Granada!

The 2 main things that I most remembered about Spain from my years of Spanish classes in school were the painting Guernica and the greatest Moorish palace, the Alhambra. So when we moved here, those became priorities to go see in person. We got to see the painting last summer (read about it here) and it was indeed amazing. The Alhambra is in the city of Granada in the region of Andalucia in the south of Spain. Well, we've been to Andalucia 2 times already (to Sevilla), so we weren't sure if we were going to make it down there again to see Granada itself. But then Jason sent me a text one afternoon saying to make no plans the weekend of July 4th b/c he was planning a trip! It was wondrous - he made all the arrangements - I just had to pack!

I just looked for the pictures I want to include about Granada - and it appears that we may have to break this into 2 posts :-) So 1st I'll talk about the town of Granada.

We really enjoyed Granada. There's not just a ton to see, so it was nice to be able to see things and relax too. We had a great hotel in a great location. It was in the middle of these windy streets on the hill called the Albaicin. We stayed in a suite in a little 4 room hotel - very neat! (and all for a great price!) We could see the Alhambra from the window of our room - it was little tiny, high up window, but still :-) Here's the view at sunset one night we were there. The location was great - we parked the car when we arrived in town and walked everywhere we wanted to go!

The first day we went to see the cathedral (of course :-) ). It was very different than many we've seen because it was very white inside with gold and blue accents. Then beside the cathedral was the Royal Chapel. This is the place where King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella are actually buried! I really enjoyed visiting there, and for me, it was one of the neatest things we've seen in Spain! (though of course no pictures allowed) Almost everywhere we've gone in Spain, you see Ferdinand and Isabella's mark - they were so influential in uniting Spain as a country for the first time. We visit their castle in Segovia, we've passed the church where Isabella was coronated in Segovia, we've visited the palace in Cordoba where Christopher Columbus went to try to persuade them to finance his journey to America, etc, etc. So I just thought it was really cool to see where they are buried as well. Granada was the city where Ferdinand & Isabella fought the final battle in 1492 to defeat the Moors and kick them out of Spain after their 700 year rule. So even though Ferdinand & Isabella weren't from the city of Granada, they wanted to be buried there. In the chapel, there were also many personal effects belonging to each of them, including Isabella's crown and Ferdinand's sceptor. Very old stuff and very cool.

We also got to go shopping in the Alcaiceria, which used to be the Moorish silk market. This was a highlight for Katie because she got to spend her souvenir money that Daddy gave her. :-) Katie has a little trouble when we take visitors shopping here in Madrid - to her it seems highly unfair that they get to buy things and she doesn't. So I try to explain to her that our guests are tourists in Madrid and we aren't since we live there all the time. She was soooo excited to be a tourist and get to spend money! Never mind that mostly the souvenirs are all the same whether you're in Madrid or Granada - it's exciting all the same. But she chose well, buying this lovely blue scarf you see in the picture.

At night, it was so neat to see the Alhambra all lit up from our little window. It was also fun to see & hear the city come alive, with people barbequeing and playing music up on their rooftops.



Our hotel didn't have A/C, which caused me a bit of worry when we arrived. But it turned out fine b/c Granada really cools down at night so we had no trouble sleeping. The only trouble was that the swallows turned on full shriek at 7 AM each morning (at least it sounded like shrieking at that hour). With as late as we were staying up, this was not so welcome. But the morning we left, I realized that in addition to the noise, while lying in the bed you could also see the swallows swoop and dive outside the window. It was really beautiful! So here is my attempt to capture that moment - what I could see as soon as I woke up in Granada.