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Hi, I'm Rick Steves, your globe-trotting guinea pig with a world of travel thrills to share with you. We're delighted that you're traveling with us as we continue our grand tour of greatest hits and back door secrets.
This time we'll explore the delights of Granada and its famous Alhambra palace, then we'll unroll our beach towel on Spain's sunny Costa del Sol, we'll climb the spectacular rock of Gibraltar, catch some wind-surfing action in Tarifa and then share tapas with some locals before cruising to exotic Tangiers
Spain dominates Europe's Iberian Peninsula sitting just north of Morocco. We'll start in the city of Granada, cruise along the Costa del Sol, drop down to Gibraltar, and sail over to the Moroccan city of Tangier.
We're not in Morocco yet, but things are already feeling pretty African — and there's a reason. This is Granada's old Moorish quarter, the Albaicin.
In the year 711, Islamic armies crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and quickly conquered the Iberian Peninsula. Throughout the Middle Ages — for over 700 years — Spain was ruled by the Islamic Moors. And even today, many old Spanish towns come with a whiff of Arabia.
Granada's Albaicin is one of Spain's best old Moorish quarters. As minarets became bell towers, the churches were kept plain by design — to go easy on the Muslim converts who weren't used to being surrounded by images as they worshipped. With countless market stalls, flowery patios, and shady lanes, the back streets of old Granada are a treat to explore.
Granada is big — 200,000 people — but the sights are within easy walking distance. This lively Plaza Nuevo separates the Moorish quarter, where we just were, from the great Moorish palace, the Alhambra, just up that road. We'll visit the royal chapel — just over there — later. But let's beat the crowds and heat by visiting the Alhambra first.
This last and greatest Moorish palace is one of Europe's top sights. Nowhere else does the splendor of Moorish civilization shine so brightly. The Alhambra, with all due respect, is really a symbol of retreat. Cordoba was the Moorish capital for 500 years. But the Christian Reconquista took back Cordoba and gradually pushed the Moors south.
From the mid-1200s until 1492, Granada reigned as the capital of a dwindling Moorish empire. This palace complex was built in the 13th and 14th centuries to house the Moorish royalty.
In 1492 the Christian flags of Aragon and Castile — symbolizing a united Spain — were raised on this tower, and Ferdinand and Isabella moved in. The mountains to the south are the Sierra Nevada, where the fleeing Moorish King Boabdil looked back at Granada and wept.
A visit to the Alhambra reminds us that while Europe slumbered through the Dark Ages, this Moorish civilization was wide awake. The math necessary to construct this palace was beyond anything the Europeans of that day could do. The Moors made great gains in engineering, medicine, and even Greek classical studies. Some of the great thinking of classical Greece was lost to Europe, absorbed into Islam, and given back to Europe via Moorish scholars here in Spain.
In keeping with the Koran, Islamic art avoids images of people or animals, and concentrates on design. There's water everywhere. Water, so rare and precious in most of the Islamic world, was the purest symbol of life to the Moors. The Alhambra is decorated with water — standing still, cascading, drip-dropping playfully, and masking secret conversations.
This is the actual royal palace — the jewel of the Alhambra.
If you can imagine a few tapestries, carpets, ivory-studded wooden furniture, and some more paint, the palace today looks much like it did for the Moorish kings.
This the court of the Lions. These 12 lions were signs of the zodiac. The centerpiece was a sundial. At each hour, water would flow from a different lion's mouth.
Like the Moorish king did, we can escape from the palace into the most perfect Arabian garden in Andalucia. The Generalife was the summer retreat of the Moorish kings. Lush and bursting with water, it's the closest thing on earth to the Koran's description of heaven.
Charles V's Renaissance palace sits awkwardly plopped right in the middle of all this Moorish splendor. I suppose it's only natural for a conquering civilization to build its palace over its foe's palace.
Designed by a student of Michelangelo, this is the finest Renaissance building in Spain. In this circular courtyard, Charles enjoyed watching his own private bullfights.
Capilla Real — that means Royal Chapel. Budget travel in a taxi? Hey, I'm tired, this ride will save us 20 minutes, and there are three of us to split the bill.
A taxi ride can be a smart investment even if you're traveling on a shoestring. In Spain cabbies use the meter.
If I'm treated right, I round the bill up, tipping about ten percent.
This royal chapel is Granada's top Christian sight. In 1492 the Moors were booted and the Catholic Spanish monarchy established itself with a vengeance. With the most lavish interior money could buy 500 years ago, it provides a fitting final resting place for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.
Isabella and Ferdinand married their vast holdings of Aragon and Castile together. In doing so, they founded what became modern Spain. Spanish royalty like Isabella and Ferdinand financed the early Spanish explorers. The gold you see here and throughout Spain was plundered by the Conquistadors who followed Columbus. Inca and Aztec treasures were melted down and shipped to Spain.
But like a Midas' touch, Spain's gold was a curse in the long run. Industry was neglected. Wars were too easy to finance. Corruption was rampant. And the influx of wealth brought run-away inflation. Spain's middle class — the Don Quixotes — withered as the rich partied and the poor multiplied.
Since the 16th century, Spain has been plagued by a sizable gap between rich and poor. As they have for centuries, a gauntlet of people who need a little of your money wait outside many of Spain's lavish churches and palaces.
OK, with the necessary shoe shine, I'm off for a photo safari in the closest thing to an Arab market you'll find in Spain.
From Granada it's a two hour drive or bus ride over the mountains and down into Europe's fun-in-the-sun headquarters: the Costa del Sol.
This strip of Mediterranean coastline is so commercialized, it's interesting. Anything even resembling a quaint fishing village has been strip-malled and parking metered.
Oblivious to the concrete, pollution, package tours, and traffic jams, tourists lie on the beach like game hens on skewers' cooking, rolling, and happily sweating under the reliable sun.
Every country from the drizzly north of Europe tucks a sun-worshipping expatriate community somewhere along this coast. They don't want to leave their culture...just their weather.
The British Costa del Sol community listens to Coastline Radio.
Radio: Coastline FM 97.7 24 hours a day, in English
If all this sunshine makes you homesick for rainy London, you can visit the Rock of Gibraltar — a little piece of old England. It's one of the last bits of a British empire that at one time controlled a quarter of the planet.
The Spain/Gibraltar border used to be closed. But now that Spain and Britain are communicating better, we can simply flash our passport, wait for the green light, and actually walk across this airstrip into Gibraltar.
Gibraltar flags fly over a fun mix of "God Save the Queen" tattoos, fish 'n chips joints, tourist shops, and military memories. And there's always a pint of bitter or some pub grub nearby when you need it.
You'd have to travel a thousand miles to find another selection of English delicacies this good.
The highlight of Gibraltar is the spectacular Rock itself. A cable car whisks you from downtown Gibraltar to the 1400 foot summit. From the "Top of the Rock" you can ramble old ramparts and marvel at the view.
And 15 miles across the hazy Strait of Gibraltar, Morocco beckons. On a crisp winter day you can even see buildings. The rocky cliffs of Africa side coupled with this towering first bit of Europe make what the ancients called the Pillars of Hercules. For centuries, this was considered the edge of the world.
After riding the lift up, it's an entertaining hike down. You'll meet the famous Apes of Gibraltar. Legend has it that the British will stay in Gibraltar as long as these Barbary Apes — actually tailless monkeys — are around. When the ape population dwindled in 1944, Winston Churchill actually sent in reinforcements.
Rick: Which hand has the banana? Today, banana-toting tourists keep the apes well-fed.
Just an hour west of Gibraltar, Tarifa, is an Arabic-looking town with cool white-washed lanes and small town Spanish ambiance.
If you don't mind calling hours-d'oveurs "dinner", Tarifa — like just about any Spanish town — offers a great budget eating experience — a tapas pub crawl.
Cafe Central is a relaxing first stop, then it's into the back lanes for a hole-in-the-wall second stop. Senor Hidalgo here has served his neighbors shrimp and octopus for 36 years. Snack-sized portions are tapas.
To split a larger plate, ask for raccione. Our next pub is noted for its caracoles — snails. Not listed on the menu — they're only available after rain storms. Andres Gallego harvests them himself. Our last course is at the Melli bar — spicy sausage. . .that's chorizo. Tapas bars like this offer great food and are the focus of night life in small towns throughout Spain.
In these more touristic, Tarifa has become Europe's wind surfing paradise. This is the high-energy place where Mediterranean winds, Atlantic winds, and German surf-culture converge. With VW vans stacked high with wind surf gear, Tarifa has traded a little charm for a lot of business.
While a 19th century French plan to dig a tunnel from Tarifa to Morocco never materialized, today hassle-free boats make the trip from here to Africa daily. Tarifa is the best jumping off point for a day trip into Morocco. This boat — loaded down with Costa del Sol day-trippers — makes the hour-long crossing every morning. And here comes Tangier...welcome to Africa.
There are many ways to experience Morocco — and a day in Tangier is probably the worst. But all you need is one day and a passport. Tangier is the Tijuana of Morocco — everyone seems to be expecting you.
Your guide meets you at the harbor, hustles you through the hustlers and onto your bus for a day packed with sights and activities in and around Tangier.
Day-long tours from Tarifa are well-organized, reliable, and packed with experiences. And, given the steep price of the boat passage alone, the tour package is a good value for those who can spare only a day for Morocco.
As your bus rattles through Tangier you realize that already today you've journeyed farther culturally than you did by traveling all the way from your hometown to Spain. For the big group tourist, Moroccan culture can be a gaudy stage show with a series of acts waiting in ambush.
Act one: Camels. It's like a circus ride for tourists, but for North Africans camels are a pretty important desert resource. Camels can close their nostrils in a sand storm, they can go for days without water, and live off the fat in their hump when they run out of food.
Sure, it's mostly a photo op, but if you feel like you've got to have a camel ride before you meet your maker, it's easier here than at home. If that doesn't satisfy your taste for cultural kitsch, act two just may. Snake charmers; now, I don't know if snake charming is native to Tangier, but it's another slick try at parting the tourist from his money.
For these people, they make a living only from the tourists. A small tip is expected, especially if you take a snapshot. Handling a six-foot black cobra is best left to the pros, but volunteers can get friendly with this slimy character. And just around the corner is act three. Tour organizers work hard to provide that special Kodak moment.
This is all pretty touristy. But the day is nonstop action and certainly more memorable than another day in Spain. The shopping is absolutely. . .Moroccan. Bargain hard!
Interaction with salesmen:
While Moroccans are some of Africa's wealthiest people, we tourists are still incredibly rich to them. This imbalance causes predictable problems. Wear your money belt. Assume merchants and con artists are cleverer than you.
Haggle when appropriate — prices skyrocket for tourists.
Even a few moments on your own can get you beyond the hungry merchants and leave you with a friendlier, and truer, impression of Morocco. To get a good feel for just about any city, I hop on a public bus.
On my first visit to Morocco — because of the language barrier — I was always lost. Then I learned to relax and let go, riding random city buses — just exploring and meeting people not positioned to ambush visiting tourists.
Rick & local: In Arabic, hello, ma salaama. So we can go ma salaama. And then one of the things I really like: In-sha-allah. We will return to Morocco if god wills it. In-sha-allah means "If God wills it."
Skipping out of the belly dancing lunch stop and the "art school" visit — which is actually a carpet sales pitch — we gained three hours of independence. Freedom! Enough time to sample the "national drink" of Morocco, fresh mint tea, and to check out the non-tourist part of the Kasbah. Here's our chance to mingle with real locals far from the tour groups and hustlers.
While I find I get more respect using the local currency, for a short one- or two-day trip, there's no need to change money.
The Arabic script, its many difficult sounds, and the fact that French is Morocco's second language, make communication tricky for English-speaking travelers.
Especially in North Africa, where I can't even read the script, much less read the language, I find someone to write my hotel or ultimate destination in the local script on a scrap of paper. When I've had enough, I hop into a taxi, show my paper and I'm on my way back to the dock.
Passing the fortified walls of old Tangiers calls to mind earlier times when Morocco was a Barbary pirate state. Before getting too upset with these petty hustlers, remember two hundred years ago murderous pirates home based here, prowling the Straits of Gibraltar and extorting tribute from passing ships.
The pirates are gone now — and so are we.
I hope you've enjoyed our intercontinental adventure. Thanks for traveling with us. And join as next time as we continue our tour of Europe's greatest sights. I'm Rick Steves bidding you ma salaam — Happy Travels!
See more travel details for recommendations highlighted in bold, excerpted from Rick's guidebooks.