Beauty

A shop selling lamps caught my eye. I wanted to buy them all.


The snow capped peaks behind the Alhambra, well, it is just ethereal.



The Alhambra lived up to my expectations. The light was especially wonderful and the fall colors made it so unique. Some of these pictures really surprised me at how well they turned out.



I used an HD setting on this one. It looks like a painting. Seriously, I can't believe I got this shot. It is awesome!


Ceiling details in carved plaster.


The old quarter of the city.


A persimmon tree loaded with fruit.


Persimmons with raindrops.


An huge round courtyard in the middle of a square building.


The modest site Queen Isabella of Spain chose for her burial. Unfortunately her grandson had her moved to the cathedral. I thought it was a very peaceful spot that said a lot about a very powerful woman.


The garden leading to the courtyard above.I think the yellow trees are all pomegranates which are the symbol of Granada.








The pleasure palace off to the side of the main palace.























I had a great day at the Alhambra. A dream come true for me.

Location:Granada, Spain

Tapas I have known

I understand why they eat tapas here. They don't eat dinner until 10 o'clock and you need something to tide you over til then. The good thing about tapas for a solo traveller is that you just order them from the counter and then eat them standing at a counter or out on the street even. I go to the super crowded places with people spilling out the door. The messier the better. Seriously, there are usually used napkins all over the floor/ground and maybe a random dog wandering around looking for dropped stuff.

You may have to enlarge this picture to see what I mean. There were actually two dogs.



Some of the tapas I ordered just because they were the local specialty. I did not and still don't know what they were made of. This is a prime example called salmorejo. That is chopped bacon and eggs on top. The rest was a kind of like a cold thick soup/puree of something. It was good.




Next there was gambas with pisto, or boiled shrimp with course ground salt and pisto-sorry no idea- but it went good with the shrimp and that's what all the locals were eating


soooo.

Here we have actual street food as in sitting on the sidewalk eating something that resembled a slab of pound cake but was actually slices of potatoes surrounded with egg mixture served with a bread stick.


Tomorrow I am going on a tapas crawl with the hostel folks so maybe I will be more knowledgable about what I am eating. Just to make it interesting I ate Turkish food for dinner. falafel balls and chapatis! Yum!

Location:Cordoba, Spain

Left Seville without seeing the barber

But I did see lots of patios!



Cordoba is famous for it's beautiful patios. They even have a competition every year to find the best patios. I will bet it is stunning in the spring.
I visited a small palace that boasted 13 different patios . Here are some of them. Since it pretty late on the year there are not a lot of flowers but you can see that the " bones" are good.


















The main thing I did today was visit the more than 1,000 year old mosque turned Catholic church here. It is called the "Mezquita" and it is something to see. The Visagoths first built it in the 700's. A part of the mosaic floor remains on view. Then, when the Moors moved in, they built this tremendous mosque. It could contain over 15,000 men kneeling on their prayer mats.



The extreme amount of double arches is amazing.



This is the area where the Iman stood when he spoke to the people.
The stonework is this really intricate mosaic. The coolest thing was that somehow it sparkled. Not sure how.



You couldn't get close so I zoomed in with this shot.


The architecture was just beautiful.







Apparently the Christians thought so too because when they ousted the Moors in the 1200's they did not tear it down. Instead they had the bright idea to build a Church right in the big middle of the mosque. Trust me it is so weird. You're in a mosque and then suddenly you see it! The standard church with the choir loft and organ and the crucifixion everywhere. Oh and the bars to keep the riff raff out of the chapels. And it continues today.


Here is what they were all jostling to see.



Look carefully and you can see it looks like all the saints are safely in their cages.


Sorry if I seem to have a bad attitude but I had just been reading some stuff about the inquisition and well, I wasn't feeling all that positive toward the church and it's part in history.
So I decided the best way to round off this day was with a visit to an ancient synagogue . There was only one as far as they can tell. It was very small and modest. The whole thing was smaller than my house.



Of course most of the Jews had to leave Spain due to the inquisition. They had been living here peacefully with the Muslims for hundreds of years until that time. I wonder how they managed it?
Anyway, it was a very thought provoking day.

Location:Cordoba,Spain

Flamenco and more

Walking down the streets of Seville you just never know what you will find. I ran across this crop of giant mushroom type things. I suppose they are some kind of modern art.



Do a quarter turn and you are back in the olden days.


There are interesting items to eat





And interesting items to wear. There were a ton of shops selling flamenco accessories on this street which happens to lead to the Flamenco Museum.


The Flamenco museum was pretty cool with some high tech presentations that actually taught me a lot about the dance.

In another window on the street I saw these little figurines that are not the KKK. They represent the penitents who dress like this for the Holy Week processions . It is a major deal here with lots of events in the streets. Probably plenty of flamenco dancing too.


Next I visited a small palace where the Countess who lived there a long time ago (early 1900's) showed off her collection of Roman antiquities, including some as old as biblical times. I can't imagine how, but she moved Roman mosaics that were in a state of decline in Italy all the way to Seville and had them reconstructed on the ground floors of her palace. I mean this stuff was old!



I enjoyed it a lot because there was a guided tour given in Spanish and I was able to follow almost everything they said. That is mainly because the girl who gave the tour was from Finland and came to Seville to learn Spanish. She was pretty brave as her Spanish wasn't extremely strong but she got by. There were only 3 of us on the tour though so it wasn't too bad.
I was so inspired that I went into the most crowded tapas place I could find and asked people what to get and how to order. It was pretty complicated but I sure liked my my montadita barbacoa once I finally got it!

Location:Seville, Spain