We couldn’t go to Spain without eating some of the food there. Or enjoying the drinks. Matt had a whole jar of sangria all to himself minus a sip that Kerri really regretted.
We ate some ham. Here are legs waiting to be used in the future.
It was really good.
The paella was not very good. Matt did better so he’ll be in charge of paella in the future.
The Alhambra is a whole large complex. This is where they grew food and relaxed away from the people below.
This frog was in the palace gardens, probably waiting for a kiss from a princess.
He will be waiting a long time.
There are oranges all over the place even around arches.
Not only that but there were pink flower trees too.
There was running fountains everywhere.
The fountains were really pretty.
When this was first built the fountains probably didn’t spray as much because the Moors like peaceful quiet fountains.
There were quite a few flowers despite the fact it was winter.
It likely looks even more beautiful in the summer.
Although it probably isn’t as quiet in the summer as there are likely way more people.
Here’s a view of the palace and that mass of people on the right are waiting to go into the palace. It still sells out in the winter.
Palm trees to snow capped mountains. The only thing missing for Kerri is a warm sandy beach and this could be a perfect palace for her.
The Alhambra was a palace built by Moorish leaders in the 14th century.
It was so beautiful that when the Catholics took over the area in the 15th century they decided to continue to use it instead of destroying it along with everything else.
They must have been really impressed, because it was a holy war and that text reads “there is no victor but Allah” over and over again.
They squeezed it in wherever they could fit a chisel.
Where the saying isn’t placed there are interesting geometric designs because they aren’t allowed to make images of animals or people according to the Koran.
The palace would have been even cooler back then because it was all brightly painted too. Only a bit of the paint remains, pretty impressive still for hundreds of year old paint.
Some ceilings were cooler than others.
Everything in the entire palace is symmetrical except for the bumps on this wall. This drove Kerri crazy. We still have no idea why this one spot has something asymmetrical.
Here’s some more fancy ceiling with some remaining paint.
These were tricky to take pictures of.
It looked pretty cool at night, but we did take the wrong camera because we weren’t thinking. The pictures still turned out okay.
Granada has a very large cathedral built over a mosque that used to be on the site. The bell tower is one block shorter than planned because the site is sandy and not stable enough for such a large structure. They could have built elsewhere but they really wanted it there.
It is very large.
It was built as the catholic influence returned to the region.
It is quite bright inside with all the windows and white walls.
There was pretty nice stained glass too.
According to the audio guide it is some of the best stained glass in Europe for the time period.
It does have a massive organ with over 1000 pipes.
There are several very elaborate altars in the side niches.
There is also this sculpture of John the Baptist.
In the treasury they have the robes and other cloth used during funerals which is why there are skeletons on everything.
Here are the choir books.
They don’t have much on each page and are a little big to handle.
Here is one of the holders for the choir. I guess it is that big so they can see it.
