Granada - primero parte

OK, I will admit that I have not been to every providence in Spain yet, much less every good sized city, but Granada just made the top two. In fact if I were to list my top three in order it would be: Barcelona, Granda and Salamanca. Go make your travel arrangements.

Granada is a romantic city and the reason that my husband and I choose it to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We made the right choice. Granda has it all: Culture, history, large servings of tapas, the Alhambra and romanic-period gardens. We had both perfect fall weather and a lot of flowers were still in bloom. Definitely a better idea to go to the South of Spain for a late October anniversary than Niagara falls. Plus in Spain I can use my smartphone without roaming charges.

For transportation we opted for the premium bus service. A non stop bus from Madrid that took about the same time as the train, but was cheaper. On our way there I could tell when we were passing by Jaén.

Mountains full of Olives

Around Jaén there are olive trees are far as the eye could see. They are clinging to the mountain-sides in some places. I have heard that most of the world's olive oil comes from this region, including a good percentage of Italian olive oils. (Apparently they just have to mix a certain percentage of Italian olive oil to be able to claim it as their own.) It was hard to get a good picture from the bus. After the olive groves we drove though some spectacular mountains, but alas, no pictures. It might be worth it to street view the area between Jaén and Granada.

Olive trees as far as the eye can see

Granada is the word for Pomegranate in Spanish. And you will see many Pomegranates decorating the city, on trees, images in sidewalks, and on sidewalk posts.

A granado

Sidewalk post

We arrived in Granada and checked into the hotel just time for lunch (3pm). We walked towards downtown and wandered around the maze of streets by the cathedral until we spotted a menu that was not too expensive. Remember that a "menu" in Spain is not same word as in English here is a good explanation of menus in Spain. Menus in Spain do not have to be expensive to be good, which is a trap a lot of tourists fall into, in other words, they can pay too much.

The fountain of the giants

A wooden carousel! Do you see the bunny?

I love a good lamppost

First glimpse of the cathedral

 Granada is a city to wander in. You need to have the time to appreciate the details. Most of the time we were here we were walking and exploring. In our 2.5 days we never got bored, just a little tired (Granada is a series of hills, some very steep). On this first day we did decide to go into the cathedral. The plaza outside the cathedral is well worth a visit too, not only does it harbor a small yarn store and the occasional flamenco dancer, but look carefully at these buildings (click to enlarge). The stone valences are paintings!

the cathedral's plaza

 The inside the cathedral was overwhelmingly grand. There was even a small museum with some incredible medieval embroidery in it (no photos allowed I'm afraid). 

There were two of these! Two! 

I want to paint my ceiling with stars exactly like this one day

Outside the cathedral was a spice market, and we wandered for a bit looking at the different spices and dried fruits.

Adorable graffiti

Another city that reminds me of New Orleans?

Our next stop was Corral del Carbón. Built in the early part of the 14th century it served as an inn / wholesale market for traders. I imagine there was a lot of silk traded here. This was also my first glimpse of the Mooirsh decor that I was going see at the Alhambra

El Carbon's entry way roof, just look at the 3 dimensionality!

The entry way

 After el Carbón we walk up to where you can see the river going under the city. Capturing the some of the beauty we saw on the way. 

The eagle has turned to gold

Just look at the detail!

The pink light of the sunsets in Spain

A house sits perched over the river.

Next post: the Alhambra.

Ávila - part one

I have been thinking about how it is a shame that we have not been to more of the "day trips" around Madrid. The weather is perfect right now, so I knew we had to go somewhere. There are so many day-trips from Madrid that we have not done, it was a little hard to decide. But in the end Ávila won.

An old wall with wild flowers

Ávila is a town North West of Madrid in Castilla y León. It is approximately 1.5 hours by train, or a little more then 2 hours (with a transfer) by Cercanias (the local Madrid train system). I convinced my husband to go on Friday. I figured less crowds, cheaper menús, and the weather was going to get hotter through the weekend.

What I think of as a California poppy

We have had an extra long Spring here in central Spain, and so there were still wild flowers and patches of green everywhere. Last year by this time everything had already been dry for at least a month. There were so many poppies that there would be fields of them on either side of the train. I could not take my eyes away from the scenery. Spain's countryside is so beautiful. 

Wild Geraniums!

A charming plaza

Ávila is so photogenic that this might be a four part blog series. We had a great time wandering around with out much of a plan and taking loads of beautiful photos. Ávila is full of churches as there is a cloister and a rich Catholic history. This next church you will see from several angles. I love it's old red-blonde bricks and it's shape.

San Pedro Church

Wait, what is this? Ok sure, there are strange lions licking urns, but there in the background is the reason we came to Ávila...a medieval wall. The old portion of the city is still completely surrounded by it's wall (something you can see on Google satellite view, if you wish. Click the link, go to the satellite view option, and start zooming into the Northwest portion of the city).

There in the distance is one of the main gates, la Puerta del Alcazar. In the foreground is a monument to soldiers (it did not say which war, at least that I saw). On the right are charming Spanish buildings. On the left is a new building and in the left hand corner? A Burger King, but don't worry that is about as American-ized as this town gets.

Charming winding streets

 They have kept most of the wall in very good repair. There are only some areas where it is crumbling. It is in such good repair, in fact, that you can walk along the top of most of it. 

A statue of Santa Teresa (the town's saint), at the base of the wall, surrounded by roses. 

In the next few posts you will see that I could not stop taking pictures of the wall...or of the mountains. You can see mountains in Madrid, that is, if there is not a building in the way.

I can not get enough of the Spanish tiled rooftops with the mountains in the distance. Another thing that we took of a lot of pictures of, were the Storks. Do you see them below? (click to enlarge). They like to nest on church/bell towers so there were always some circuling over head. If you see a big bird in one of my photos, it will be a Stork.

Next post: walking the wall.