Granada!

What is it about Granada that makes it so special?  There is a certain spirit of life that makes this one of the favorite cities we visited.  Actually, we visited it twice on this trip -- for two days last week and then again with our Sister Cities group this week. 

  Both visits were good, but the best was last week when we just wandered about by ourselves exploring places and sampling wine and tapas in some small bodegas and tabernas.
 

Last week, one of the things we enjoyed most was a walking tour through the old Albayzin Muslim quarter on a hill facing the Alhambra.  This section winds its way up narrow cobblestone streets.  We would have easily become lost there but we went with a guide, a beautiful young Spanish woman named Isabel.  (Wendell liked this tour the best naturally).  There were only two other people on our tour, a couple from Madrid.  They spoke no English so Isabel gave the tour in both English and Spanish.  As we climbed our way toward the top of this neighborhood we learned about the history of this area and heard some interesting tales.  

The view from the top was truly spectacular as we faced the great Alhambra with the Sierra Nevada mountains and their snowy peaks in the background.

This week we returned with our larger group to visit the Alhambra.  It took us about two and a half hours of walking to explore this massive complex.  From the outside the red walls and towers of this fortress/palace seem plain, but once we passed inside we found many beautiful rooms and gardens with amazing stone, tile and woodwork done in the most graceful and lacelike shapes and patterns.  

We were provided with a very good guide (this time a handsome Spanish man named Frederico --Barbara liked this tour naturally).  He obviously cared about this place and shared his information with enthusiasm.  One technical touch that enhanced our enjoyment was the use of individual headsets that we used so we could hear everything he said clearly even though there were a number of other tour groups in the area at the same time.

After this exhausting tour we went to a restaurant where we relaxed with our luncheon vino and many dishes.  It was the 85th birthday of one of the women in our group so she was treated to a special birthday cake (the same kind served to the Pope on his visit here.)  We all had a share of this light and creamy treat. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at an outdoor café sipping coffee while others shopped or toured more this the city

Antequera

Antequera

Antequera proved to be just the right sort of place we had been looking for.  It is a very ancient town of about 45,000 people.  It is rightly called “the heart of Andalucía” because it is virtually at the crossroads of that beautiful land.  After seeing it we decided to stay there for three days.

We stayed in a small hotel in the historic district.  From our window we could look out and see the alcazaba above us and hear the church bells from a nearby church (there are 32 of them in Antequera) chime the quarter hours and toll out the hours. 

It was a great place for strolling around.  The buildings are all white, as is the case with many Spanish towns in this area.  The town is surrounded by some very unusual rock formations.  One of the largest, and visible from most of the town, is shaped like the head of a woman lying facing the sky.  

Near the edge of town are some ancient burial mounds.  These megalithic tombs, called Dolmens, are made of rock and covered with tons of soil.  They date back to around 2,500 BCE.  Barbara found it interesting that they are aligned, not with some celestial object, but with the strange rock formation we mentioned.  Apparently that rock had some significance to those people.  It certainly looked dramatic to us.
 

After getting some necessary “down time” to rest and renew ourselves we visited the local Plaza de Toros (no bulls, no fighting while we were there, just interesting shapes to see).  We then decided we were ready to hit the big city again.  Off to Granada for our next stop.

Antiqua y Nuevo

We just got to Toledo.  Wish we had a few more days here.  From our hotel room window the vista included an ancient church steeple, many aged tile roofs, satelite dishes; just a wondrous visual cornucopia.

Seville

After our stay in Jerez we moved on to Seville for a brief stay.  We arrived on a Sunday and spent an afternoon strolling with many other people, looking at some of the main sights in the city. 

We stopped into the cathedral which is gigantic.  This photo of people worshiping there will give you some idea of the scale of the building.  Among the royal tombs there is the mausoleum of Christopher Columbus.  Whether on not his remains are actually there is open to debate; we decided it didn’t really matter to us one way or the other.



Next to the cathedral is the famous tower, the Giralda.  It is possible to climb it by a series of ramps that were built originally so that the guards could ride their horses to the top.  I’m sure the views from the top were magnificent, but we decided that we enjoyed looking at it from the bottom just as well.

 


The highlight of our stay in Seville was a visit to the Alcazar there.  It has been the home of both Moorish caliphs and Spanish kings.  We saw some beautiful delicate tiles and stonework there, along with some lovely pools and gardens.  Even with many people around it was a very peaceful place.


At this point we were longing to go to a smaller town.  The grand cities are very interesting; but we were looking to experience some smaller places too.  One town we had thought to visit proved to be a little too difficult to reach without a car.  So we consulted our map and guide book and decided to head to Antequera.  More about that interesting place soon.

Still alive and breathing

We are still alive and well in Almunecar.  This have been so hectic that we have not been able to keep up.  We are going to try to catch up during our "free" date but no guarantees. 

After Dinner Friday Night

One time, several years ago, I was walking on the beach when there was a strong wind and loud crashing waves.  The sound washed away all awareness of other things and created a loneness and internal quiet that were almost unparalelled.  Spain can be a lot like that.

Right now I am sitting in my hotel room Friday night with the window open, sounds of voices from the restaurants and tabernas below enjoying their dinners, their friends, their wines are creating currents  which blend together into an upbeat  sea of sound that can create that same feeling of solitude, yet at the same time invite one to join in the waves of liveliness. 

weh

Last Day in Jerez

We decided to spend three days in Jerez.  While there we toured the Gonzalez-Byass Bodega makers of sherry and brandy including the famous Tio Pepe.  It was a pretty inclusive tour.  We rode to several parts of the bodega on a tram.  They do not make their wine at this site but rather distill the wine into the various sherries and brandies.  

There was a tasting at the end of the tour.  We shared a table with a couple of young English women who were on holiday from their jobs with Shell Oil in Scotland.  We had a nice chat together while we sipped several sherries and shared some tapas.

Another thing we did in Jerez was to tour the alcazar (fort/castle) from the Moorish times.  One of the most interesting parts of that visit was a demonstration of their camera obscura.   The camera consists of a large white disk (big enough for a dozen people of stand around it) in a totally darkened room.  There is an opening in the ceiling  leading to a light well in which a mirror and a large lens are mounted.  The angle of the view is controlled by moving the mirror at the top of the building  The mirror can be turned in an entire circle to give a view of surrounding city.  By shifting the disk up and down is was possible to focus on places either near the building itself or on parts of the city many miles away although the relatively simple lens could not zoom.  It was fascinating to see. 
 

This is an photo of a cathedral which was next to the alcazar taken the previous day from outside.

This photo is the image on the screen of the camera obscura taken when the operator focused in on the dome of the church.  The colors were soft but extremely clear.  When we first saw it, there were pigeons flying around which we thought were flies within the room. 

On the web there are many sites which talk about cameras obscura and show a lot of images from them but we were unable with a quick search to find any diagrams which showed clearly the way this particular one worked.  We may try to experiment with this concept after we get home.


The next day we took a quick trip to Seville which we will describe as soon as possible.