Granada: A Young City, Old at Heart

When you first arrive in Granada you may well be disappointed. What is more, unless your arrival is by hot air balloon, depositing you noiselessly in the Alhambra or Albaicin, you will quite likely be stressed and disappointed. This is because getting into Granada is a trial, and what you see in the process, quite frankly, an eyesore. This hardly sounds like encouragement to visit a city which in most travel literature exhausts all known superlatives. Yet Granada unlike almost any other city, manages to get away [ read on...].

Ceramics: over 500 years of tradition, in one family

It may seem incredible in this day and age that there are businesses and families in Granada which can trace their roots back to a time when the Moors still reigned in this, the last kingdom to fall to the Christian re-conquest. But this is the case of the Morales family, present-day owners of the Fajalauza ceramics factory. Our Ceramics activities offer a guided visit of the factory to find out more. In the days of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, ceramics production was concentrated in the Fajalauza district [ read on...].

Granada: a city on the pulse of Flamenco

Flamenco, described by the playwright-poet, Federico García Lorca, as "one of the most gigantic inventions of the Spanish people", is the art form most readily associated with Spain and in particular the south. Its specific origins, although shrouded in much myth, undoubtedly lie in Andalucía, nurtured by its sizeable gitano (Gypsy) community. The Gypsies' presence in Spain dates back to the 15th century, when they largely settled in the Sultanate of Granada, later occupying areas vacated by the Moors upon their [ read on...].

Travel Writing: "Musings of a wandering mind", by Sean Clarke

Before we begin, a word of apology. Although this piece concerns a trip to Granada, there may not be much time for discussion of its history as a pivot-point between the European Christian world and the Muslim civilisation of North Africa. Nor will we spend long on the jewel in Granada's crown, the Alhambra - "the red fort" - probably the most impressive piece of secular Muslim architecture in Europe, a complex of staterooms, royal palaces, fountain-sprinkled courtyards and exquisite summer [ read on...].

Food & Wine: Tapas - A great Spanish invention

What was the inspiration for the custom of serving a snack with every drink you order in a bar or café? The word tapa literally means "a lid". Peasants going out to toil in the fields would take with them a jug of wine sealed by a piece of bread on which would be a slice of cheese or ham, covered by muslin. This food became known as the tapa, and since peasants also frequented bars the practice caught on there, and since Granada is home to so many students the idea of charging for a tapa is unthinkable! [ read on...].

Historical: The Trafalgar Bicentenary, October 2005

On 21st October 2005, All Ways Spain was at Cape Trafalgar on the Atlantic coast of southern Spain, with a unique tour. On the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar we were there with historian Stephen Drake-Jones to recount the events surrounding the momentous battle. Click here to read about the Spanish view of the celebrations that surrounded the bicentenary - one of the darkest days in the country's history - and an account of how the news of the victory at Trafalgar reached the British public in 1805.

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