Arab Echos & Fortresses, Firey Flamenco, WOW - Granada

Arrival:
We arrived in Granada with no trouble thanks to Chad's great driving and Nancy's exceptional navigational skills. Granada is one of the most populur places to visit in Spain. It has a sultry, mysterious feel to it, compared with some of the charming, stately cities in other parts of Spain. There is more of a gypsy, alternative feel to Granada, and its known for it's artists, for its passionate flamenco dancers, and for being the last Moorish (Arabic) strong hold in the battles between Christian and Islamic rulers in Spain. The crowning symbol of this era of Moorish rule in Spain is the Alhambra or "Red Fortress", which is an imposing palace-fortress-town perched atop a large terrace above the rest of the town.

Finding a Place to Stay:
When arriving in a new town, our first challenge is to find a place to stay. After walking around a while with our backpacks, we found a nice hostel that had two pleasant rooms. It's always a testy occasion when we pick a hotel, because in the past Chad's desire to get a "deal" has led to some edgy or unclean rooms. But this time Chad helped find a decent place with rooms for 40 Euros (about $60 per night), right near the center of all the attractions in Granada. As we found later it wasn't in fact perfect: Chad and Kari's shower door was missing, but with a few yoga maneuvers and sharp aim of the shower, you could avoid soaking the floor completely.

Picture of street outside of our Hostel

Flamenco:
Since we missed the flamenco show in Sevilla, we made sure not to miss out in Granada. Walking all over each town was our favorite pasttime, and our first night in Granada was no exception. After several hours Tom Carson was understandably beginning to question our meandering throughout the medieval streets of Granada, when we finally found a restaurant that had a good flamenco show. The show had four musicians, one of which was did the "palmas" (hand clapping). The show and dinner was set inside of a courtyard, virtually hidden from the street entrance.

The second night in Granada was even better. We wondered up to the part of town that was traditionally inhabited by Gypsies (although it's become a bit of a stereotype more than an actual group, Gypsies were a nomadic culture of people in Europe, who among other things were known for their music and dancing. The origins of Flamenco have roots in the Gypsy culture). Among the hills we found very cool caves carved into the mountain that are now used as houses, restaurants, and flamenco stages. We picked one and were mesmerized by the show, up close and personal.

Hand clapping and the sound of the dancers' heels on the ground are a huge part of the percussion in flamenco dancing. Sometimes castanets (little hand clappers made of wood) are used too, but not in the shows we saw. If you've never seen a flamenco dancer before, it's really a spectacle. One dancer (male or female) dances at a time, and each one displayed their own unique attitude and passion, reflected in his or her face, the movement of his or her arms and the way the females use their dresses for punctuation. At one point in the dance there may be a pause, and then the dancers really move their legs rapidly (if you watched cartoons as a kid, it sort of looks like the road runner's blurred leggs when he's running).

The video below isn't ours, but it's very similar to what we saw:



Highlight of Trip: Visit to the Mighty Alhambra
For all four of us the most spectacular part of our entire trip was a nearly day-long visit to the impressive fortress/city - the Alhambra. We have never seen anything like it before. Physically you can't miss it from anywhere in Granada because it's strategically perched atop a hill terrace above the city.



We hiked up a big hill from our hostel:


This is a picture of Kari a.k.a. Vana White, posing in front of one of the Arab gates within Granada:


We were surprised to find that the Alhambra wasn't just a fortress and palace for the Moorish ruler; it also contained a town with thousands of people within its walls. In many respects the Arab scholars, engineers, craftsman, and architects were actually far ahead of their Christian counterparts during the so called "dark ages" of Europe.

Nothing displays their skill better than their harnessing of the power of water into beautiful fountains, relection pools, bathhouses, and small canals. In the Islamic mythology, water is a symbol of oppulance and wealth. Heaven is often portrayed filled with abundant water flowing into fountains and pools - much like the scene at the Alhambra. A river runs into Granada, and it was actually diverted through a large conduit by the Moors 5 miles before the Alhambra complex. The natural flow of the river was used to power fountains and to fill serene reflection pools:

The picture below shows one of the most elaborate fountains within the palace. As you can see in this picture (unfortunately not our picture, because the lions were being restored during our vist), the lions aren't spouting water like they should. We heard the story that the engineering of this water fountain was so complex and elaborate that when the Christian conquerors took over the palace in the late 1400's, they took apart the Lion fountains to see how they worked... and no one has ever been able to get them to work again to this day!

As we walked on a path within the Alhambra, water gently ran down either side of our path in man-made channels or gutters. These gutters would be diverted all over the complex, including into the palaces.


Occassionally we'd see a waterfall.


Once inside the walls of the Alhambra, we began by touring the Sultan's palace. We were blown away by the intricate stone-work. Islamic art was and is different than many other forms, because the artist typically doesn't portray human figures, an object of art frowned upon in the Koran. Instead, the stone work displays symbols, poetry in Arabic, scriptures from the Koran, and geometrical figures carved into stone. The pictures of course don't do the scenes justice, but here they are:

Outside of the palace were lush gardens, with fruit trees, vegetable gardens (in Moorish times, enough food to feed the city), varieties of flowers, and hedges trimed into the shapes of castles! We strolled through the gardens and had a picnic lunch.

The Moorish rulers also had a summer palace in the complex:

The entire Alhambra is shaped like a ship, and on the front of this ship was the military fortress, with tall towers providing views of Granada and the entire valley:


We were pleasantly exhausted after our Alhambra visit, and we snacked on tapas, drank some more wine, and prepared for our next (and final leg of the trip with Tom and Nancy) to the ocean front city of Valencia, home to the famous food: Paella.