Seville, Granada, and Cordoba

---

This weekend we went on a group trip to Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. It was a long weekend filled with hours on a bus. But it was really neat, the south of Spain is gorgeous and I loved all the Muslim influence! We left on Thursday afternoon and didn't get to Seville until 12:30...after being lost looking for the hotel in Seville for quite a while. It was frustrating, our bus driver was horrible! He swerved a lot and even hit the rumble strips on the sides of the roads pretty often. Another annoying part of the bus ride was the fact that we would stop for a half hour or more! Spanish people are just so laid back and slow with things! All of us New Yorkers didn't know what to do with ourselves for a half hour at a rest stop! We ended up just standing outside and waiting for Miguel (our tour guide and trip organizer) and the bus driver to come back out and get going! I like bus rides, they put me to sleep, so I was fine with it taking 10 hours.

The next morning we had a tour with a local guide around Seville. She took us to the Alcazar Palace (old palace that was built in the Moorish style but actually built for Spanish monarchs). It was really pretty and interesting, the gardens were especially gorgeous. Then we went to the Cathedral in Seville, it is the third largest in Europe, behind St. Peter's in the Vatican and St. Paul's in London. It is amazing how many huge Cathedrals I have seen in Europe at this point... Anyway, it was gorgeous and elaborate like usual. The biggest attraction was the tomb of Christopher Columbus. It was interesting to hear about how he was buried in so many different places, and now has settled here (where he started out on his journeys to the New World). The other big thing at the Cathedral was the bell tower, La Giralda. It was actually part of the old mosque that the Cathedral was built on top of. And it had 35 ramps built into it so that the man who used to call the people to pray five times a day could ride a donkey up the tower instead of climb. There are lots of bells up at the top now, and we could walk up all the ramps and see them and a beautiful view of the city. After the Cathedral, we walked around the old Jewish neighborhood and got lunch. I am still amazed how all over Spain all different religions and cultures used to live together, but now Muslims and Jews are so scarce that they don't even have places to worship anymore. Spain is so interesting because of the mixture, but the other religions were rejected with the Inquisition never to really come back even today. After lunch with amazing gazpacho in the old Jewish area, we had the afternoon to walk around and explore on our own. We walked through the city to see the Bull Ring and Tower of Gold where the gold was kept that came back from the New World. We walked along the river as well, and ended up hanging out and enjoying the sun in the park for a while. It was really nice weather for a leisurely walk around the city. After that, we also saw the Plaza de Espana which was a really interesting square that had little bench areas with mosaics for each city and area of Spain. After that, we rested up and had our buffet dinner at the hotel. Then we went to see a Flamenco show that night. It was really interesting, I thought it would be just the flashy dancing that it is known for, but it was so much more than that. It started out with a slow, emotional song with just a guy singing and another guy playing the guitar, then the dancers came out. It was really impressive to see, and so different from anything from our culture. I liked it a lot because it seemed really authentic instead of too much catering to please tourists, it was really traditional. After that we went back to the hotel and went to bed because we had to get up early to go to Granada.

We got on the bus early in the morning and it took us 3 hours to get to Granada. When we got there we went straight to the Alhambra and saw the old Muslim palace, the old fort, and the gardens. From the fort there were gorgeous views of Granada. Then we went to the palace, which was soo impressive! Each room had beautiful walls with designs in them. The courtyards were beautiful as well, with pools of water, and one had these two adorable kittens in the corner! There were actually more kittens all around Alhambra, which was adorable! We did not have too much time there, only 3 hours, so we didn't get audioguides or know much about the Alhambra, which is sad, but I will learn more and hopefully go back one day. The gardens were also spectacular and very tranquil. I liked them a lot, and it was nice to be out of the bustle of the palace and escape in the gardens for a bit and enjoy the beautiful weather.

After the Alhambra, we went to Granada and walked around, it is a really pretty city and very easy to get around since it is quite small. We just wandered and saw the Cathedral and had lunch, explored some touristy shops, which were really cool since they were more hippy-ish and less mainstream than usual. It was mostly Moroccan stuff, so I decided not to get anything and just get it when it is cheaper in Morocco! So then we headed uphill to this place to watch the sunset and a great view of the Alhambra. We went up these teeny-tiny streets that wound their way up to the top, and the view was breathtaking! The sunset was even more gorgeous, it was a great end to the day. After that we headed down to the bus and went back to our hotel in Seville.

The next day we had to head back to Valencia, but on our way back we stopped for an hour and a half in Cordoba. It has the 4th biggest mosque in the world there, but since it was converted into a Cathedral (of course) they had mass on Sunday and we could not go in. It was sad, I would have loved to see it. But Cordoba is a cute little town known for little streets with white houses and lots of flowers. We wandered the streets and got some fresh air for a while before heading back to the bus for the long ride back to Valencia. The countryside in Spain is really pretty, I loved just looking out the window!

That was the end of the trip. Now tomorrow starts Fallas, the huge 5 day festival in Valencia! It is going to be insane, there are parties in the streets every night and they have firecrackers and fireworks at all hours. I went to see the Exposicion de Ninots which is where they display all of these caricatures that each neighborhood makes, and the best one is saved, but all the rest will be burned on March 19th. It was really interesting to see them all, although I didn't understand all the criticisms that the people were making. They mostly criticized drinking and drugs, women with too many kids, sluts, and high prices of housing. Tomorrow starts the real craziness, so now I have to rest up and get ready.

---

Comments

[anonymous]

Links to Fallas webcam
The Fallas festival is really pretty famous and bizarre. The Ninots are amazing. One last year cost 300,000 euros to make .. only to be bruned on the 19th. This is a pretty cool town. I thought they only did the tomato throwing festival, but this Fallas thing appeals to the pyro crowd. Robin, be careful you don't get hurt. Links to web cams: http://fallas.comunitatvalenciana.com/exposicion-ninot.htm?AVT_SESION_ID=8097c0b318befc33f04ba5d9874a687a webcam