May 24 - 27 - Granada

We finally left Barcelona on the Trenhotel that evening, and eventually rambled down to Granada on the rails. We unfortunately got a pair of seats that face the other rows at the end of the car, so people are sitting right in front of you. We only had one old man sitting across from us, and I named him Señor Preguntas (Mr. Questions). He was born in Granada, but had lived in France for what seemed like several decades. He asked lots of questions...lol. We did kinda sleep a bit better than on the night bus, but afterwards we decided that nothing beats being able to just lay down and go to sleep for a night.


Rough approximation of our journey through the night.

We finally got to the train station in Granada after seeing some pretty spectacular scenery: mountains, river gorges, etc. Left out of the train station, found a city bus and made our way to the city center. We weren't too sure where we were going, but I figured I'd be able to see the big cathedral to know when to get off, but I never did and we rode all the way to the end of the line! We got off and hoofed it back towards the center and finally made it to our hotel after a little walk and asking directions.

After we got our bags unloaded in the room, we walked back over a couple blocks to the Cathedral area and looked around. We ate for the better part of our trip at the little cafe on the plaza below our room. Our room had a small balcony that overlooked the plaza and for that first day in Granada we rested, got tickets to go to the Alhambra the next day and had a good night's rest.

Granada is one of the most visited places in Spain mainly because of the remnants of the Moorish past here. Granada was the seat of the last of the Muslim rulers in Spain until defeated by the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. Los Reyes Catolicos, as they were known, united Spain through marriage and by conquering the last bit of Spain not under Christian control. The Moorish palace, the Alhambra, was made into a Spanish royal palace. This is the place in which Christopher Columbus came to implore the monarchs to support his voyage to "India".

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Central Granada, showing our hotel and the big sights.

Most pictures I have from Granada are mainly from the Alhambra itself. But, the first thing we did was to go check out the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) that was built onto the side of the main cathedral downtown. We bought a ticket and went inside the first room which is just outside the actual chapel. I didn't get any pics of inside the place, but here is the website for it which has some good stuff:


The entrance to the Capilla Real. The actual chapel is the building on the right side of the corner.

These are some pics I lifted from the Capilla Real's website:


The tomb of Ferdinando y Isabella, Los Reyes Catolicos, seen from above.


One could walk down a small stairwell in front of the tomb and look through a small opening to see inside the actual crypt. These are the coffins of Ferdinand and Isabella, in the center. Their heirs are buried on the sides.

The coffins were pretty tiny actually, but I'm not sure why. Were they just much smaller people than us? That's what I figured. I'd be surprised if the total length of them were 5 feet long. There was also another window on the opposite side of the window into the crypt, which from the vantage point of the crypt the main altar was visible. I guess so the departed king and queen could still "see" and take part in the Mass.

After the main chapel, the sacristy housed a small museum of things belonging to the king and queen, her crown and scepter, books and religious objects, Ferdinand's sword, etc.


You can see some of the tapestries and a flag used by the monarchs way back 500 years ago. Isabella's crown and scepter, and Ferdinand's sword are in the pyramidal case in the center.

It was kinda weird seeing that stuff. It was one of the times you see this old stuff that doesn't quite seem real. I think we're used to seeing movies and television so anything that IS real seems fake. Weird paradox.

Also, in the streets lining the cathedral you have to dodge the gypsy women trying to offer you a twig of rosemary or something like it. They come up to you saying in Spanish "Un regalo" (a gift), and what they do is take your hand and read your fortune, but demand you pay them for the service of reading your fortune. They won't accept coins because they are "bad luck" so the smaller paper money that exists is the 5 euro note, so about $7. I knew of their scam from reading my guide book so I knew immediately who they were when I saw them. A firm but polite "no gracias" and we continued on our way.

The big site in Granada is the Alhambra. It was built over several centuries on the hill overlooking the town as a palace and fort. The history goes back forever, but the main site today is the 14th-century Nazarid Palace, the Muslim group that ruled Granada. When Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada in 1492 the last Muslim kingdom fell in Spain and it was all "reunited". Ferdinand and Isabella made the Alhambra one of their palaces and still today it attracts probably thousands and thousands of tourists a year.


After you pass the gate with your tickets, you walk down through the gardens towards the palaces at the end of the hill overlooking the city.


Almost there, some huge manicured hedges.



Some of the scenery in the gardens.


Waiting to get into the palaces at the time stamped on our ticket, we can see people checking out the Alhambra from across the valley at San Nicolas church in the neighborhood known as the Albaycin, which is the old Moorish part of town.


Part of the old city wall running along the hillside.


A panorama I stitched together out of several photos of the first room.


Another panorama showing the detail. All the designs are made in plaster, but instead of being carved they were made using molds. Intricate tile work everywhere also.



Detail of the plaster work. It's the same phrase in Arabic repeated over and over all over the walls of the palace. It says something like "Without Allah there is no victory". They decorated with geometric designs and words because it is forbidden to make so called "graven images", only God could do that.


A detail of one of the windows. Notice the same phrase here as before surrounding the window.


A goldfish lined pond in the Court of the Myrtles reflects the Hall of Ambassadors across the way. This was the throne room of the sultan and later of Ferdinand and Isabella. It is also where some goofy Italian named Columbus came to present his plan to the king and queen.


Inside, the ceiling along one corner of the entrance. So intricate and reminds me of cave formations.


Detail of the walls inside the throne room.


The portico in the Court of the Lions (which was being worked on) is so experted carved, almost like lace. Check out the light coming through it.


Towers of the mostly ruined fort overlooking Granada.


A long ways down to the valley floor below. Put some cannons here and defend the palace.


The city of Granada spread out below. You can see the big cathedral in the middle, our hotel would have been a few blocks on the other side of it.

I'm leaving this next pic huge because it is one of my favorite scenes from the whole trip:


The Sierra Nevadas (Snowy Mountains) from the tower of the fort at the Alhambra.


Some old cannons. I have no idea if they are original or not, no signs on them or anything.

We were there at the Alhambra just checking it all out for several hours and still didn't see everything. We finally left after 7PM and made our way back to our hotel, went and ate supper and settled back down for the evening. We had slowed down in Granada some and stayed an extra day and pretty much rested up. Lisa had been feeling bad and we went to the pharmacy and got her some allergy medicine and she felt better. We also got some Q-Tips there too, ha, neither of us brought any and we wanted to swab out our ears so bad by then, haha.

We were getting up and going to Sevilla next, which was only a short 3 hours train ride to the west. Well, it was the shortest traveling we'd done in country yet anyways. See you then!

May 23 - Last Day in Barcelona

Monday morning was our last morning in Barcelona, so we attended to some housekeeping...or in our case repacking our bags, throwing away stuff we didn't want (food, etc.), getting shower, brushing teeth, eating nice breakfast, etc. We then made sure to grab our student IDs and headed to Casa Batllo to get our discounted ticket!

Casa Batllo was just a block over from our hotel. When we first got to Barcelona Saturday morning we came out of the Metro on our way to the hotel and Lisa had spotted it and got all excited. She had written a report on it for her Spanish culture class and didn't expect it to be right there when we got off. We had gone to it before, but forgot our student IDs which get your a whole 2 euro or something off admission...lol, we figured it was worth it to remember our IDs and come back. So, that morning we had reserved for checking it out.


The front of Casa Batllo, rebuilt by Gaudi in 1904-1906.

The building was a big row house type of building, with several stories built for this Batllo guy who was a textile magnate or something. The trendy thing to do at the time was built fancy inspired houses, so he hired Gaudi to remodel his family home. Anyways, we bought the tickets and entered and got a little audio guide that you hold up to your ear that tells you about the place as you go through. First you go up a set of stairs, immediately showing the nature inspired look of the place...very few straight lines, things resembling animal and plant shapes, etc.


Lisa coming up the winding staircase.

At the top of the flight of stairs, you come into the main salon which has the window facing out onto the street. Right before the main room there's a little entry room with a funny mushroom shaped fireplace nook.


Cute mushroom fireplace, no gnomes though.

Then into the salon, which has a cool light fixture and swooping ceiling, looks like waves.



Here is the same room showing the archways that divide it into section with stained glass in them. On one side they appear certain colors, then on the other side they look different. All the doors and window in the house are made to shut and close, or half open to vent, etc. Even handles on windows are custom made to fit hands in a unique way.


I thought this pic was funny because of the people all with the audioguides to their ears.


A random window with curved shapes. If you look really closely, you can see the scaled texture painted onto the walls.


The lightwell in the center of the building. The blue color of the tiles gets darker as you go up, playing with how the lights reflects down into the house. The top floors windows are smaller, while the bottom ones are larger to let in more of the natural light.


Now up on the roof, even the chimney pipes are fanciful...I think they almost look like some sort of alien instruments, maybe an organ...haha.


The crest of the facade in front, which some say looks like a dragon. What do you think?


And, part of the attic, which housed maids' quarters, laundry, storage, etc. Pretty nice for a utility area!

We emjoyed seeing Casa Batllo, was as if a house was a sculpture really. After we finished up with it we went back to our hotel and grabbed our bags and went to the train station to catch the night train to Granada. We spent a few hours at the train station eating, lounging around and playing on the internet on my phone and then finally we boarded the train. Here's a tease of things to come from Granada:





See ya in Granada!

May 22 - Barcelona

After a rough introduction to Barcelona on our first day, we kicked off the second day by hiking down to a laundry mat to wash our clothes. The day before we'd asked the man at the hotel desk when we were checking in if they had any laundry services, to which he replied yes and the cost was 50 euro! That's about $75. I almost laughed out loud, and then we asked if there were any laundry mats around the area, and he tried to downplay it saying they were far away. Ha, they weren't, we walked to one which was only maybe 5 blocks away and just off the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Barcelona. While we washed clothes, I'll tell a little bit about all what goes on in my head when we visit all these places.


Walking down Las Ramblas on a Sunday morning.

Madrid and Barcelona are the two biggest cities in Spain, and we had just briefly been through Madrid in passing. Madrid's population is 3.4 million, and Barcelona's is 1.6 million (but of course the "metro area" are larger). For both being big cities, most of the touristy stuff is in the old historic areas in each city. Barcelona is the heart of the region known as Catalonia, which has its own language, culture, history, etc. Catalan is the language, which is close to Spanish, with some French influences and other weird things. Even when we say "Spanish" to mean the language is somewhat of a misnomer, because that language is technically called "Castillian", or the language of Castille. This all starts to get into Spanish history somewhat.

To explain all this I think I'll post a bit about who is who really. Spain itself has a long history, and in a much more heavy way than we do. If history is the recorded past, then Spain is pretty deep in it, while the U.S. only goes back a few hundred years. (Although we have earlier knowledge of what went on here, most of that comes from other sources, namely archaeology, etc.) But Spanish history goes all the way back to the beginning, so to speak.


Example of Roman mosaic floor in the ruins at Italica, taken by someone else.

For example, the Roman Emperor Hadrian who ruled from 117AD-138AD, was born in what we now call "Spain". They called it "Hispania", where we get the word "hispanic" and the like from. Hadrian was born in a town called Italica. Another Emperor, Trajan, was also born in Italica, and ruled before Hadrian, from 98AD-117AD. The older Trajan was Hadrian's father's cousin...haha, sounds like some hillbilly story!

Anyways, there were Romans, Greeks, Carthaginians, wild and unruly Celts, and the whole lot. When the Roman Empire fell apart, the Visigoths more or less ruled Spain and developed into regional kingdoms over time, largely due to the invasion of the Muslims in the 700s. This led to the breakup of the Visigothic era with the Muslims from North Africa conquering nearly the entire Iberian peninsula. Resistence to the invasion pushed back the "Moors" as they were called, but the "Reconquista" or reconquest of Spain wasn't really kicked off for a couple more centuries.


Spain at about year 1210, showing the different kingdoms in Spain. Castille and Aragon were both the main powers, with different kings, etc.

All the kingdoms you see above gradually conquered their way south, with more powerful ones absorbing others, most dramatically uniting in the marriage of the King of Aragon to the Queen of Castille-Leon. This royal couple was the famous Ferdinand and Isabella of sponsoring Columbus' trip to the New World, etc. By the time they had married most of Muslim Spain had been reconquered except for the region around Granada in the south. I'll get to Granada though in the next couple of blogs though when we travel there after Barcelona.

Anyways, this all is to merely set up the notion that Spain isn't a monolithic entity all alike. Catalonia has its own vibe, as does the interior around Madrid, etc., etc. Catalonia and Galicia also have long had independence movements, though Catalonia much more vocally. Some even going so far to make this crazy video (shows lots of Catalonian flags, traditional things like the human towers, dancers, etc.:

Anyways, we finished washign our clothes, packed them back up and took them back to the hotel. Then that afternoon we went over to the Metro, got on and went to La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family, it's official name is Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, haha). This was the main thing I was exciting about seeing in Barcelona. It's a huge basilica that's has been under construction since the late 1880s designed by world-famous architect Antoni Gaudi and is considered his masterwork. While the thing is still being built over a hundred years later, it isn't scheduled to be finished until 2025. It is all built from private funds, donations, etc.

Another huge pic from closer up to...this is the side of the church, the Nativity Facade.


I've always thought this church was so crazy it was genius. Some may look too weird, but some looks like something from another world. Gaudi was busy in Barcelona at the end of the 19th Century building fancy houses for rich industrialists, but also made some of Barcelona's public spaces more "artsy", some features in a plaza, the entrance to a big park, etc. This church though was what he worked on in his last years until he died in Barcelona in 1926. He was hugely inspired by the natural world and incorporated its elements into his buildings.

We had to walk all the way around to the opposite to get a ticket to enter though, through the Passion Facade.


Scene of Veronica and her veil, with some Roman soldiers depicted in the Passion Facade.


The interior ceiling above the nave of the church.


Looking back over the main altar with sunlight filtering down.


Looking straight up at the ceiling....crazy! Reminds me of crystals or shells or something.


Some of the detail along the Nativity Facade.

We were here for a few hours, just staring at everything. Went through a little museum underneath which had a lot of stuff about the designing and construction of the place, was even able to see into one of the workshops. After exhausting ourselves we went across the street to a little park, got some drinks from a little food stand and just hung out for about an hour or so, eventually making our way back to the hotel for the evening. The next day would be our last in Barcelona and the plan is to check out another Gaudi building, Casa Batllo, before packing up and heading south to Granada.

P.S. This is what it is supposed to look like once it's finished: