We woke up early and headed to the bus for the drive to
Granada. We drove through the olive groves and up into the hills- it was
beautiful. There were rows and rows of trees as far as you could see. The
hillside actually reminded me of Cache Valley, the color of the earth and the
trees looked familiar. We went straight to the Alhambra as soon as we entered
Granada. The Alhambra is a Moorish palace/fort that sits atop the hills of
Granada. The history of this beautiful building is amazing. It started out as a
Sultan's palace when the Moors occupied this area of Spain. The sultan had
beautiful gardens and fountains installed everywhere along with a water source
for his fort. He also built a summer residence higher up on the hill that
perfectly catches a breeze- no matter what time of year or what time of day you
are there, the breeze is blowing.
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| Aquaduct |
Our tour guide was really knowledgeable and taught us about
Muslim traditions- in order to achieve sensory perfections there must be 3
things in each courtyard: water, plants, and beautiful architecture. Everywhere
you looked was a picture, there were so many beautiful gardens and fountains and buildings and we hadn't even reached the main building yet!!
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| Summer House |
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| View from the summer house |
After walking through the
gardens and the grounds, we were led to the main building and our history
lesson continued: after the Moors retreated to their home continent, the palace
was turned over to Ferdinand and Isabella who made it their premier residence.
It served as one of the capitals of Spain until Charles the 5th moved the
capital of Spain to Madrid. After he left, the Alhambra sat vacant until Napoleon
invaded Spain and used it as his main military headquarters. Unfortunately when
the French were kicked out of Spain they wanted to destroy any evidence they
may have left behind and set charges of gun powder to destroy everything.
Luckily a brave villager stopped two of the charges before running to safety
and saved two of the buildings. The rest of the palace/fort was destroyed in
the blast and there are ruins everywhere. It was sad to see what could have
been a huge piece of history destroyed and left to ruin. After Napoleon left,
the fort sat abandoned for years. I struggle to understand how the people just
forgot about this giant fort at the top of their hill, but the only people who
stayed there were gypsies and vagabonds. They destroyed most of the artwork and
didn't take care of the buildings and the Alhambra would have been lost to
history if not for the first American ambassador to Spain. He rediscovered the
building and stayed there while writing a bestselling book about it. There are
memorials and plaques to him all over Granada, he is well loved in that part of
the world even if I'd never heard of him.
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| Part of the ruins |
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| Old foundations |
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| Plaque to the man who pulled 2 of the charges |
The coolest part about the Alhambra was the throne room-
according to historians this was the room where Ferdinand and Isabella finally
gave Columbus permission to search for the West Indies. I got chills on chills
on chills standing in that room- some pretty famous events happened there and
if not for them who knows where we would all be today.
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| Reflection pool |
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| Inside the Alhambra |
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| Where the thrones sat |
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| The ceilings are modeled after stalagtites |
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| The only stained glass window left |
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| Ferdinand and Isabella's seal |
The other cool part was el Patio de los Leones (the court of the lions). It is the central area of the Alhambra and it is beautiful. The lions had just been returned from a long overdue cleaning- the water in the fountain had never been replaced since it was built and it was so acidic that it was eating through the marble. it was a beautiful courtyard- I would live there for sure!
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| View of Granada from the Alhambra |
After the Alhambra we headed out to explore the city of
Granada. We stumbled upon the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella in a church in
downtown Granada- it was really creepy. The tops of the graves were beautifully
carved likenesses of the king and his queen and the chapel was covered in
paintings of important things that happened during their reign. The good people
of Granada also wanted you to be able to see that they were really there, so
there was a staircase down into the ground that allowed you to look through a
glass pane and see the coffins sitting
in the tomb. Four plain coffins with fresh flowers on them look back at you
through the glass and it was really unsettling. Plus it smelled like a funeral
and I'm no fan of those. After leaving the tomb and all its creepiness, we
wandered into a market that was held right outside of the church. There was
Catholic memorabilia right alongside Middle Eastern stalls- it was a clash of
culture that was amazing and we had a good time wandering through the markets
and buying little presents. There was also an outdoor concert venue in front of
the Granada Cathedral that was hosting live bands that were actually fairly decent.
They were covering 80s rock bands and I still wonder if they knew what they
were singing about...
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| Columbus with Ferdinand |
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| Pretty Granada |
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| Awesome backdrop for a concert |
After shopping for a few hours and grabbing some dinner, we
grabbed a taxi and headed up to San Nicolas lookout. This is a church on the
hilltop directly across from the Alhambra. At night they light up all of the
buildings and the result is stunning. It looks like a city floating amongst the
clouds and it speaks to your soul.
After admiring the view for an hour and enjoying impromptu
musical numbers that were sung to the building (yeah it was pretty weird but
super entertaining) we walked down through the city to get back to our hotel.
We wound our way through parks and neighborhoods and got a glimpse of what real
life in Granada looked like. The tread on my shoes was pretty much worn flat by
this point and I slipped and slid all the way down. We also stumbled upon the same band we'd heard warming up earlier and got to hear a night concert. Granada was awesome.
