Granada - THE ALHAMBRA!

After looking up at it for a day, we finally got to see the Alhambra in all its glory.  It took some climbing (I mean serious hill and stair climbing, that it turned out we didn't have to do because Google Maps is not as good as you think it is, and Steve didn't think we should spoil the experience by taking one of the MANY taxis and buses that go directly to the Alhambra front door.  Okay, end of rant.)  But, I digress.  The Alhambra palaces were amazing, as so many have told me.  I loved the Arab portion the best: the design, the gardens, the rushing water, the artistry, and the obvious science and math that went into creating this thing of beauty and demonstration of power.

Our guide, Jose, took the opportunity to explain the connections to Islam of many of the decorations and architectural features.  The square is important the Islamic faith and the numbers 7 and 8.  The intricate decorations are literally writing of the name Allah in two different scripts and the few symbols that Islam allows - natural things like trees, plants, and stars (especially the 8 pointed star).

The Generalife Gardens were just gorgeous and this is the end of the season; the gardens in summer must have been extremely lush.  I loved it all - the views from the gardens, the irrigation design, the garden rooms, the myrtle and oleander and every other flower (or tree) you can think of, the varying designs from garden room to garden room, the use of architectural design to make gardens inside the building create a much cooler environment, and the musical sound of splashing water.

The later wall decoration was carved, but originally it was cast in strips and glued to the wall.

The mosaics were just beautiful.

Our guide pointed out that the writing on the wall is predominantly Allah written over and other in two kinds of script.  Notice the green tree edging at the bottom and the inverted trees in white.

This fountain is in the Christian palace that was built for the King of Spain.  Personally, I didn't care for the staid decorations of the Spanish palace.  The Moors did a much better job of decorating, but they were definitely into power and the gaining the upper hand.

[Btw, if anyone is interested, according to my iPhone Health app I climbed 17 floors, took 15,023 steps and walked 6.9 miles today.  And, yes, I think my caboose is a little bit narrower now.]

Our tour started at 5pm and took 3 hours.  So, after the tour, we walked back down to Plaza de la Nueva and strolled back to the cafes at the bottom of our barrio, the Albaicin Quarter, at the foot of the Alhambra.  As we sat and ate our tapas dinner, a small band of musicians serenaded us for the second night in a row with gypsy jazz guitar music, the kind Django Reinhardt used to play (not as good as Django, but these were very talented young men and tonight they included what looked like a tenor saxophone, trumpet, trombone, great guitar, and a very unusual bass made of a long stick and a string with a washtub at the bottom - and he was amazing).


All in all, a wonderful day, even though I fumed at Steve for that incredible death march up hill and never-ending stairways to get to the Alhambra.

Tomorrow, we hop on the knee-crushing bus (with a plan to protect our knees this time) and head for Seville.  We could only get one night in Seville, but our AirBnb is inside the old city.  We will arrive around 3pm, settle in our apartment, and wander the streets of Seville among all the other tourists until the tours leave for the night and we have Seville to ourselves for the evening.  The only rub is that we have not set up any arrangements for the next leg of our travels.  So, it could get sticky soon.

I'll keep you posted, but I think we are headed to Malaga next.

We arrived in Granada!

It was a bit awkward, switching from a train to a bus for the last leg of the trip, and the bus, dear ones, was very tight - I mean, I'm above average in height for a woman and my knees may be bruised.  It got exciting when the lady in front of me reclined her seat a few inches.  So, after 1 1/2 hours on a tight bus, it was a relief to finally arrive in Granada, which by the way is a full size small city with bus service, tram service, traffic, industry, the works.

Thank goodness Steve had his transit app (MoovIt).  He didn't get frustrated, just opened the app and found out how to get to our AirBnb.  Because we had 1 1/2 hours to wait until our apartment was available for check-in, we found a great little cafe called Cafeteria le Duce (using Trip Advisor app) and had our first actual meal of the day since rushing for the train and then the bus. At that point, we walked looking for the bus stop and finally said "oh, heck, let's take a taxi".  This is what we saw when we exited the taxi.

Actually taken from our entryway, looking up hill.

Down hill is a large outdoor cafe and a wall next to the small river.  This is the view from that wall.  The Alhambra in all it's glory.

As much as I like this apartment, the wifi is not very strong, maybe not enough bandwidth.  So, more photos will probably be uploaded from our next stop, Seville.  (Now I owe you the Thyssen museum/Botanical Gardens and the Alhambra.) Wednesday, we take possibly the last tour available of the Alhambra and the Generalife Gardens at 5pm for 3 hours with an actual human guide! Yes, apparently you have to book a month in advance for tickets and we booked from the Bus Station in Granada for tomorrow; we were SO lucky.  (Our host was going to book the tickets and then emailed that we would have to physically go to the Alhambra to get them.  We weren't feeling lucky.  They only allow a certain number per day.)  The price for these tickets was our punishment for not booking a month ahead.  Oh, well.  You only live once and this might be our last time here in Granada. Carpe diem!

Two nights in Granada in our apartment in the historic district.  Then, on to Seville just for one night to see the city by day and night before going on to wherever we decide to go.  Hmmm...  We have some thinking to do.

Ah, Madrid!

Madrid has squeezed every waking hour out of me.

Hence, the one day delay in posting to the blog.  The first night after we arrived, I left Steve sleeping and walked up to the Plaza Mayor, just to see it at night, watch the Paseo, and reconnoiter for the shoe shop I wanted to visit the next day.

All the way to the Plaza, there were people in the street: eating at outdoor cafe tables, chatting on street corners, and walking.  It was 8 o'clock and this was a LOT of people.  But, it was nothing compared to what I saw when I climbed the ancient cobbled incline into the Plaza Mayor itself.  I swear there were at least 1000 people there.  I sat down at a front row table, ordered a Coke (my new caffeine drink of choice because that is what there is) and watched the people go by: young, old, families, teenagers, some sitting on the grass (which turned out to be turf over cobbled Plaza).  It was amazing and absolutely everything I had been told.  For the price of a very expensive Coke, I could has stayed for hours.  But, after an hour, I had to go back to prepare for the next day.

Yes, that's my coke and it was delicious!

Afterwards, I wandered out to find Cash Hernanz, the shop where amazing espadrilles are sold.  It was not open on Sunday, but I could window shop and be ready for the next morning when I came back to beat the crowds.  I eventually bought a pair of bright red espadrilles, made in Spain, and fitted them with Dr. Scholl's inserts of course.  The Doctor is international apparently.  Still not sure if I like them, but for 13E how could I resist.

The next day, Monday, after I got up early and hiked to the Plaza for my beautiful espadrilles, Steve and I headed for the Plaza, food, and the first of three art museums.  It turns out that you can buy, online, a Paseo del Arte pass (30E each) that gets you into all three of the major art museums (Prado, Thyssen, and Sofia) for 20% off the total entrance fees.  You can get in quicker, get in once to each of the museums, and it's good for a year.  We discovered how great this was when we came out of the Prado.  Yes, all the museums are open at 7pm for free, but the line is several people wide and covers at least 2 city blocks.  At our age, I don't think we could have stood in a line like that and then walked all over the museum.

Plaza Mayor by day, when they apparently roll up and remove the sod.  Who knew?

This is for you, Mom.  I know you love these. They were in a shop on the Plaza, which wasn't open when we were there, unfortunately.

The Addams Family seems to be in town.

Velasquez in front of the Prado.

Goya in front, too.

This is the "free" line after 7pm.  Photo taken at 6pm.

The Prado was fantastic!  https://www.museodelprado.es/en No pictures allowed (even with flash turned off), but that let us really focus on the art.  Yes, Gary, I saw some amazing Velasquez paintings.  He did paint light beautifully.  I discovered another artist who was good that way, too - Anton Raphael Megs.  I never heard of him, but I really liked the way he painted. Of course, there were all the masters, but I didn't find the impressionists that I was looking for: Manet, Monet, Renoir, etc.  Those were at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. https://www.museothyssen.org/en   

Today, after fixing a travel snafu at Atocha station, we went to the Thyssen and it had a lot of the works that I had hoped I would see in the Prado.  The Thyssen was less, shall we say, aloof than the Prado and I was able to take a few photos of my favourites (without flash, of course).  Tomorrow, I will post a few of my favourites and a couple from the Botanical Garden that we found nearby.  But, we have to prepare for an early train (and bus) ride because we are going to Granada in the morning!

More later.

Planning for Madrid

Yesterday, we scouted the next day's trip to the Alicante railroad station answer questions and wandered down to the beach to say goodbye.

Who doesn't need to have their photo taken with a cow at the rail station?

There are a few wide dirt paths near the water in Alicante, but the majority seem to be made of shiny marble  mosaics.  You've already seen the the Escher-like Esplanada and the waterfront walk.  This is the walk in front of the commercial storefronts.

Postiguet Beach below downtown Alicante.  I walked in the lapping surf for quite a way and  I can attest that the sand is golden.  I swear the Mediterranean water is about 80 degrees.  It felt like a heated swmming pool once I acclimated.  That cannot be said of the Oregon and California beaches I walked on this summer.

Many Spaniards were showing their patriotism by hanging the Spanish flag from their balconies in the city.  I assume that has to do with the Catalan independence referendum voting that has been going on all day today.

We took an exciting trip on the high speed railroad, Renfe Ave, to Madrid today.  There was some confusion about which bus we needed to get to the station, but it all worked out.  We weren't even frisked, only the X-ray for our baggage - and... we even got to keep our belts and shoes on!  It was more comfortable, but I'm not sure that makes me feel more secure.

This is after we passed through Security.  The line for the platform we want started here.

On the right is our train.  We walked several city blocks, kept looking  for Coche (Car)  5, and discovered that Coche 5 was on the train parked in front of that train.

Coche 5 and Can Can dancer.

That train WAS very fast.  I'm pretty sure the train to Portland didn't get even close to 150 mph, and yet we could see the landscape very well as we whizzed by.  Most of it was rolling hills that looked very like Southern California and Arizona.  Apparently we passed La Mancha while I was napping, darn it.

Some of you may have heard that there was a stabbing incident at the Marseilles railroad station today.  It was a close thing.  We were considering going to Marseilles rather than Madrid, but it would have been by air because the flights were so very cheap now and that saves time.  Our Madrid trip was uneventful that way, on the train, at the stations, and in the city.  What a lovely city!

The Madrid Renfe Station, Atocha, was unique and interesting.

This place is HUGE; definitely a national hub.

It even has a meandering walkway through a man-made jungle.

Our taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of this block.

Here's the view from our AirBnb apartment door.  Those lines you see are our dedicated clothes lines.  [Yes, very few use a laundry dryer and the washer, if you have one, is either in the kitchen or the bathroom.]  I'm told by our host that these corrales (private courtyards) were very common in the 16th century, but very few survive today.  This neighborhood, Lavapies, was "the walled-in "Juderie" - the medieval Jewish quarter until Jews were forced into exile or conversion in 1492."  It seems to be a very interesting, lively barrio and our location is within easy walking distance of most of the sites we want to see.  [Oh, and I must say that Madrid smells better to me so far than many parts of Alicante.  Perhaps it was the proximity of the sea or difficulties with sewage, but what a difference.]

The view from our door.  There is a black and white marble tiled walkway the width of the building with other apartments opening onto it.  Ours is a very tiny one bedroom, but it will work.

Of course, the first thing we did after settling in a little was to go for a meal and do a little shopping at the local mercado.  We made a rookie error at our first stop.  Using our pidgin Spanish, we ordered what we thought was two entrees and a shared vegetable dish.  However, we should have realized when the waiter playfully rolled his eyes taking our order, that each of those 3 items were family sized communal bowls to share.  So, needless to say, we unintentionally reinforced the stereotype of the overeating American; ordering too much, paying too much, and leaving too much food on the table.  Lesson learned.

However, the Jamon Iberico was delicious, salty, chewy, and divine. We didn't leave too much of this.

Well, I'm off to buy some new sandals or espadrilles.  I'm down to my comfortable hiking books because I literally wore out my sandals walking everywhere.  It's in the high eighties (degrees) here and these hiking boots just won't cut it.

Photos of Madrid tomorrow night.  Buenos noches!