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Published: July 30th 2008
Ok, so ever since we picked Valencia as a travel destination, I was super excited because we read in our travel guide that Valencia is home to the ONLY Vatican-recognized
Holy Grail! When we found that out we had visions of our own monty python-esque skits of trying to find it. But I get ahead of my self....
We arrived from Barcelona in the late afternoon, which ment that it was a scortching 35 degrees when we got off the train. But our hostel was easy to find, so we didn´t spend too much time in the heat with our big bags. Walking to the hostel we saw some of the old town, which looked really interesting, but we decided to leave it until the next day to explore. Instead we walked to a park. This park is really cool because it used to be a river. We aren´t sure why it isn´t any more, but instead of ripping it up they converted it into a gorgeous park. We sat there and had a late lunch, it was perfect. After a shower and a rest we went on our first real quest: finding dinner. We were dead set on having Paella for dinner. Did you know that Paella actually comes from Valencia originally? It does. So we had to have some while we were here. We found a taverna and ate a steaming plate of it.
The next day (25th) was the day we had been looking forward to for days now! We were standing outside of our hostel guidebook in hand, tourist map in the other. I asked Jan, what church is it in? He replied by saying it´s in the Romanesque-gothic one. Well where is that? He said by such and such plaza. We both sort of looked at each other, because the plaza sounded strangely familiar. Yup. So, turns out that the church we needed to hike to in the scortching heat uphill with no water fighting evil dragons, and rescuing damsels, didn´t really need to happen. All we really had to do was walk down the street from our hostel, seriously maybe 2 minutes. So much for the hilarious adventure of finding it. But at least we did find it. Before we could see it though we had a audio guided tour which was included in our admission price (not by Jermey Irons this time!) of the church. It was really interesting, we learned about the significant phases of construction, about famous Spainish art, and about parts of dead people in jars. All very facinating, but they all paled in comparison to the
HOLY GRAIL! It was the last thing that you got to see, so by the end we were super excited. But there wasn´t alot of hype for the grail (no angels singing, no knights in shinning armour). It was in a stone chapel, with one stained glass window (a picture of the grail in it) and some seating for the worshippers. The grail itself was placed in a recessed portion of the main wall, under several layers of glass. It was hard to get a good picture of it because it was dark in the room, but we got a couple good ones. It was kinda neat. We learned that the cup part was dated back to the 1st century ad. So maybe it is..... 😊
After our quest for the
HOLY GRAIL, we were le tired. So we fired the missles...no, we actually went to the beach. We had spent some time wandering the Old Town, but there really wasn´t too much to see. So, we decided on spending a cheap and cheerful day at the beach.
After Valencia we trained over to Cordoba on July 26. This was the medieval capital of the muslin empire in Spain. Ya apparently in 711 AD the muslims conquored the vast majority of Spain and held onto Spain until 1492 with Gribalter. Anywho the city of Cordoba is quite influenced by this fact. In our Islam class (remeber that Carling and Courtney?) we had even learned about Cordoba and how it was a center for learning and culture during the medieval period. There we found it to be even hotter than in Valencia, ya, it was scortching, in the afternoon it was about 40, and we crawled from shady spot to shady spot. Ok but back to the story, our hostel was really cool because it had terrace that we could sit on that overlooked the city and mosque (which was just beautiful). There we were able to enjoy the somewhat cooler nights and gorgeous sunset. The mosque is actually a church... but from the out side still looks and feels like a mosque. Very impressive!
The next day, July 27, we went out the ruins of the Imperial Capital Medina Al-Zahara. Fortunately we went in the morning so the heat was not too bad. With our bus out there we got this little video about the sight and a pamplet explaining all the sections. We expected to see a fully intact and functional palace... instead it was an archealogical sight where the ruins were being dug up. Nonetheless it was very cool. Something we found out was that the Muslims had their gates in L's so there is a right angle in the gate.... So you can imagine when the muslims got here and realised that the silly christians just had one gate, and once you got through you were done. No wonder the Muslims took only a matter of decades to conquor the entire penisula while the Christians took over 700 years to take back Spain during the Reconquista, because the poor christains would get through the first gate and realise there is a ninety degree anlge to naviagate and another door to break down... The royal residence which we saw was quite impressive and showed how intricate Islaminic stone work was. After Cordoba we headed off to Granada.
July 28th, we were off to Granada!!! The trip was an easy one to make in terms of the trains. Getting to the hostel turned out to be a bit interesting because the one road leading directly to the hostel was closed for construction. We took the long way around, but we made it there non the less. The hostel where we stayed has to be one of the very best that we have stayed at in all of our travels. Funky's Backpacker's Hostel was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to got to Granada. The hostel also had a terrace and kitchen which ment that there was lots of opportunities to meet some great people. Plus, our room and the terrace both overlooked the city. So we woke up and went to sleep with beautiful views. Granada itself is a very neat city, one of my favorites for sure! It is famous for the Alhambra perched ontop of the hillside overlooking Granada. The Alhambra is a palace for the muslim rulers during the 12th to 14th centuries. The Alhambra is surrounded by a fortress, palace gardens, and Charles the fifth's palace (built in the 16th centry). We spent our first afternoon wandering all the surrounding areas waiting to get into the Alhambra, which is the main sight to see. And was it ever a sight! This palace is SO beautiful, it just blows you away. The art, design, and planning that went into builing this place is unbelievable. It was, magnificent. Unfortunately we went to see it at the hottest part of the day. It was abot 43 in Granada, so by the time that we were done looking at everything, we slunk back to the hostel for showers and dinner. Both were nice, but the heat really is tiring so we called it a night.
July 29th, Or last day in Granada. Because we saw the major sight the day before, we decided that today was going to be a wandering the town day, just to get lost in the city and see what there was to see. Granada is the perfect place to do something like that because it has such great character. Alot of the town had been really influenced by the Muslim presence, and that remains in the architecture and art. Today there is a large Morracan popluation in Granada which just adds so much vibrance and spice to Granada. We found ourselves wandering through the Morracan shops and stalls bartering and just generally enjoying seeing what was for sale. It was a great afternoon, completed perfectly by a giant Kebab in a giant square. By the time we had stuffed ourselves, it was time for our siesta which we took full advantage of! So after some naps and showers we were ready for our dinner and drinks on the terrace. It was another fabulous night: great people, good food, and a fabulous view of a fantastic city! Can't ask for more.
Now we are in Malaga. Back on the coast for a bit, tomorrow we will try to make it to the beach after seeing some sights. Appartently Malaga was where Picasso was born.
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Courtney
non-member comment
Wow!
Holy Grail and all eh? Well I want to thank you for staying at the Lenin Hostel first...the comrade would be proud. I just thought I would update you on why I have not writen in awhile, my dad had his heart surgery after 10 years of waiting. All went well and it was only day surgery so it didn't take too long once we finally got him in. I'll explain more later so I miss you guys and I bought some fun games for when you come back and I even got an expansion pack for killer bunnies!