supershippy

Here is the second part of the summary of our trip to Spain and Italy. aquafemme is also keeping a separate log of our events and mine will probably plagiarize greatly from her summary, but add pretty pictures.

I'll always put these behind a cut because there are lots of pics. I'm not putting all of them here, though. At Flickr I have a set for Granada and a collection for the entire trip that will be growing as we continue going through our pictures.

Day Six: 08-May-2008

We checked out of our hotel in Seville and went to the train station via taxi. Getting a ticket was not too much of a hassle. We went to one line and the guy directed us to another. Evidently, the line you get in depends on if you want to depart today or another day. We took a train to Granada and then, after being really turned around and torn, took a bus. We missed our bus stop near the cathedral somehow and the language barrier made it hard for us to figure that out. We pretty much weren't on the map we had so people couldn't really point and explain where we were. Anyway, we got that figured out and it's funny how it just goes "click" and everything on the map comes into perspective. After we checked in our hotel, we had dinner. Bonnie ordered calamari relleno (or something like that). She wasn't a fan. I'm pretty sure I had something with pork in it. No big surprise. :)

We then set off to find the Royal Chapel, which has the tombs of Queen Isabel, King Ferdinand, Philip the Fair and Juana the Mad. We also had a run-in with the rosemary gypsies. They want you to take a rosemary twig that they hold right in your face and then, apparently, demand money from you. We just ignored them (since we read about them beforehand) but they were aggravating, especially in the large crowds. On our way back to the hotel to find out what we wanted to do next, we walked by Plaza Isabel La Católica. There's a large fountain here above which a statue of Columbus and Isabel sit.

Plaza Isabel La Católica. Here you can see a depiction of Columbus unfurling a long contract with Isabel that lists the terms of his voyage.	View from the side that shows the fountain better.

Then we took a crazy little red bus to Mirador de San Nicolás (San Nicolás Viewpoint) where you get a great view of Granada and La Alhambra. This little bus takes up the whole road and rushes through the tiny alleyways like it's in a race.

Granada.	La Alhambra.

Bonnie dragged me to a little restaurant in the Albayzín that was recommended by Rick Steves' guidebook and we had this crazy fruit salad and the eating of it went something like this:

What is this thing?!

I have no idea!

OM NOM NOM!!

That night, we bar hopped near our hotel and had lots of tapas and wine. In Granada, when you order drinks at a bar you get free food! We got mussels and a brie and honey platter. The brie and honey was so good, we ended up buying more. Everything was cheap and pretty fabulous. The place we liked best is called Navas 14. We called it a night around 1am.

Day Seven: 09-May-2008

We woke up kinda hungover and very hungry. We pretty much were really craving a good ol' American breakfast: eggs, toast, bacon, hashbrowns - that kind of thing. Anyway, that kind of thing isn't really to be found in Spain. They are more of a coffee and dry toast kind of place. We did manage to find a little cafe and had a semi-American breakfast. Bonnie had toast and jelly and mine had bread with finely diced tomato and oil spread over it. Anyway, what we ate isn't what's important. What we drank was phenomenal. All over Spain they have these orange juice machines. You can see the oranges plunk down from the top and get squeezed into fresh juice - the rinds spit out the side. The orange juice in Spain is to die for. I have never tasted OJ that was so good.

That afternoon, we went to the Hammam Baños Árabes. It's very relaxing. We had made an appointment the night before because they only let 16 people in at a time and you get 90 minutes in the baths. There are three pools (cold, warm and hot) as well as a steam room that is FREAKIN' HOT! The lady at the front desk said never to stay in more than five minutes, but we couldn't last more than a minute. Basically you just lounge around in the pools and occasionally drink sweet tea in the sitting room. We had a really nice time. Then we went shopping in the Alcaicería, a Middle Eastern market, where Bonnie bought a shawl.

Afterwards, we got back on one of those crazy red busses and took it to La Alhambra. We were only able to take about two pictures before the skies opened and there was thunder and rain just dumping. We could barely hear each other over the noise. There were rocks falling from the cliff above us and it took us quite awhile in the deluge to figure out that we weren't going toward the entrance at all.

It looks like an entrance... but it's not.	Just before the thunderstorm hit. After the rain, water was shooting out almost horizontally it was so fast. We later determined we were supposed to be inside that wall. :P

We had to backtrack quite a ways in the pouring rain and were just absolutely soaked by the time we found the ticket stand. There are lots of little roads around the Alhambra and the map we had wasn't quite zoomed in far enough so we could make sense of the roads. It was a frustrating time finding out where the actual entrance was, but once that was figured out, all was fine. The skies even decided to clear (for a while).

The first thing we saw was Charles V's Palace. This palace was built on the Alhambra grounds when he defeated the Moors and took control. The palace was evidently supposed to have a dome on it, but never got one.


Charles V Palace.
The next thing we saw was the Alcazaba, which is the fort and the oldest part of the complex. It has quite a few passages and several areas to explore. It also offers exquisite views of the city.

La Alcazaba.	Plaza Aljibes.
Granada from La Alcazaba. In the distance, you can see the churchtower that rises over Mirador de San Nicolás that we were at the night before.	Palacios Nazaries.
Lush greenery surrounds La Alhambra.	Bonnie in La Acazaba.
Me on the lookout of La Alcazaba.	The middle of La Alcazaba. We aren't sure what this was used for.

After wandering around checking things out, we got in line to see Palacios Nazaries: the Moorish royal palace and the jewel of the Alhambra. It's so popular that it costs extra to get in and you only get a 30-minute entry time slot. If you miss it, you're screwed, but once you're in you can stay as long as you want. The palace is huge and the architecture is amazing.

A prayer room that faces towards Mecca.	There are several elaborate ceiling designs throughout the palace.
Most of the walls have Arabic writing carved into them.	The Court of Myrtles. Notice how hard it is raining.
The elaborate entryway in the Courtyard of the Lions.	The star-shaped dome in the baths.
Another elaborate entryway.	Fountain in the Partal Gardens.
Bonnie being resourceful in the face of rain.

We didn't spend too much time in the gardens because by this time we were hungry, wet and our feet were really worn out. Plus, after seeing the gardens at the Alcázar in Seville, no other gardens could really compare. We hopped on the red bus and headed back down into the city and to our hotel room.

We got cleaned up and revisited Navas 14 because Bonnie was in love with their honey brie. Also, we just liked the bar's atmosphere from night before. Then we ended up going to this hookah/tea cafe - it's not what you think! They had many kinds of tobacco for sale in cork shapes that you plug into the hookah. We tried some strawberry-flavored tobacco but couldn't finish it. We also had batidos (kind of like chocolate milk but many different flavors) and orange tea.

We were exhausted by this time and decided to go back to the hotel and order telepizza (you have to say it like tele-pee-tha -- I just love the Castillian ceceo). This ended up being kind of a fiasco as far as paying for the pizza because the hotel room was supposed to put it on our room bill like room service, but they messed it up. It involved a bit of arguing with the hotel front desk (in Spanish!), but we got it all worked out. We ordered it with pepperoni, green peppers (which turned out to be green chile!) and mushrooms. It was funny because when I asked the lady on the phone "¿Sabe los ingredientes?" ("Do you know the ingredients?") after finishing the order the first thing she said (in a strong accent) was "Haaaam?". I was like "No! No ham! Pepperoni!" and internally thinking "for the love of God, no ham!" It didn't end up coming with ham, though, so we were very happy. We ate our pizza, watched The Wire, and conked out.

That ends our time in Granada. The next morning we are leaving for Barcelona!