May 11 6PM Cordoba
We are back at the same café trying to upload photos onto the website. Writing is easy; sending it is not always so!
Despite having gone to bed after 2am we awoke by 8PM and headed downstairs for breakfast. Next we went quickly to the Castle of Christian Monarchs, having gotten to know our way around this part of town yesterday. Unlike the weather yesterday, we found ourselves with a cloud cover that kept the temperature a bit cooler today: fine with us!
The castle was first a roman fortress, as it sits on the banks of the River Guadalquivir and has a great vantage point to protect the area. The roman ruins could be seen throughout the castle, as well as evidence of other eras: Visigothic and Arab as well. Beautiful Roman mosaics from the 2nd and 3rd century were brought from other sites in Cordoba to the castle. Later King Alphonso XI updated the castle on the Roman ruins to be “European Gothic” and later was used by Isabel and Ferdinand as a base to continue the reconquest of Spain for the Catholics. As I mentioned yesterday, they turned this into a base for the inquisition, as well.
While the castle was interesting, the gardens were spectacular with an interesting irrigation system. All along the gardens were gutters through which water ran. There were little “locks” that were removed to allow the water to flow to a specific area. Fountains and sculptures added to the interest of the gardens with a beautiful range of flowers.
From the Castle we headed further into town, past the main tourist areas and stopped near the Dramatic Arts School for a coffee.
We wondered through small streets and squares and found our way to the Museo Regina: the jewelry museum! I bet you can’t guess whose idea that was! The museum is a very contemporary piece of architecture overlaying a stone building from the 16th century. In the lowest level of the building, the walls of the old building are still partially visible. The museum has equipment used in making jewelry from several eras and includes descriptions of several types of processes used in creation of jewelry. The upper level features changing exhibits of Spanish jewelry artists and the lowest level is a showroom of a jewelry workroom along with items to purchase.
As we wondered back toward the Jewish ghetto (where our hotel is) we stopped at a restaurant and made another stab at ordering food without the benefit of English. We did fairly well, having more of the Cordoban gazpacho, eggs, chorizo and tomatoes along with some cheese and bread (not exactly low cholesterol). We continued our journey through the streets of Cordoba and took advantage of many open patios and continued to compare the beauty of one patio to another. Some not only had flowers, but decorated the patios with pottery or copper pots and hangings and sculptures.
We also stopped at an interesting plaza that was surrounded on all four sides by a 4 story building. The ground floor had restaurants and antique shops; the upper floors were residences. They were setting up a huge stage for what must be a concert tonight. We’ll see if we can stay up—probably doesn’t start till 11 or 12!
We came back for a short rest (somehow we weren’t up for a siesta today) and walked back to our internet café where I posted yesterday’s travelog. The sun finally decided to filter through the clouds. Now at 7:30PM the sun is shining. Tomorrow, we take the bus to Granada.
11:30PM Friday, May 12, 2006 The Alhambra, Granada.
As I write, I hear the water of a fountain outside our little room in the Hotel America Granada on top of the world of Granada at the Alhambra. While we couldn’t get into the Parador of Granada for both nights, we were able to stay at this hotel for the first night and have the convenience of being on the mountain, part of the Alhambra complex. Jack described it as being an oasis above the vibrant city of Granada.
We left Cordoba this morning on the 9:00 bus to Granada. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the bus (clean modern bus) and the quiet ride we had to Granada. We were told by a travel agent and a book that the ride would take about an hour and 40 minutes; it was more like two hours and twenty minutes. But the ride was lovely and we got to see the country side and many small towns,with only one small stop (almost a coasting through town) during the ride. We were surprised that almost all we saw agriculturally were olive trees: thousands and thousands of them, up and down mountain sides!
A bit of alfalfa, some peach trees and fields of red poppies were all the diversion we saw from the olive groves.
By the end of this voyage, we were certain that we had made the right decision about not driving. The bus and train rides were easy; the towns are not easy to navigate with cars and even more difficult to find parking. We were initially told to take the train from here to Seville. However, upon getting here everyone told us that the bus is faster and more pleasant.
We arrived in Granada mid day and took a cab through the commercial end of town, some of the historic and civic areas and the tourist area then up the mountain to Granada. Almost as soon as we started to ascend the mountain the environment changed from city to country. The mountain was covered with a range of trees-fir and aspen and very old eucalyptus trees. It was beautiful! Then we began seeing signs of civilization-old buildings, monuments and walls. Then, the Washington Irving Hotel and several tourist souvenir shops and then we began seeing the magnificent Alhambra (Washington Irving, the 19th century American author, spent time at the Alhambra and wrote about it, giving Americans a glimpse into this world.)
We checked into our hotel and then walked next door to the Parador to find some lunch (our hotel is a recovering youth hostal and only serves breakfast). We walked downstairs to the restaurant and found people sitting outside waiting to be served. They are quite understaffed. Most of the tables were filled and others that are part of the “real restaurant” (rather than the bar menu) were not open for service. I found a couple, sitting by themselves and asked them if they spoke English and they answered “But of course!” I then asked if they would mind if we shared the table and they were quite hospitable.
By the way, we were surprised in Cordoba how few English speaking visitors we “heard.” We saw mostly German, Japanese Spanish, Scandinavian and French tourists. Very few Americans. This was less true in Granada, since I think more Americans are familiar with Granada (perhaps due Washington Irving).
We had a very enjoyable visit with the couple from England. They are retired, in their 70s and are from Linconshire. After lunch, we headed for the ticket office to retrieve the tickets we purchased via internet. There are very few tickets available and you can either visit the compound in the morning or afternoon, depending on the reservation time of your ticket to see the palace compound. The times are strictly adhered to…..So we got our tickets and followed an itinerary created by the authors of a guide book we picked up there. The nice thing was that we were going to see the Nasrid royalty’s “country home” called Generaleaf as opposed to seeing the rest of the compound first. Their itinerary had us going the opposite way of the crowds…so we “swam upstream” and started out along a quiet, cypress lined path taking us up and up to this estate which was beautifully landscaped and having interesting buildings as well.
The higher we went, the more developed were the properties.
The great advantage of starting with Generaleaf was the great view of the castle compound, the city below and the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains which were still capped in snow (while it was in the 80s F where we were!).
We strolled back through the gardens and over a bridge to the main compound and went for a short siesta (only an hour today) before we went for our appointed visit to the Nasrid Palaces.
A bit about the history of this compound would be helpful. Granada was rules by the Moors from the 700s, but really flourished around 1000 when Cordoba fell as the lead Muslim City of the area. Granada was rules by the Almoravids, then the Almohads and finally the Nazrids who, in the 13th century really created the splendor and cultural center that made Granada famous. Granada held out longer than any other Muslim city against the reformation and reclamation of Spain for the Catholics. In January of 1492, Ferdinand and Isabel claimed Granada as their own and ended Muslim rule in Andolusia. The Catholic monarchs enjoyed Granada and several generations added their own renaissance touches to the palaces and gardens. They also celebrated the completion of their reconquest with the construction of many churches, monasteries and convents. Fire has destroyed some of the early construction, but much has been renovated.
As we toured the buildings one can clearly see the differences in styles when Charles the V and his Portugese bride, Isabella, added their touch to the architecture. The Moorish style of elaborate decoration (much like we saw in the Mosques of Turkey) gave way to paneling and lions and royal crests and rather than delicate Arabic writing, phrases like “Plus Ultra.”
Our tour of the palaces was quick (only an hour) but we will return tomorrow. Meanwhile, we had a lovely dinner at the Parador (with a menu translated into English so we could pick intelligently) and a wonderful Northern Spanish wine, listening to a guitarist play classical music a few feet away. After dinner we strolled around the complex in the light of the full moon and looked at the buildings and garden with moon (and artificial) light. Quite beautiful and peaceful.
Tomorrow, we will go into town (i.e. down the mountain) to see the Catholic Church were Ferd and Isabel are buried and perhaps some other markets and squares before we return for another visit to the buildings and gardens in the afternoon.
Hasta luega!
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