A Letter to the Editor
People of Granada. The custodians of your magnificent La Alhambra have become fat and lazy. They sit comfortably in their offices manicuring themselves like the fat, contented cats that they have become. They complement each other on attracting an excess of visitors each day while their clients and your guests line up at the gates sometimes standing in queues for three or four hours like the beggars of medieval times
If you ask them why they are treating your guests like this they will tell you that there is nothing they can do, that the site can only accommodate a limited number of visitors each day and they will tell you that it is all the fault of your guests if they miss out on getting in through the gates. They will tell you that you can get tickets on line and they will tell you that the beggars should know that they need to be early. They will not tell you that they only open one of two ticket windows thereby forcing people to wait in line for hours. They will not tell you that there is only one toilet and one small café accessible to the beggars nor will they tell you that they have designed the route through the venue to maximise congestion and to minimise the enjoyment of the experience for your guests.
It is clear that the fat cats have come so complacent that they have not subjected their management of the site to appropriate external review nor have they examined in detail the technologies that could be used to maximise safe visitor throughput while minimising inconvenience for guests.
People of Granada it is time for you to hold the fat cats to account.
Mike Rebbechi
Australia
As is obvious our visit to the Alhambra was not an entire success. After waiting in line for almost four hours we came within about 30 people of getting tickets for the Palace and ended up only getting general admission. In effect these only provided access to the gardens themselves. If it wasn’t for meeting a lovely American couple in the queue we would have been driven to distraction by the unnecessary inconvenience of the whole situation.
There were queues for everything – there were queues for tickets, queues to pick up prepaid tickets – there were queues to pick up audio guides – their were queues to meet tour guides with all of this in an absence appropriate of multi-lingual signage.
When we eventually got into the gardens we found that in effect they had created a forced route which brought more chaos and inconvenience as the various tour groups surged up to constriction points like ticketed entrances to garden rooms and structures – you felt constantly under pressure and had to search out the occasional garden seat to get refuge from the incessant waves of tour groups all jostling to stay in a group for fear of losing their guide, missing their bus and ending lost in the environs of the Alhambra for ever.
People of Granada. The custodians of your magnificent La Alhambra have become fat and lazy. They sit comfortably in their offices manicuring themselves like the fat, contented cats that they have become. They complement each other on attracting an excess of visitors each day while their clients and your guests line up at the gates sometimes standing in queues for three or four hours like the beggars of medieval times
If you ask them why they are treating your guests like this they will tell you that there is nothing they can do, that the site can only accommodate a limited number of visitors each day and they will tell you that it is all the fault of your guests if they miss out on getting in through the gates. They will tell you that you can get tickets on line and they will tell you that the beggars should know that they need to be early. They will not tell you that they only open one of two ticket windows thereby forcing people to wait in line for hours. They will not tell you that there is only one toilet and one small café accessible to the beggars nor will they tell you that they have designed the route through the venue to maximise congestion and to minimise the enjoyment of the experience for your guests.
It is clear that the fat cats have come so complacent that they have not subjected their management of the site to appropriate external review nor have they examined in detail the technologies that could be used to maximise safe visitor throughput while minimising inconvenience for guests.
People of Granada it is time for you to hold the fat cats to account.
Mike Rebbechi
Australia
As is obvious our visit to the Alhambra was not an entire success. After waiting in line for almost four hours we came within about 30 people of getting tickets for the Palace and ended up only getting general admission. In effect these only provided access to the gardens themselves. If it wasn’t for meeting a lovely American couple in the queue we would have been driven to distraction by the unnecessary inconvenience of the whole situation.
There were queues for everything – there were queues for tickets, queues to pick up prepaid tickets – there were queues to pick up audio guides – their were queues to meet tour guides with all of this in an absence appropriate of multi-lingual signage.
When we eventually got into the gardens we found that in effect they had created a forced route which brought more chaos and inconvenience as the various tour groups surged up to constriction points like ticketed entrances to garden rooms and structures – you felt constantly under pressure and had to search out the occasional garden seat to get refuge from the incessant waves of tour groups all jostling to stay in a group for fear of losing their guide, missing their bus and ending lost in the environs of the Alhambra for ever.
Having said all of this the gardens are magnificent and site is large and thought provoking. I think my irritation at the experience was not at the site itself but rather because one inherently knew that the experience had been sullied by the poor and complacent management of the site. 
I sound really annoyed don’t I. You will be surprised but I think I was the least annoyed of those in our small party – I can only imagine what the poor American couple felt – this was the second time that they had lined up in the queue for tickets only to be told that they would not be granted access to the Palace.Again the resilience of Merie and Bernadette saw us sitting in another square in centra Granada drinking beer and enjoying a very pleasant lunch. This is a lively, very pleasant, if quirky city.
Lunch was enhanced at the expense of car bound tourists who had booked into hotels in the city centre that were only accessible through Taxi and Bus lanes. These poor individuals, having driven miles across country, then having encountered the narrow streets of the inner city and finally having found their way to their hotel zone, now found their access to sanctuary from travel stress blocked by pop up bollards controlled by magnetic swipe cards – of course they didn’t have a card as they were yet to check into their hotels so they were forced to control their tempers while communicating with the machine in a foreign tongue while taxi and bus drivers showed their support by blasting on their horns.
Lunch was enhanced at the expense of car bound tourists who had booked into hotels in the city centre that were only accessible through Taxi and Bus lanes. These poor individuals, having driven miles across country, then having encountered the narrow streets of the inner city and finally having found their way to their hotel zone, now found their access to sanctuary from travel stress blocked by pop up bollards controlled by magnetic swipe cards – of course they didn’t have a card as they were yet to check into their hotels so they were forced to control their tempers while communicating with the machine in a foreign tongue while taxi and bus drivers showed their support by blasting on their horns.
We are in Granada a few weeks before a major feast day in early May. The tradition is for the ladies and girls to dress in appropriate formal attire. Accordingly the shops are full of beautiful, brightly coloured, flamingo style dresses adored in wide variety of dotted patterns.
1 comment:
sounds like the organisation to get into a swans game. more precisely it sounds like the queue up to get out of a swans game. Then again, that would be enjoyable...
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