More Granada and a little Madrid

I promised more photos of the Alhambra, and here you go. It is a very photogenic structure, from many angles and with different lighting. 

This is looking south onto the hill (The brow of the hill) where it is situated. We were heading to dinner at a place called the Mirador of Morayma. Worth stopping by there if you are in town. The food is pretty good, and very value priced.

It seemed like every time you turned a corner you would see another amazing view of the place.

We walked everywhere in Granada. There were plenty of cabs, but it felt like we should get some exercise.

This art was hanging in the restaurant. 

I like it.

The text seems to refer to the wine that was made for the restaurant. They like it.

This is the statue of Columbus showing Queen Isabela the map to the Indies, which she just funded.

We wandered about Granada with a great guide, who showed us the above statue, as well as the below courtyard. It is the "Coal Trader's Inn" or something similar to that. The itinerant salesmen would bring their goods into the city (in this case, coal) and then were locked into these courtyards. This is called the "Corral de Carbon". You can figure out what that means.

Everywhere you look, you see things like this.

Now, I can't imagine that you can go to Granada without seeing a flamenco show. It would be like going to Buenos Aires and not seeing a Tango Show. 

So we asked our guide which show go see, and he said that La Venta El Gallo was a good one. ("We sell you a chicken"). All the dancers, singers, and musicians are gypsies, and they all live up the "Caves" which is wbere the shows take place. It was about two miles from the hotel and included dinner. 

We walked.

We are waiting with baited breath.

The food as OK, but this appetizer of fava beans topped with a fried egg and ham was great.

You got a welcome drink (a sangria) and two drinks with dinner. Both of us opted for a water (it was a long walk down, and then a long walk up) and a glass of wine.

Serviceable.

There were two women, and one man dancer.

It was fun.

The next day we wandered again around the city, and found this statue of Washington Irving. If you only know him from The Headless Horseman, it behooves you to take a look beyond that.

He was happy to share my umbrella.

This is the hotel we stayed at in Granada. The Alhambra Palace. 

It was fine.

We spent one quick day in Madrid, and we went to the Prado.

As you do.

We walked by the Cerveceria Cervantes, which I thought was a great name.

Then we went home, with a quick stop in Newark:

Granada

We pulled into Granada about 6:00 PM, and just spent a quiet evening at the hotel. More on the hotel later. 

The next morning we had tickets to (and a tour of) The Alhambra. Washington Irving (yes, that Washington Irving) stayed here in the early 19th century (the 1820s) and wrote a book called "Tales of The Alhambra" You can get a cheap copy on your Kindle, and I recommend it. The Spaniards love him.

But the Alhambra is bordering on unbelievable. It was the last Moorish stronghold to fall, and is where Ferdinand and Isabella finally took control over the rest of Spain, from Muhammad XII, or Boabdil

As the Moorish entourage was leaving, Boabdil look back at the Alhambra and wept.

His mother looked at him and said:

 "Weep, weep like a woman, over what you couldn't defend like a man."

Harsh.

The Alhambra covers 35 acres, and covered with amazing gardens and structures. There is no way I will be able to do it justice, but I am posting a few snaps here to encourage you to visit.

All the gardens are all very well kept. When Irving stayed here they were all wild, but they were still there! Sort of astounding. He also reported that much of the palace was used by the poor folks of Granada.

We have a tiling project going on at home, so we are always interested in what the floors look like.

This is a view of The Alhambra, from The Alhambra.

There will be more views from outside the walls in a subsequent post.

More gardens. It was very rainy the way we were there. But that did not dampen our spirits!

A view of the city from The Alhambra

The tile work here us amazing. That Arabic script is a quote from the Quran, which the ruling family used as their motto. After a big victory, the Sultan had these tiles put up everywhere.

Victory comes only from Allah. النصر من عند الله فقط

The reflection ponds are great, and you can see the palaces both upside down and right side up. 

This is the famous Courtyard of the Lions. This is where the Abencerrajes family was allegedly beheaded one by one. It was rumored that one of the family had lusted after the Sultana. (Successfully?) Washington Irving disputes this story, though. But it is a great story. 

You can see how the courtyard got its name.

Some of this detail work is plaster. They had some of the molds in the museum here.

Yes, indeed.

A view of the Arab Quarter. They rioted after the mosques were closed, and then took to the hills and started a rebellion. But they were crushed. 

There are so many palaces and fortresses it is hard to keep track. I think this one is the Palacios Nazaries.

That series of low walls was the quarters for the soldiers that were stationed here. I think this was for officers. They had running water for sanitation!

They rang this bell for 24 hours on the 500th anniversary of the Spanish Victory (January 2nd, 1492)

I would eat off a plate like this.

Last view of The Alhambra for now, from the Alhambra.

Córdoba

The Mosque - Cathedral in Córdoba was the most amazing thing that I saw in Spain. (I think Doreen was more impressed by The Alhambra. But that may be because of Washington Irving)

Started in 785 on the site of a Visigoth church (The Basilica of Vincent of Saragossa), the building went through extensive building programs in the subsequent 600 or so years. There is a great representation of this here. where you can see all the changes. 

But I get ahead of myself. 

The city is built on the Guadalquivir River (which means something like "Big River") and has a very famous old multi-arch Roman bridge as you enter:

It has its own Alcazar (which I believe just means palace or fortress) that stands at the end of the bridge.

There are four mills in the river that you pass by as you walk into the city. During one of the many floods in the city's history, the mills were washed away.

We took a nice walking tour of the city, and had a good lunch, but that was really just to burn daylight until the time for our tour of the Cathedral Mosque.

It is a bit unprepossessing when you see it from the outside. It could be any early Spanish building. Big, but not amazing.

Until you step inside.

Then you see the columns, the archways, and the open spaces that were used as a mosque until about 1486.

You might notice that ever pillar in this part of the building is different. That is because they were all salvaged from Roman ruins and reused. If you look closely, you can see that since these pillars were all different heights, some had to be shimmed up, and some had to be buried below the floor level. 

Amazing.

There was a lot of detail metalwork (I think this one is sliver) and amazingly impressive

The extent of this building is amazing.

It is so big that the Catholic Kings decided not to tear it down, but instead they built their cathedral INSIDE the mosque.

Yes, this cathedral is inside the mosque.

You have to see it to believe it.

After the tour, we wandered about Córdoba for a while.

We were told this alleyway was the narrowest in all of Spain.

but it reminded us of this alleyway in Venice. Photo from 2000. (Doesn't Doreen look exactly the same?)

This is a good view of the Cathedral Mosque from a distance.

And that is us, standing by the Guadalquivir River.