Granada

Hola a todos!

Granada was an incredible city- my favorite in Spain so far, outside of Alicante.  The main thing Granada is known for is the fact that it was a muslim stronghold in Spain and the last city to fall to the christians in 1492.  Ferdinand and Isabel - the Catholic kings who united Spain as a whole empire again, are buried there, and Granada is a history buff's fantasy.  The muslim influence is apparent in the architecture there- for example, because it's so hot in Granada, they built their streets narrower to allow for more shade and cooler walking in the summers.  This makes driving in tour buses both thrilling and frightening at the same time.  It seemed like only old people and babies were the ones closest to being hit by our driver, but fortunately (like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter), we made it without any pedestrian fatalities.  On Friday we saw the burial site of Ferdinand and Isabel as well as the Catholic cathedral in town- which was giant.  Although it was really cool to see the bodies of F&I (as I affectionately refer to them), it was sort of creepy to see the coffins and know how old the bones and whatnot really are.  That night we saw a Flamenco show in this all-white town (with adobe roofs) that was up a hill in a very scenic area.  You could tell it was a family run business, because the cousins and grandmother all danced while the brothers worked the bar part.  We sat in a low-ceilinged room shaped like a fashion show's runway, with chairs on either side.  The dancers danced literally right in front of you up and down the isle, which put our toes in a very precarious position (even the male dancers wore 2 inch clogs).  The Flamenco itself was incredible- lots of stomping and twirling and flowery outfits.  I loved it- and I am not the dance type.  I know our entire family will be thrilled to know that Michelle Obama sat and watched Flamenco in the very room that I did...I was considering taking a few twigs from my wicker chair home with me as a souvenir just in case we got the same seat.  Saturday was spent at La Alhambra- a muslim city built within the city of Granada during the 13th century that today sees 8000 visitors every day.  This ancient city is unreal- not really what we think of as a city- but it has all of the elements of a city from its heyday in the 1200s.  The 1200s!! It's mind blowing really to think of how many people walked around on the same ground that we were on.  Most of my pictures are from there- we spent 2 and a half hours walking around with our tour guide (using cool microphone earbuds to hear her) and barely saw all of the sites.  It was one of the most gorgeous places on Earth- their mosaics especially were incredible.  All in all, loved the trip, and although I'm happy to be back in Alicante as always it was definitely a city I could see again.

I created a shutterfly website for my pictures- because to upload all of the pictures I took from Granada would take about 8 weeks on this google blog site.  The address is http://atlantameetsalicante.shutterfly.com/ and hopefully yall should be able to see my albums from my hike last week as well as the pictures from this weekend. 

Love you all and go Braves!