This massive castle/palace complex claims to be the most visited site in Spain. Though Sagrada Familia in Barcelona also makes the same claim, the Alhambra is undoubtedly the best camera candy in the country. There has been some sort of palace/fortification on the site since at least the 11th century, with major construction taking place in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was the last hold out of the Islamic empire in Iberia, eventually captured by the Christians in 1492. In the 16th century Carlos V built a whole new palace on the grounds. But after that attention shifted away and the whole complex started a slow slide into disrepair until it started to attract tourists in the 19th century.

We spent a solid day wandering around the grounds, starting before sunrise as we had to queue up early in the morning to get some of the limited number of tickets to the Palacios Nazaries – the old Islamic palace. You can see one of the stunning ceilings from Nazaries above and a view out some of the windows looking over the city of Grenada below.

Light reflecting of Lake Geneva dances on the ceiling of Chillon's dungeon. Click for larger version.

CNN/Budget Travel had an article yesterday detailing what they consider to be the most beautiful castles in the world. One on the list is the beautiful Château de Chillon which I raved about earlier this month. The rest of their list is:

England: Bamburgh Castle and Leeds Castle
Scotland: Eilean Donan
Wales: Beaumaris
Germany: Neuschwanstein Castle
Denmark: Kronborg Castle
France: Château de Castelnaud and Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle
Romania: Bran Castle
Switzerland: Château de Chillon

Of all the castles on the list, I’ve only been to Chillon, so looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. Check out the article for more on each castle.

Returning from Amsterdam my buddy and I took a long detour specifically to visit Warwick Castle. When I got home, my Polish flat mates made fun of me for a long while because, according to them, obsession with medieval castles is a uniquely American condition because we don’t have any. Whether that’s true or not, I still hold that castles are universally enjoyable (except of course by medieval peasants), and worth a visit whenever you have the chance.

After Geneva, I headed towards Montreux to meet up with some friends before heading back up into the Alps. I spent the afternoon wandering around the exceptionally impressive Château de Chillon. Even though the castle was never involved in serious conflict, it has a compelling place in the history of Western European commerce, and the Swiss independence.

By far the most interesting part was learning that people like me who love castles, essentially ruin them from being restored to their original condition. Chillon, for example, used to be completely white-washed. But, since we have this romantic notion of medieval castles being bare stone, there is a major lobby pushing against restoring the castle to what it would have looked like in it’s heyday. Authentic looking or not, it was still an impressive place, and filled my need to check out a castle every couple of months.

Rather than fly straight back to London from Amsterdam this weekend, my buddy and I caught a cheaper flight to Birmingham. Before you call me crazy for going to Birmingham, think about all the fun and interesting things between Birmingham and London: Warwick Castle, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Nottingham, etc.

From Birmingham we hopped a train to Warwick and spent a beautiful afternoon strolling around the castle and feeding the peacocks. We then jumped another train to Oxford, where we made our Tolkien pilgrimage and visited the Eagle and Child for dinner.

If you’ve only got a limited time for a trip, see what airports are close enough to your home or destination to make ground transportation from the airport feasible. In this case we were looking at a couple hours on trains with an added cost of about 35 pounds per person. Then check out what’s between the airport and where you’re going. Never know what cool new thing you might find.

Photo: The afternoon sun from Warwick Castle ramparts.