Hotter than the sun in the south in Spain: Numero Uno

Prepare yourselves for amazingness beyond your wildest dreams! This is the first installment in a series of who knows how many about Andalucía. I invite you to sit back, relax, grab a snack and enjoy the lovely descriptions of my adventures in this southern beauty. We went to three main cities in the south-Granada, Sevilla and Córdoba-but that did not stop us from visiting other sites during the traveling.



Granada was our first city of choice and thus the exploit you will be hearing about today. After leaving incredibly (at least for the Spanish people) early in the morning we traveled about an hour and then made our first stop in Aranjuez at the Palacio Real there (this just means royal palace, so there are many Palacios Reales here). This serves as a summer home for the royals. They actually have a very wide variety of places to choose from to be their home in this country I just discovered from this journey. My only thing is that most of them are huge and cold and if I were the royal family I would cut back a little on the palaces and focus more on installing proper heating systems into a few of the ones I already have, but that’s just me. We had some fun running around the plaza out front of this place and climbing the gates in true Beauty and the Beast fashion (“kill the beast!”). There was also this fantastic river-like creation that divided the palace from its amazing gardens (and proved to be the perfect backdrop for our model pictures). The only problem we had was actually getting over to the gardens because the only bridge we saw was out of commission. Thus we admitted defeat and trudged our way back to the bus. Thankfully Megan (other Megan in our group-not my roommate) and I really had to go to the bathroom so we went looking for one before Landes and his family arrived. We ended up running into them on while on our search and Landes pointed us in the right direction, which just happened to be across another bridge into the amazing gardens full of statues, foliage and water-wonders. Thank you small bladder!









So then it was back on the bus for another hour before our next break. We did have the consolation of watching “First Knight” with a very attractive younger Richard Gere and an older Sean Connery from his James Bond days. We were literally on the edge of our seats (it was hard to hear and the speaker happened to be in front of us).



Our second stop on the way down was in Consuegra to see the windmills of Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Of course we had to read that part of the story-in Spanish so not much was understood-before we went up to see them. Basically Don Quixote was a psycho that thought they were giants that were going to destroy the city, while his sidekick Sancho Panza has a firm grasp on reality and tries to convince him that they are merely windmills, unsuccessfully. So Sancho just lets Don Quixote have at them and luckily the idiot just ends up falling in a hole and convinces himself he defeated the giants. It was quite compelling. But what was even better was seeing the 12 of the original 13 windmills. Megan, Megan and I had quite the time running between each one and then admiring the view of the rural countryside. We couldn’t actually go inside them, but they all had these funny names and have been in the same family for years. We couldn’t stay too long because we had a schedule to keep gosh dang it! So it was back on the bus for another hour before we stopped again to eat lunch (Spanish bus systems do not allow food on their buses, even though we had a problem following this particular rule) and then another hour before we reached Granada.







After we got all checked into our hotel and settled in all us girls went out to explore the city a bit and get us some grub. And now we come into contact with the best new thing on my planet: shawarmas. Reminiscent of gyros, these babies are pitas stuffed with shaved meat (lamb is succulent and spiced perfected), veggies and a yogurt sauce. This was the cheapest and best meal I had while down there. And of course what kind of meal is it without some sort of dessert? Thus it was really an obligation of us to get some delicious ice cream (Dulce de Leche leaves your mouth in a permanent state of pleasure).





So then the next day we went and visited one of the highlights of Spain, the Alhambra. The full name, Calat Alhambra, means “red castle” apparently, just in case you’re ever on Jeopardy, and it was originally used for Nasrid princes and their harems (which could get incredibly huge). It was later turned into a lavish palace but was first used for defensive purposes, with the perfect position on a rocky hilltop overlooking the river. Later, the site became a Christian palace. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1527. I guess the Alhambra really wasn’t that famous until Washington Irving came and stayed in the Patio de la Reja and wrote his book, “Tales of the Alhambra”.





When you first look at this building from the outside and see its castle-like structure it just looks like some large stone building, but not until you go inside do you really get a full understanding why people talk about this place. Most of the walls were carved in the white stone with amazing nature-like carvings and Arabic inscriptions, a lot meaning “Only Allah is conqueror”. Everything was also incredibly colorful, with tile mosaic floors and surprisingly intricate ceilings, my personal favorite being the honeycombed ceiling. I have to say that even though these were incredibly ornate and detailed I like this type of elaborate design more so than the cathedrals we’ve visited. All of the detailing was on a small scale and all worked together to make an astonishing overall look, nothing is over the top in your face.













What is really remarkable about this place is that it is really the only Moorish palace of this time that survived. That entire hillside used to be dotted with palaces like that and actually the Alhambra used to be four times the size it is today. Then Fernando and Isabel conquered Granada and it was goodbye fabulous Moorish palaces and hello gaudy cathedrals (which are still pretty).

And of course the gardens here were fantastic as well. Generalife (pronounce it in Spanish otherwise no one will know what you’re talking about) was built in the 13th century and was used as a summer retreat for the sultans and their harems. I personally enjoyed the water structures and secret-passage-type things within the gardens and also running about taking random pictures, that’s always a hoot.









So our next stop for the day was the Cathedral of Granada and Capilla Real. We first went into the Capilla Real, which houses the remains of the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel. I think Spain has found their favorite king and queen because seriously these people and their symbols are EVERYWHERE. That probably has to do with the fact that they were the ones to finance Columbus on his journey to America, nothing too big or anything. Anyway there is a crypt-type thing that leads down to the caskets of Ferdinand and Isabel, their daughter Juana la Loca and her husband Philip the Handsome and another son. Now why was Juana so crazy? Could it be because one lady-in-waiting had her long hair shorn by Juana herself? Or maybe the fact that after Philip died she would periodically have his casket opened so that she might embrace his decaying body? Or maybe just her overall obsession with her husband? I guess if my husband were sleeping around, especially my ladies in waiting, I would probably go a little insane too. So power to ya honey! In the chapel there was also Isabel’s art collection, including a few works from Botecelli. But the real sight was the Cathedral of Granada.



The cathedral got started in 1521 and was completed in 1714 (I don’t know if that kind of time frame would fly in our day). This also happened to be my personal favorite of all the cathedrals we’ve visited in Spain. The white and gold color scheme was really powerful without being overwhelming and I fell in love with the blue and gold ceiling in the middle (I think that was the main thing that won me over). It was nice just to sit in there and look around without your head spinning from everything going on. I dug it.







After the cathedral it was free time before heading to the bus for our next destination. And by free time I mean eating time because that is what I like best. Granada and Cafeteria Esmeralda rock my world for the free tapas and delicious fried chicken (even if you did think one of us didn’t pay and came chasing after us, but sadly did not leave us with any stories of arrestment). I also have a new-found love for this wonderful invention called Magnum bars. These are not just your typical ice cream bars-they have a magical aspect to them that makes your taste buds dance in delight. I highly recommend strawberry center with a white chocolate outside.



Then it was goodbye Granada and hola Sevilla! But I will leave that story for another later post; I want to keep you guys reading.