Days 11-13  Granada

We spent a few days in the mountain city of Granada, and here is the street where we lived in the small palace of Santa Ines.

The city sits at the base of the original Sierra Nevada mountains which are nearly as tall as the California version.  Sierra Nevada translates into ‘mountains covered with snow”.  September is not a good month to see snow in the mountains, but we did see signs to ski resorts.

The big draw to Granada is the Alhambra.

There is wall a mile long around the fort and palaces you see in the picture, and people visit it by day and enjoy it from viewpoints in the evening.  To tour it, you are advised to get your ticket months in advance due to its popularity.  From it’s location, this site was built and successfully defended by the Moors (Muslims) for 800 years!  

The Alhambra was part fortress and at one end, the army was garrisoned. Our tour took us through the many parts of the fort.

Back in the day when this was a working fort, jail cells were holes in the ground with a trap door, and the prisoners accessed the cell by rope.

The highlight was the Moorish Royal Palace.  Several of the rooms had courtyards, and two of our favorites are these two:

There are some large gardens within the walls that were aromatic as well as beautiful.

Jan Studer encouraged us to try what we might call the Turkish Bathes (and what they call the Arab bathes).  Three of us have colds and coughs, so it was a chance to test whether they were therapeutic.  There were hot bathes of various hotness and steam, a cold bath, and the part I liked the most, a massage.  After two hours, you feel 20 years younger.  No pictures were allowed of the bath - sorry!

On one of our days, we took a tour of olive groves and learned about the processing of it!  Spain is the top producer in the world with 45% of the total.  Neighboring Italy is a distant second producer with 25% of the worlds olive oil.  The town we visited has the oldest known press and we got a special tour.  The stone below was pulled by a donkey, and the stone smashed the raw olives into a pulp.

Then, we did the taste test of 5 different oils, something I can’t recommend.  I love olive oil and know it is a healthy oil, but drinking it and swishing it around in your mouth before swallowing is not as fun as when I do it with wine!  Here are some of the other tasters sitting in front of their five cups of oil.

One of our days in Granada was a Saturday.  Every night a few evening hours are used for walking the common areas and enjoying the evening air with friends and family.  Saturday evenings are more lively with music in many of the plazas.  It was interesting to run across the following in late afternoon in one large plaza.  There are lots of young people in Granada and the attention is usually on them.  In this plaza, it’s the older people dancing and the young people watching.

On more than one evening, we went to neighboring Arab Quarters for the view of the Alhambra at sunset.  Finding a good viewpoint is part of the challenge as well as navigating throughout the small and erratically laid out streets.  For over 1000 years, the Jews and Muslims have gotten along very well here in Granada.  This picture reminds me of the Jewish word ‘Shalom’ meaning peace.  

Days 8-10 Seville

We found this striking couple in Seville and took a liking to them.  It’s not easy finding people wearing the traditional garb of Spain years ago.  The clothes probably make these people look four times as good as they would if they were wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts!

Looks like there maybe a pick-pocket trying to find the wallet of the caballero.

There are Churches and Palaces (Cathedrals and Alcazars) in most every Spanish city we visit so it might seem a little repetitive.  So far, every one has been been more grand than that of the previous city. 

In Seville, there is the largest gothic cathedral in the whole world.  

More impressive is the interior.  There are dozens and dozens of side altars.  The main alters are enormous and often decorated with gold, silver, huge paintings, and sculptures, and even tombs!  There are even rooms where some of the gold and silver treasure is stored.  There is so much, one could think it decadent.  One very interesting thing found in the cathedral is the tomb of Christopher Columbus.

His tomb is carried by large sculpted kings who represent the four regions of Spain.  It is interesting to note that Columbus traveled a lot both before and after he died.  You probably know he sailed several times to the Americas.  His remains also traveled and were first placed in a northern Spain, then moved to Seville, then moved to the Dominican Republic in the West Indies, then Cuba, and then around 1900, back to Sevilla.

Another interesting note about Columbus is that we sailed for the new world from Seville.  This city is on a river, not an ocean.  It used to be a major port city and place for the Spanish Armadas to dock even though some distance from the sea.

Even more impressive for me is the alcazar (palace).  Seville is much closer to Moorish (Muslim) countries of North Africa, and the influence in this old city is more noticeable than Madrid and other cities in the center of Spain.

The outer walls occupy four city blocks. It is what’s inside that is most impressive.  One of the first things you see is this courtyard.

We used the audio guide to help understand the many many rooms and decorations.  Each of the rooms had a purpose many of which we would not consider needed today such as the Admirals’ apartments where debriefing of the explorers such as Columbus would occur or plans made for Magellan.

All room walls have artistic elements, and many of the doorways include marble pillars.

This sizable piece of land also had outdoor pools such as this one

and a huge garden that even had an observation walkway built into the boundary wall of the garden.

One of our nights in Seville, we took in our first live flamenco dance in a small theatre.  Flamenco has an interesting history, but we leave that for you to discover.  It was an amazing show by all three artists:  the guitar player, the dancer, and the singer.  This is a picture I took from our front row seat.

One last thing is the old world streets.  This is Shari just outside the front door of our hotel.  Cabs can’t take you to many of the hotels in the old quarter of the city, and that suited us just fine.

Days 6 and 7  Holy Toledo!

What a place!  The walled part of Toledo is all one national monument  The only sense of the modern world is the few cars and buses that operate in the city and all the modern-looking people.  The small walled city sits atop a sizable hill with a river on three sides, and with these elements, the city was very defendable.  Over many centuries entry to the city has been through gates (or portals) such as this one:

It looks medieval and it almost feels medieval.  Shops sell daggers and swords hoping you are in the mood for ancient combat.  Most of the city walls are still very much intact, unusual for a European city after all the centuries of wars.

This city has a very interesting history.  When Europe plunged into the Dark Ages 1500 years ago after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Moors (Muslims) conquered much of Spain.  They ruled for several centuries and contributed their architectural design.  They lived peacefully with both Jews and Christians, especially in Toledo.  There was much respect among the religions, and the churches, mosques, and synagogues all thrived here.  My dad used to use the expression ‘HolyToledo’, and I always thought it had something to do with that other Toledo in Ohio. Not so . . . it was this one in Spain, a very holy city.  We were in Toledo on a Sunday, so I got to use the phrase a few times when I saw the long lines for some of the historic places like the cathedral.  The entry way is on the side, BTW.

The ancient walls and buildings are accompanied by ancient streets.  The cobble-stoned streets are a little hard on your feet if you walk for hours.

It seemed like the cathedral was visible from every narrow little street.

We realize that many of the larger towns and cities have an alcazar.  The one in Segovia has Disney-like features, while the one in Toledo is more Pentagon-like (Shari and Jan are across the street from it).

This city is so historic that you start to differentiate the old and the very old.  On one of our walks, we ran across this building.  There was no sign of life here, but I would have liked to have seen a plaque telling me how many dozens of centuries it had lived through.  

Like Segovia, Toledo gets two thumbs up from Shari and me as a place to see!

Day 5 Segovia

Once upon a time, Spain was one of many parts of the Roman Empire.  Roman engineers were geniuses at moving water around Europe in aqueducts, and the picture shows a still solid structure now over 2000 years old!

We traveled by bus 50 miles north to the town of Segovia, far from the maddening crowd of Madrid, to see the aqueduct and more.  As we do in most places in Europe, we book hotels in the oldest part of the towns and cities.  Our hotel is center right in the picture.

Segovia is not very big, but it has so much to see for its size.  The Alcazar, or fortified palace, sits at one end of the town.

If you think you have seen this before, you probably are thinking of Cinderella’s castle at Disneyland as Disney borrowed some of the architecture from this medieval castle.  Once upon a time, the aqueduct delivered water to the castle and the water was stored in what looks like a wishing well.

The views from Alcazar were great as it sat at a very defensible point in the City.

One view is of the Cathedral and the center of town.

As mentioned, the Cathedral is the center of town and a stones through from our hotel.

One last thing about this town to note is that suckling pig is the dish of the region.  I can only imagine what you think of eating this dish, but I can tell you we were very happy to eat it.  You might say we ‘pigged out’.

Days 3 and 4 Spain and Morocco 2015

We continue to explore Madrid, but for the last two days, we have done so exclusively by foot.  Here is a picture taken from our balcony at midnight. There is a party every evening!  

We’ve been enjoying all the historic buildings, fountains, and parks that the Spanish Kings have built over centuries.  One good thing about royalty seems to be the emphasis on beauty and art.  

I don’t think you’d call Shari and I great art lovers, but we loved the Prado Musuem with such artists on display as Goya, Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, Da Vinci and a host of other artists we’ve never heard of.  These artists are comparable to Michelangelo.  We thought we could handle a couple of hours of art, but we liked it so much, we went back the second time in the same day.  So incredible!  No photographs allowed, but they have individual audio guides that help you appreciate great art.

The highlight of the trip so far was the Walks of Spain Wine and Tapas tour last night.  Our private Spanish language interpreter, Jan Studer, found the tour on Trip Advisor, and it is given great reviews.  

There were only 10 people on the tour including our tour leader, Andres Jarabo.  He walked us through the oldest and most interesting part of Madrid.  We stopped and sampled more than wines and tapas (a Spanish appetizer).  We had some very unique foods including butterfish and roasted Iberian pork on heated ceramic slabs that you’d first think was beef tenderloin.  Those of us on the tour loved the food so much, my camera could not get a picture fast enough (because it got eaten immediately).  Wine is hard to capture in a picture, but it was even more spectacular than the food!

One of the places where we stopped is the oldest restaurant in the world (founded 1725) according to the Guinness World Record.  If you know anything about the restaurant business, being around for 300 years is a very long time.

We’ve had a memorable 4 days in Madrid.  Tomorrow we go to the old town of Segovia, north of Madrid, traveling via Spain’s train and bus services.  We hope we will be smiling when we get to our destination.

Spain and Morocco 2015

Days 1 and 2 

¡Hola

Being in the big city of Madrid has meant being on the go all day and part of the night.  We are literally in the center of this big city and also in the middle of country.  Here are 3 of the 4 of the travel companions with one foot on the plaque marking the center of the Spain.  

BTW - Click on pictures if you wish to enlarge them!!

The weather is a little warm and we are adjusting to the 8 hour time change, so during the beginning of the journey, we travel by double-decker open top bus where they provide tours.  It’s a great vehicle for seeing a lot . . . and also a good place for a quick siesta. 

Our hotel location is also near much of the historic parts of Madrid such as the Palacio Real (Royal Palace).  

I’ve been thinking some of the new houses are big in St. George.  The Royal Palace has 2800 rooms.   The decor in each of the 24 rooms would be the subject of a coffee table book.  

The view from some of the 2800 rooms would be of the Almudena Cathedral, conveniently located next-door for the King and Queen.

We discovered that we could view an entire Egyptian Temple relocated to Madrid.  It seemed weird, but 50 years ago, the Egyptians dammed up the Nile River and moved the ancient ruins that were to be inundated.  

The Temple of Demod probably does not ring any bells for you, but they have the whole temple, and the historical interpretation was very good.  

There are many art museums in Spain thanks to having so many famous painters over many centuries.  I’m not a Picasso fan but always find something that catches my eye.  Usually the museums don’t allow photography, but this sculpture worked for me.  Look closely and you'll see this from a butcher's perspective.

Our first days have been hectic but fun.   They are memorable already and we’ve just started the journey!