Sevilla

May 15, 2006
Greetings from Seville!
I am always excited when I find a spot that has wireless!! We are sitting at a cafe a few steps from the ally that leads to our lovely hotel Las Casas de Juderia-a series of buildings around a courtyard, that appear quite old but are fixed with the wonderful amenities of a separate shower and bath (with jacuzzi!), television, a queen sized bed and a safe (so we don't have to carry everything valuable with us). It's lovely and not too humid this morning. We took another bus ride to Seville and then found our way to the hotel, went to the Alcazar and a bus tour around the city yesterday. We returned to the hotel and had a quiet dinner. We had a light lunch there yesterday in a small room with one other person: a lovely French woman who told us she was the niece of DeGaulle. I had the conversation in French and she spoke slowly so it worked well. We had dinner next to a couple from Scotland--quite charming as well.

Here is the report of the last few days leading up to Sevilla:

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 Generalife 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 Generalife 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!

Mother’s Day, May 14, 2006 Granada-Sevilla

Last night we had a lovely dinner on the patio of our Parador-looking out over the rose gardens, with the gardens and buildings of Generalife in view. Here, like so many places on the grounds of Alhambra the smell of oranges and jasmine was in the air. The Parador is a Lovely old building, part of a chain of government developed hotels originally in rural areas to foster tourism.


We moved here yesterday morning after sleeping late at the Hotel America across the courtyard. We then headed for the bus to go down the hill to see the rest of Granada.

Our first tasks were to Search for resources: American express to get some currency and an internet café with wifi. We went to a big internet center-dozens of computers-but they said they had no way to do wifi and didn’t think it existed in Granada. I told him Cordoba had it (there is competition among these cities). He was surprised! While we were wondering around we saw several weddings: one of which was quite elaborate- one where the father and the bride came up on the sidewalk in a chauffeured old Mercedes sedan. We found a nice hotel where I thought we might find wifi and they didn’t have wifi but told us about their sister hotel did. We found that hotel and sat in their parlor, had a coffee and sent off yesterday’s news.

Next we played tourists. We went to the Cathedral, Royal Chapel and took a bus tour of the city. While the Cathedral was wonderful (I particularly liked the 3 sets of organ pipes that were the most elaborately sculpted gold pipes I have ever seen), the Royal Chapel was the most interesting. When Ferdinand and Isabel were through with their reconquest of Andalusia, they wanted to solildify the Catholic hold. Since Granada was the final step in that process, they invested a lot in the Catholic institutions of the city: the Cathedral, monasteries and convents. They started construction on the Cathedral, but held it up while they worked on their own Chapel and mausoleum. The most incredible aspect of their chapel to me, were the sculpted metal grills. The ones that separated the anteroom from the main portion of the chapel were topped off with images of Christ’s life. If you can imagine, 8-9 panels in metal, gilded, black and coloured in such detail out of metal! There were plenty of other beautiful gilded sculptures and friezes, etc. But these grills and gates had a patina that added to the contrast and made the images so clear. There were side grills with animals and human figures as well that were exquisite. Paintings by Cano throughout the Cathedral and Chapel and other additions over the centuries.
Unfortunately, they didn’t allow photography, so I can’t share the images with you. There were two sets of Carerra marble tombs: one with Isabell and Ferdinand; the other for her daughter (“Juanita the mad”) and her husband. It was their grandson, Charles V who completed the Chapel after his grandparents’ deaths.

The bus ride around the city showed us the University, Convents, Seminary, beautiful parks, the river with the Roman bridge, the western Christian side of town and the eastern, more Arab part of town, the Science museum, the Science center, a statue of Christopher Columbus sharing his plans with Isabelle, and the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains (snow-capped!)—a major ski area. (3000 meters high-tallest on the Iberian peninsula.)


By 6PM we were back at the Alhambra complex and went to get our ticket for the day. We strolled through the park back to the parador where we checked in and found a lovely room-larger and with many more amenities than our last places: Including a television. We switched on CNN to find the news-particularly about the Suns and the Clippers (found out Suns are leading 2-1—hooray!). We then found a bullfight on the television-now that was a new experience. So, rather than going back in the heat (we were exhausted by the 86 degree F heat we experienced + humidity-being outside all day), we decided to watch the bullfight. Watching it on TV was interesting-since it is followed by sportscasters like a football game in the U.S.: with commentary, interviews and instant replay! Well, we had thought about going to the bullfight in Seville, but decided that we had sufficient experience with the televised version. For me, the most interesting aspect was the intricate footwork of the horses!

As I write, we are on the bus heading for Seville..we travel up and down through hills with lots more olive trees, alfalfa and more intermittent commercial buildings than our route from Cordoba. Also, seeing pink stalk flowers instead of the red poppies. Now, to Sevilla!

AND WHAT A NICE SURPRISE TO SEE BALEIGH'S MOTHER'S DAY GREETING BELOW!!!