Granada

Monday, April 14th

Granada Cathedral

I actually already talked about Monday in my Morocco post, but I guess I'll go ahead and repeat that Karin and I had a good flight from Marrakech to Granada, Spain, with a nice little layover in Madrid. Once we got to Granada, we just took the night to relax.

Tuesday, April 15th

Tuesday was our first full day in Granada and we definitely made the most of it. Karin had a Rick Steve's book and she had mapped out a walk that was suggested in the book so that's what we did. We started our day at the tourist's office though, because we had paid for a three day tourist pass that included a bunch of places to visit as well as some rides on the city bus. I would highly suggest the bono turístico, if you are traveling to Granada, it's definitely worth it and it's nice to leave the wallet at home because every place you go into is already paid for. It makes it feel like it's free. Ha. Anyway, we started at the Corral del Carbón, which is a monument from the 14th century. It is the only conserved Nasrid (the last Arab Muslim dynasty in Spain) public granary left on the Iberian peninsula. After that, we walked to Granada's cathedral. It pretty much looked like all of the other cathedrals that we've seen. We have decided that we have seen sooo many churches and cathedrals. It's so true. We have and we know they don't look the same, but in your head, they kind of start looking the same. There are only a few that stick out in my head as being pretty distinct. One of which is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It was funny because Karin and I were talking about cathedrals and how some of them are toned down because they wanted to ease the Muslims into conversion. For example, there are always a lot of animal and other depictions in Catholic churches, but some of them stopped putting so many because in Islam, they do not have these depictions because they believe that they are and should only be the work of God. On the other hand, we decided that some of the cathedrals are miraculous because they wanted to show power. In my opinion, the cathedral in Granada is showing power. It's pretty grand.

We then made our way to the Royal Chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Royal Chapel probably because it is a mausoleum for some pretty important people: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel as well as their daughter Juana la Loca and her husband Felipe I, and their oldest grandson, Miguel, Prince of Asturias. I know I have talked about Rey Fernando y Reína Isabel a lot on here, but just a reminder, they are known as the Catholic Kings and they are known for uniting Spain in 1469. They led the reconquest in Spain and the Nasrid dynasty in Granada was the last to fall to the Catholic Kings in 1492. They were also in charge of funding Christopher Columbus' voyage. And now their remains lie in the Royal Chapel in Granada.

Picture of the Royal Chapel
(http://www.alfiogarozzo.com/)

After the Royal Chapel, we kind of just took a wrong turn and started exploring. Our explorations took us up through a very hill-y part of Granada. Granada is pretty hill-y in a lot of places and we definitely got our workout in.

 We had pizza for lunch and then we continued to walk around. We walked along the the Darro River, which is more like a stream and we went to El Bañuelo, an old Arab bath. The baths were important to the Moors because it was a public meeting place. After the Christian conquest, this particular bath became a public laundry.

El Bañuelo

The Darro River

View of the Alhambra from the river

The Albayzín neighborhood and the Church of El Salvador

Then, we took a walk in Albayzín. Albayzín is a district in Granada that has narrow winding streets from the Moorish past. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1984, along with the Alhambra, which you'll hear about a little bit later. While walking around the area we kind of had an interesting and scary experience. We went up a street and there were dogs barking, I paid no attention to the dogs and apparently there was a guy standing there (Karin saw him, I didn't), we continued to walk and found out that the street was a dead end. When we were walking back past the house with the loud dogs and man, a super loud noise went off. I would say it was a firework or something, but there was no flash of light, but it was seriously deafening. Karin and I were pretty thrown off and pretty much had no idea what had just happened. We don't know if he didn't want trespassers on his street or what, but if that was the case, then we wish there would have been a sign or something. It was kind of ridiculous and it took a few minutes for the ringing to stop in my ears. Anyway, I took a picture of the street sign so that future travelers can avoid the street. Don't walk down Placeta de María la Canastera, unless you feel like being temporarily deaf, but I wouldn't advise it.
After walking around for a little bit longer, we made our way to the San Nicolás lookout, which is famous for it's views of the Alhambra (again, keep reading to see what that is). We sat at a restaurant for a little bit and had a drink. Then, we got ice cream and continued walking.

At the San Nicolás lookout

La Alhambra

We walked to another lookout that had a good view of the old city wall that is just kind of in the middle of everything. 

We made our way back to the main part of the city and we did that by walking down a street that in my head I have dubbed "The Morocco Street" because it had a lot of markets and they sold a lot of the same things that were being sold in Morocco. I will say though that the people at the markets didn't bother you as much. It was such a relief for Karin and I. We could actually look without someone breathing down our necks. It was awesome! :) We then went to H&M... I know, that's not so cultural, but I had to get a certain undergarment..TMI, but somehow, I left mine in Morocco..ha. Anyway, on our way back to the hostel, we ran into our first procession. Processions are a really big thing during Semana Santa (Holy Week). The processions are plentiful during Semana Santa and each church has their own float and a huge group of men carry the float. There is also a band, a group that holds the banners and incense, and a group of people that where habits, which for everyone from the U.S. look like KKK robes.

I had a strange encounter during the procession, too. Karin and I crossed through the procession with a group of people when there was a break. When I got to the other side, I got yelled at and pushed by an older lady. What I'm assuming was her older son was standing there and he seemed pretty embarrassed by her and I was definitely stunned by her behavior. Karin and I had a discussion about how there she was watching a religious procession and then acting towards people the way she did. I hope she was able to reflect on that, too. It was pretty shocking and I was definitely left speechless and couldn't even fit in a word even if I wanted to. Not to say that Karin and I were in the right for crossing over, but yea, it was just a weird situation. Karin and I got out of there and walked back to the hostel. We made dinner and then went to bed.

Wednesday, May 16th

On Wednesday, the morning was pretty relaxed because Karin was feeling under the weather, so I let her sleep and I went to the Monasterio de San Jerónimo. It was just a nice little monastery in town. It was pretty quiet and people were getting ready for the procession that day. I thought it was funny because they had ironing boards set up and stuff.

The robes for the processions

Ironing boards in the monastery

The chapel of the monastery

After visiting the monastery, I also passed by the University of Granada just because I wanted to check it out and it is one of the popular universities in Spain. Unfortunately, it is gated in and closed due to Semana Santa I'm assuming so I only saw it from the outside.

After that, I walked back to the hostel and hung out for a little bit. I made lunch and relaxed in the sun on the rooftop balcony. It was pretty nice. Then, I unfortunately had to get Karin out of bed so we could go to the Alhambra. Tickets are pretty hard to get a hold of for the Alhambra, especially during Semana Santa, so we had to go that day; otherwise, we would have chosen a different day. We took a bus up to the Alhambra and started our exploration of it. There are a lot of different parts to the Alhambra so I will explain what those are as we go. Plus, I should probably tell you what the Alhambra is. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress from the Nasrid dynasty. You can watch the below UNESCO video to get more of a feel for it. The way the speaker pronounces "Alhambra" though makes me cringe. Spanish lesson one to all of my readers: the "h" is silent in Spanish.

We started at the Alcazaba of the fortress. The Alcazaba was the main military building of the Alhambra, it was the defense building and it kept intruders out.

La Alcazaba and Judas trees

Albayzín from the Alcazaba

Flags flying on the Alcazaba:
European Union, Andalusian, Spanish, Grenadine flags

 After the Alcazaba, we went to Charles V's Palace. He was nice enough not to destroy the Nasrid palace and build his own palace, but he still was able to show the defeat of Christianity over Islam by building it quite large and in an overpowering Renaissance style. Anyway, Charles V's Palace now houses two museums: The Museum of the Alhambra and a fine arts museum. Karin and I walked through both museums and then we mad our way to Generalife, which is the garden part of the Alhambra, although it also has a palace that was apparently the resting place of the Nasrid Kings..not quite sure though...because it is really close to there actual palace (like less than a half mile away). Anyway, everything we saw walking around was pretty.

Charles V's palace

Photo shoot at Charles V's palace

Generalife with the palaces in the background

Flowers in Generalife

The palace of Generalife

Then, it was on to our look of the Palacios Nazaríes (Nasrid Palaces), which is the highlight of the Alhambra trip. You have a certain time slot to go in and they only let so many people in a day. I'm not sure what the number is, but it's a lot. I actually didn't know this, but the palace is actually three palaces and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. The outside kind of fools you because it doesn't look large, but when we were inside, we just kept taking turns that would take us somewhere completely different. I wish I could go through and tell you everything about it, but that would take forever and I would probably mess up information, so I will just show pictures. I will say that the intricate architecture and tiling throughout the whole thing is gorgeous, but you can see for yourself..

So, that's that. It was pretty cool and I was happy to see something that is pretty cultural in Spain. Now my time is starting to really wind down here in Spain, I am starting to reflect on everything I have seen..and boy, is it a lot. :) It's pretty amazing actually. I hope you have and will continue to enjoy these blogs as much as I do. I'm sorry that you don't get to be here with me experiencing everything, but I hope these make you feel like you were there. Anyway, we stayed in the palaces until it was closed, like they let the dogs out on us, figuratively speaking. We made our way back to the hostel and relaxed briefly, but then we had to walk to a flamenco show that we had bought tickets for. We were going to take a bus, but because of the Semana Santa processions, the streets were packed and no buses were running, so Karin and I walked fairly quickly to get to the show and walked past the procession that was going on. The show was pretty cool and took place in a cave in the side of the mountain that surrounds part of Granada. We listened to the music and watched a few different people dance. :)

After the flamenco show, we started walking back and it was crazy because we were in the flamenco show for quite awhile (maybe about an hour) and the procession was just reaching the point where we were and the streets were packed with people. We stayed and watched paso (float) pass by as the people carried it up a super steep hill and then we walked back to the hostel and went to bed. 

The procession going by

Thursday, April 17th

The landscapes of Andalucia

The 17th was my sister's birthday so Happy Birthday to her. I spent the day at two museums in Granada that were really fun. And I think the coolest part about it is that we wouldn't have even considered going to them if they weren't a part of the tourist card that we bought. And to be honest, the first museum that we went to is definitely worth a look. It was the Museo Memoria de Andalucia, a museum to learn anything and everything about Andalucia (the south of Spain). It is a new musuem, built in 2009 (if I remember correctly). The museum is actually larger than the parts that we saw, but what we saw were the four huge rooms that deal with different aspects of Andalucia: Diversity of Landscapes, Land and Cities, Ways of Life, and Art and Culture, and we saw the blinding courtyard. The exhibits were awesome and all had interactive screens with a lot of information. You could have spent hours in there listening to everything. I think some of the videos were pretty lengthy in my opinion, but they were super informative.

The architecture of the Alhambra

Learning things :)

The courtyard of the museum 

Next up, we went to the Science Museum that was right across the street. We didn't walk through a lot of exhibits because we had to watch the time so we could catch our bus, but we did walk through a puppet exhibit and we had a lot of laughs trying to make shadow puppets. We were successful with some and not so successful with others, but we laughed a lot.

Making a swan :)

The other highlights of the museum were watching a little presentation on electricity, burning myself on a large bronze tortoise (that's an embarrassing story that I don't want to tell), and climbing a tower to see the views of Granada and the Sierra Nevada. :)

Granada

The two museums that we went to

Granada and the Sierra Nevada Mountains

We then made our way back to the hostel and grabbed our stuff and left for the bus station. We got to the station early so we sat outside for quite awhile and fed some ants that were on the ground. You would think this would be boring, but the ants entertained us for a really long time. It's probably embarrassing the amount of time we spent watching the ants, but what else were we supposed to do? We were just waiting for a bus. We caught a bus to our last Spring break stop Málaga and this blog will continue on into that post..ENJOY! :D