Discovering history in Granada

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September 2nd 2013

Published: September 3rd 2013

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Courtney Jo

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Organ in Granada Cathedral

We were all.pretty slow to get up on Thursday morning. I couldn't believe that some of the group was off for a wine tasting tour. I finally slept and actually felt slightly better. John got up a little after me and we headed down the street for a quick breakfast before leaving town. All morning it was raining in Valencia. I had no desire to see the city at this point. I used it for my gateway to La Tomatina. It served it's purpose quite well. I was ready to get the he'll out! Our breakfast was great. Little cafe. We pointed at the things we wanted. I actually ended up with a grilled thin sliced ham strips sort of thing and my beloved tomato bread, espresso and water. It was great! This was a total locals place. At one point I watched an old man, who I assume was the owner, come out of the shop across the street carrying a cup ans saucer. He walked into the cafe, set it on the counter, said something, waved and left. Gotta love it!!!

Done with breakfast, we caught a taxi yo the car and yay, it was still there. This

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Sitting in a pew looking up at organ pipes and the ceiling. stunning.

attempt at driving was a little tougher. Perhaps I was over confident. Perhaps the drivers are more aggressive in Valencia. Whichever, I did not navigate the large round abouts as well which in turn put my navigator, John, in the hot seat to come up with new routes. All in all it worked out and most importantly we didn't wreck. On the road to Granada!

The drive again overall was pretty easy. This was a long one though...5 hrs. On this drive though we saw more than we bargained for. We drove through lots of mountains. At one point we came around this area with a huge dam and there were almost like three peaks. It was incredible! Lots of tunnels to drive through. Lots of down shifting. Lots of John telling me I was crossing the center line. What? The locals did it too! Anyhow, the best part was the huge field of sunflowers!!! What an amazing site! The sun was shining and they all had their faces up towards it. I was so excited!!!!

Pulling into Granada was quite easy. Now the reason for this stop was huge. Spain's history is very interesting. And the southern

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The main alter.

part of Spain has some of the best of it. Granada has seen it all. Ruled by the moors, Muslims, Jews, Christian...It's crazy. And they built a few very unique thing's along the way. This was not going to be a long stop. For those of you considering going, stay two nights. We arrived in town around 6 pm and left by 4 pm the following day.

Finding parking was easy this time, I had mapped it with the hotel, and we were able to walk to our hotel in old town. Our hotel was in an amazing part of old town, a crazy cheap.price and beautiful on the inside. It was a historical building and had huge high ceilings. We even had two small balconies over looking the street below. We quickly made our way outside to catch one of the sites...the cathedral. After walking thru some very narrow streets and a few picturesque squares, we came upon the massive church. Built in the 17th century, it did not disappoint. As you approach it you realize how massive it is! And with the city and buildings so close next to it you can't back up so fully see

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The white walls and black and white tile..

it. It's a bit daunting. When you enter your taken aback but the white walls and aches and the black and white tile floor. The pillars seem to sweep up for ages into the sky. There is almost a darkness to it even though the ceiling and pillars are intricately carved and designed. Then, in contrast to all of the white you are hit with the gold of the organs that flank both sides of the main aisle. As you continue to move towards the alter the work done in gold is astounding. It literally seems to light up from within. Then with the mahogany benches and wooden accents the entire church begins to feel warm. I'm still blow away by the shear size and detail put into the structure. It's hard to imagine how many people it took to create something like this.

After seeing the church we strolled thru the streets happy the rain had stopped. I loved the north African/Moroccan influence with all of the spice shops. Walking by then and inhaling was devine! In the one big square we decided to grab dinner. We made a good choice! John ordered a really good fish dish

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The bell tower.

and I had paella again. Again it was good! We enjoyed some vino and the night cooled off quickly. Half way through dinner the rain started again. By the time we were done eating it was pretty late and we decided to call it a night. We had an early start to our Friday!

6am the alarm goes off. We're up and moving and packing and grooving. Today we are headed to the crown jewel of Granada...the Alhambra. We leave our bags with hotel storage and make our way across town. Turns out the walk was further than we thought. But at just before dawn it was quite pretty! We entered the grounds at the far end thru one of the large gates. From here we followed one of the famous red walls thru a beautiful park, up some very steep hills and to the ticket office. They only allow 6600 visitors per day. Half of those are sold online. The other half you have to show up early to get. We were told to que by 7 am to guarantee tickets. We got there by 7:15, ticket office opened at 8 and we got the morning tickets. Alhambra

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The sweet aromas from the spice shops!

is essentially several palaces. Some records date part of it back to 900 AD. This is a place where many different worlds have collided. Sultan, Jews, Christians...churches built onto of mosques, fortresses turned into palaces and vice versa. The ground have seen it all. The grounds are massive. We entered 8:30 AM and left around 1:30 pm and we kept a pretty brisk pace. We started at the Palace.

This again is going to be hard to put into words. Constant aw was what I felt as we walked around. The photos will never do it justice but you can at least see the details. Every room was more astounding than the next. Every room was somehow bright and colorful with the tiles and then perfectly accented with intricate stone carvings. The stone floors, the decorative columns...all of it seems so delicate and yet it's withstood so many years. Many of the things built that we saw date from the 14th century or so. The bright colorful tiles and the patterns made with them are my favorite. I think I have at least 50 photos of just the tile work. The arches and stone carving was equally impressive but

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The old tower at Alhambra at sunrise.

simply needs to be seen in person. Some of the carvings are floral designs. Some are words and letters. Some are geometric shapes. It was all there. One room after another of absolutely magnificent detail. I've never seen anything like this! Once you past the amzement on the walls you move to the ceilings. Here you have dark wood carved in more intricate patterns and then painted with blues and reds and golds. Really...could this place be more mesmerizing??? Some rooms had the stone carvings painted as well with blues and reds. In some areas the paint was badly worn but the pettiness of it was still there. Some rooms the ceilings were cut in shapes that resembled stars and were then painted with golds and so it appearred to be glowing with a night sky. Mosaic tile floors were every where. And the fountains ponds...so much water! There were several areas where the fountains , that were low to the ground, were connected by these very narrow channels...not even wide enough to put your foot into it. They would all flow to a central point. It was so calming. Archway sometimes appreciated to be dripping the way they were

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The tile work inside the Palace.

carved. As we moved through the palace I had to stop taking photos and just look. It was so much to take it!

After moving thru this part of the Palace, we moved on to the more standard or regular type of thing you expect to find in Europe. It was the Palace of Carlos V. What made this impressive was that it's perfectly round, is 2 stories and has so many pillars! It was also.massive! The other palace although massive as a whole was made up of several small rooms. This was a grand type of place. After this we moved on to the tower and some of the oldest sections. Everything was impressive. Then onto the Catholic church that was built.over the site of the mosque. It's small yet still grand. We saw the old bath house, several beautiful gardens and the outer wall. There'd brick is not a bright or deep red but it's still striking. We walked the One side of the wall and saw part of the old mote area. Then, by chance, we ended up inside a watch tower with a worker whose restoring it. What a sight!!! This tower had some of

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The archways!

the most impressive tile work and stone carvings. It was breath taking to be in there.

After seeing all the main grounds had to offer, we made our way over to the Generalife. This was the area the royalty went to when they wanted to relax and unwind. It's a series of gardens with pathways dripping in greenery and fountains and hidden nooks. This is the place you came to steal a kiss or tell someone a secret. There is also a smaller building on the grounds here. Still built with the pathways and stone carvings and tile. Still impressive and still beautiful! From here you can also look out onto all of Alhambra and the town of Granada below. It's a crazy good view. You can see old town. The cathedral. The old Muslim quarter of town. Incredible. The city with the mountains in the backdrop make the trek up to Alhambra worth it alone!

Feeling as though we literally saw all we could, we decided to make our way to the exit. We walked back thru the woods and saw a few other sites...statues and fountains along the way. Then made our way into town. We

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The tile and stone carving together.

were starving at this point and grabbed a table for lunch. We ordered 4 tapas dishes and 3 out of the 4 were excellent. For those of you curious, lightly breaded and fried eggplant tastes amazing drizzled with honey! Then it was a quick stop back at the hotel, change of clothes, and to the car we went. Departing Granada was a breeze and in no time we were on the highway headed toward Seville. I had heard so many good things about Seville...I was so excited!!! The drive was about 2 1/5 hours but it was a pretty easy drive. As we pulled into Seville and hit the tiny narrow streets of old town I knew I was going to fall in love!

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