Rooftop bar

After the monastery we had beers and tapas for dinner in a very nice rooftop bar across the street. Granada is the tapa capital of Spain, you get a free tapa with every drink you order and they often are small meals. For those of you who have never heard of tapas, they are small snacks that can be anything from slices of  regional ham or sausages to a piece of pizza or a hamburger. I even got a small happy meal when we went on the tapa tour, some chicken nuggets and fries. The tapas we had in this bar were awesome but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them.. I did get a picture of the view over the city though.

This is the end of my report on the time spent with my brother & family, school is going to start after this weekend so things are about to get serious... everything will be in Spanish and most people hardly speak any English so I'll really have to put in some serious effort in this first week to figure out how to tackle all my subjects in Spanish. While my brother was here I also did a fair amount of partying and had an intro-weekend at some remote countryside destination but there are no pictures of that yet. Once I get any I'll add them to the blog and I think there'll be some pictures of my holiday in Greece soon as well.

¡ ¡ Hasta Luego!!

Monasterio de San Jeronimo

This is the monastery of saint Jerome. It is located in my street and part of it still functions so I often see nuns walking by my balcony. I visited it on my own before my brother was here and later we went back together because it is really something. From the outside it did not look that impressive (ok it was a pretty big old building) but from the inside it blew me away. The living quarters and courtyard of the monastery are quite simple as one would expect from a monastery but the main church building it completely decorated with the most beautiful stuccos, paintings, statues and wood carving. The altarpiece is several layers all done by different famous painters and sculptors and again, HUGE.

La Santa Iglesia Catedral Metropolitana de la Encarnación de Granada

Apart from the alhambra there are many other impressive monuments in Granada. One of the most impressive, certainly sizewise, is the great cathedral. I have seen quite a few impressive churches and cathedrals in my time but the Spanish certainly know how to go about these types of things. It's incredible how much money and effort much have gone into the making of these things and I guess the discovery of America around the time these things were being built and elaborated on certainly did not hurt. There are many references to Columbus in the city and its monuments. Apparently the king and queen of Spain were busy besieging Granada when  they denied his requests for the second time. He then set off to petition to the king of France and they quickly changed their minds..

I'll finish the alhambra section with a picture of me with my nephew which we took in Charles the fifth's palace also located within the alhambra walls. We forgot to take any proper pictures of it but if you look closely you can see part of it in my ridiculous sunglasses.

Later on we saw this nice little pomegranate tree. Granada means pomegranate in spanish but supposedly this is not the origin of the city's name...I suppose the pomegranate must have gotten its name from the city then. The pomegranate is a symbol of Granada however, and can be seen througout the city.

Apart from the gardens the outside of muslim buildings are often inconspicuous while the insides are abundantly decorated. The Alhambra is probably one of the finest examples of that, some rooms have every inch of space decorated with incredibly intricate stone and plasterwork. The pictures give some idea of the level of detail but to be in the alhambra and see room after room of it really blows you away. There used to be a lot more even but much got destroyed over the years by wars and christian rulers that seemed not to care too much for this Moorish legacy.

The gardens are really nice, someone has obviously put some thought into them but they aren't as manicured as some of the European 17th century gardens. As with these gardens they have a lot of fountains and other water elements in them as well which my nephew thought was awesome but slowed us down a lot because he wanted to look at each one in detail and then do it again.

When we entered the alhambra complex we first went to the "Generalife". These are buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens, and because all of the alhambra is located on a hill overlooking Granada there are many stunning views of the city as well. In the picture is one of the first things you saw when walking on the outskirts of the garden. To the left are some of the alhambra fortress towers and the old Muslim quarter of Granada, "El Albayzin", can be seen down below. Behind that are some mountains, all of Granada lies in a valley partially surrounded by the Sierra Nevada. Apparently you can ski just 30 minutes from here and the beach is about 30 minutes as well.

When we first entered the alhambra site I was surprised to see that it is still under construction. New buildings are still being built apparently which got me suspicious about the other supposedly centuries-old palaces.

Alhambra

There it is. Or the most famous part of it anyway. I'm pretty sure I can see parts of this from my balcony doors but I have to get some binoculors or a camera with good zoom on it. I'll do that somewhere in the near future and post the pictures here together with other pictures of where I live.
I went to see the alhambra together with my brother and his family who had came over for holidays and to visit me.

Kickoff

Sooo it took me a little while to get started but here it is: the undiluted and shocking truth of my experiences in the city of Granada.
One of the things that attracted me about Granada is its history. It has long been a center of commerce, culture and adventure and a meeting place of different cultures and customs which has left an obvious mark on the city. It has been one of the most important cities under the Moors (the North African muslim rulers of most of Spain for nearly 800 years), as well as under the catholic rulers after the reconquista or reconquering of Spain. The most famous among its many monuments is probably the Alhambra, this structure of fortresses and palaces started out as a Moorish stronghold/palace and was later taken over and elaborated on by the Christian rulers of Granada. The hundreds of years of effort and combination of influences resulted in a beautiful series of buildings and gardens that can be regarded as a symbol of Granada.
I'll therefore start this blog with the Alhambra.