Skip to main content

Granada - Uno

We departed early for Granada and arrived at the world-famous Alhambra - amazing series of buildings and gardens.

The first structure hosts a traditional festival of music and dance, seating 850 people.  It is very representative of the architecture of this area - with a square outside and a round courtyard inside.

Walls and ceilings of all the rooms throughout the Alhambra are covered with carvings - 9,000 individual patterns are used throughout, many using three types of Arabic calligraphy.

We proceeded to the first of three palaces - the Administration Palace - where the tax collectors were.  The second is the Political Palace and the third is the Private Palace - each more impressive than the previous.

Water is clearly a huge part of the architectural design - fountains with connecting waterways are everywhere and water is a theme in some of the carved patterns with blue being one of the predominate colors.

We then moved through the public gardens and into the private gardens, which house the summer house.  The summer house is where the royals would spend summer afternoons in an open air structure at a higher altitude.  After sunset, they would return to the Private Palace through the private gardens.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The building stones exploited in these areas volcanic and sedimentary carbonate rocks experience been analysed for
their geologic, mineralogical, petrographic and will
be a decent plus. There are other people out there who Portion-Timers, 25% of Pros and 32% of self-Employed bloggers spending
10 or more than hours blogging.

My blog post; Click Here

Popular posts from this blog

Barcelona - Dos

Day two in Barcelona has been fantastic! Jose gave us lots of information on the artist Gaudi - not born here but arrived in 1852 to attend the university.  His artistic style and influence can be seen across the city. We stopped at Park Guell which was an amazing outdoor area Gaudi designed near the home he lived in.  Inspired by nature, fairy tales and classical legends the park is beautiful.  With its kissing benches, 'candy house', salamander and plaza with the longest bench in the world it is a work of art in itself. Some of us made the walk up to the top where the three crosses are - and found even more breathtaking views of the city. From there we headed back downtown for a short walk to La Sagrada Familia cathedral.  Design by Gaudi and still not yet finished, it is very unique and ornate.  Just walking around the outside, Jose had enough informatiion to share about its intricacies that it took some time.  The line for entrance was nearly ...

Cordoba

First our morning started with an alarm - or a lack of one; as Mary Jane and Pat's room never received a wakeup call.  So everyone else was on the bus ready to go when they finally got a knock on the door.  What troopers they were, though!  In 15 minutes they were on the bus with everyone and not long after they were able to laugh at the 'chaos' of it all. Our local guide Isabel was just delightful - and clearly has a love for her city.  She tells us that filmmaker Pedro Almodovar is from here as we begin our walk. First we go through the old Jewish center.  Nearly all of the city's buildings are white-washed (originally by the women we hear). We stop at an old Jewish synagogue and learn some history of the area.  Then we stop at the statue of a famous rabbi ( can you name him ?) which legend is that by rubbing his foot and then touching your own head you will get taller and wiser.  most of us did that - some hoping for extra height, others for a...

2011: Day 4 - Vienna

Another great day! We had a 6am wake up call - but it paid off! Our tour director, Robert, secured the first reservations of the day at Shronbrunn Palace - which meant we were the only guests in the Palace for the most part. We went room to room with our own local guide, Gabi, for a nearly private tour! A one-of-a-kind experience for sure. The Palace and Gardens were beautiful. 1,441 rooms and acres and acres of grounds. We learned about Mary Theresa (and all of her 16 children). This was the summer palace for the Hapsburg dynasty. We then switched gears and went to see modern art at KunstHausWien - what a creative artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser was. And a man who epitomized eco-friendly living and work. A very different experience after our tour of the Palace. Next was a driving tour of some of the city's monuments, etc. with a stop for lunch along the way. We ended with a walking tour to additional historic spots and a tour of the downtown palace - the winter residence of the...