You could do worse than Granada if you like a good view. Nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Granada has dozens of miradores, or lookout points.

The most popular is Mirador San Nicolás, with its awe-inspiring views of the Alhambra. Show up at sunset, prime Alhambra-watching time, and you’ll find the ledge around this mirador ringed with people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder.

Mirador San Nicolás has a great energy in the evening with buskers, street vendors and crowds. But if you want to ditch all the tourists and have a more reflective experience, sunrise is the time to go:

I’m about as far as it gets from a morning person, but watching the sun rise on the Alhambra is worth a night of short sleep. I went to watch the sun rise from Mirador San Nicolás my last day in Granada because I knew I’d have to get up early to catch my bus to Madrid anyway.

My morning started with a winding walk up through the Albaicín, the old Moorish neighborhood where many of the miradores are:

When I got to San Nicolás, there were only two other people there — a guy filming the sunrise on one end of the mirador, and a girl smoking a joint on the other.

I stayed for over an hour as I watched the Alhambra change colors, emerging from the morning shadows:

It was a magical end to my month in Granada. I had a hard time pulling myself away to go catch my bus, but I reminded myself that the Alhambra was here a long time before I got here, and it’ll be here a long time after I’m gone.