Granada

Granada is where the medieval Muslim world in Western Europe came to an end. For nearly 800 years, much of Spain had been ruled by Moorish kingdoms, and by the late 1400s Granada was the last one standing.

On January 2, 1492, the last emir, Boabdil, handed the keys of the Alhambra to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs. After a ten-year war, Muslim rule in Spain was over.

Legend says that as Boabdil rode away and looked back at the city one last time, he wept. The mountain pass where he supposedly stopped is still called "the Moor's Last Sigh."

That same year, history pivoted again. At the royal camp of Santa Fe, just outside Granada, Isabella agreed to fund a Genoese sailor named Christopher Columbus. The fall of one world helped launch the voyage that opened another.

The jewel Boabdil left behind is the Alhambra, a sprawling complex of Moorish palaces, courtyards, and fountains on a hill above the city. It was so beautiful that the Christian conquerors chose to preserve it rather than tear it down.

Below the Alhambra spreads the Albaicín, the old Moorish quarter, a maze of white houses and narrow lanes climbing the opposite hillside.

Tour the Alhambra and its Generalife gardens, then walk up to the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaicín for the classic view of the palace with the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains behind it.

Wander the steep streets of Sacromonte, famous for caves and flamenco. Hike or simply gaze at the Sierra Nevada, where you can ski in winter and reach the coast in about an hour.

Order a drink almost anywhere, even a soft drink or juice, and it usually comes with a free plate of tapas, a Granada tradition that has mostly disappeared from the rest of Spain.