This weekend was great! We had our last excursion together as a full group! So we all hopped into our super cool Esteve bus and headed off to Andalucia, which is southern Spain. The cities that we visited there were Granada and Cordoba! Now for a little history lesson.....The Muslims ruled in Spain (in particular Andalucia) from 711-1492 when the last ruler turned over the keys to Granada to the Catholic Kings of Spain. This results in there being a ton of Muslim architecture in the city.
Such as this alminar, towers where the Muslims called the people to pray at the mosques, when the Christians came in and tore down the mosques to build churches they left the towers and used them as bell towers.
and also lots of buildings had the arcos de herradura - horseshoe arches with the decorative tiles and brickwork. When we arrived after our 7 hour bus ride to Granada we headed off on a guided tour of the Albayzin (Albaicin). The Albayzin is an ancient part of Granada and is very close to the Alhambra. The streets were built curvy and random to help the people avoid enemies and also to enhance air circulation in the city, because it gets very hot there in the summer. The buildings are painted white also to help with the heat.
Near each of the churches in the Albayzin is a water tank built to hold the water for the mosques (now churches) and the people near that part of the neighborhood. Many of the pools are connected by underground passages that would open to help circulate the water and keep it fresh. After our walk we headed off to dinner with our professor to a Lebanese restaurant to eat coucous, hummus and some other dishes that i'm not really sure about.
Friday we began our day right with a tour of the Alhambra!!! The Alhambra is both a palace and a fortress and was built in the 14th century for the Muslim sultans. It was the place where the last sultan turned over the keys to the city of Granada. There are several parts in the Alhambra that are important. The fortress part is the furthest part and on the edge of the hill. This part housed the soldiers and the towers used to look out over the city and guard the palace. Carlos V who was a king of Spain also built a palace inside the Alhambra. It was started in the Renaissance but never finished because Carlos V died before then. It has some pretty cool arquitecture. It is square on the outside and round inside.
After this we visited the Palaces of the Nasrid. This is the most beautiful and well-known part of the Alhambra. It is the palace where the sultans and their wives lived and is the most decorated part. There are three palaces in this part, Court of Myrtles, Hall of the Ambassadors and Court of the Lions. This was probably one of my two favorite parts of our trip.
Patio de los Arrayannes
Some of the architecture in the palace
Patio de los Leones: This was supposed to be my favorite part...but the fountain with the lions was not there (moved for protection against the elements) and the whole patio was being worked on so we couldn't even walk in it. I was sorely disappointed but it was still fun to see the architecture and designs.
Next we walked over to the Generalife which is another palace on the outer-lying parts of the Alhambra. It is most famous for its gardens and fountains which are beautiful especially right now with all the flowers! It was soo cool to see!!!
Main garden of the Generalife
Another garden
The water stairs.
We then had free time until that evening when we regathered for a Flamenco show! this one was sooooo cool! Now, I don't know if you all know, but I have been taking Flamenco lessons, well I found out that evening that...I suck. Wow, they were soooo good it was incredible, I have some videos that I will post on facebook soon! I was very impressed!
Saturday begin with our trip to Cordoba! We again boarded good old Esteve and headed out for our 2.5 hour drive to see the Mosque of Cordoba. It is sooo cool!!! It has what they call a "bosque de columnas" forest of columns! All the ancient arches and columns that the Muslims used still stand. A sad part for me was the Cathedral that the Christians built in the middle. It is a beautiful cathedral but it doesn't fit with the style and it looks so out of place, in fact, I didn't even take a picture I was so put out! But the columns were sooo cool!
Alminar: Tower where they call the people to pray
Some cool architecture with an interesting blend of the Christian culture.
Minrab: The place they kept the sacred books and where the priests prayed
The "bosque de columnas" with the arches. This was a newer part of the mosque, evident by the white ceiling and the lighter color bricks and paint in the arches. Lunch was next, which consisted of Hallie and I looking for a very, very cheep supermercado and buying bread, cheese and a carton of juice and sitting in the park to eat. Delicious!
After lunch we all shoved our way back into Esteve for another trip to some ruins. Medina Azahara or Madinat al-Zahra are the ruins of a Muslim city from the 10th century. This city only survived for 80 years before it was destroyed. It was fun to see the reconstruction and stuff that was going on, but sadly much of it was closed off. Our group liked the visit as it was very pretty and cool to see the ruins, but it was a little rushed and we are not really sure what the point of the visit was. If you recall there was a place very similar with ruins on our last trip to Madrid that was known as Segobriga and we weren't very sure what that visit was for either. Therefore we have resorted to calling this the Segobriga of Cordoba aka Cordobriga. (If you ask me in 10 years I will tell you that we visited Cordobriga...)
We headed back to Granada after that short trip and then straight to dinner! This dinner we had seafood Paella!!! I LOVE paella so much I think I could eat it for every meal!! It was delicious and then we had Ice-cream for dessert! Fantastic dinner!!
Sunday we just headed back on our long trip home in the bus where I actually did some homework and listened to a little Taylor Swift. (she's always good to bring along on a long journey!) Overall it was a great weekend with some beautiful weather!
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