Day 6 Granada

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.

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!! 

Summer House

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.

Part of the ruins

Old foundations

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.

Reflection pool

Inside the Alhambra

Where the thrones sat

The ceilings are modeled after stalagtites

The only stained glass window left

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!

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...

Columbus with Ferdinand

Pretty Granada

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.