Hanna and I woke up at 8:30, packed our backpacks for Granada and met at the train station to take our bus to Granada! It was about a 4 hour ride and I slept pretty much the whole way! We arrived around 1:30 to Granada! The town was named after pomegranates, so pomegranate are the symbol of the city! There were pomegranate trees everywhere! The trees has blossoms but no fruit because pomegranate season is in the fall. Our tour guide had us use headsets so that we could hear what she was saying even when we weren’t close to her, but if i got too far away, I would start hearing static. This was good because I tend to wander around when taking pictures, so when I started hearing static, that was my cue to go catch up to the group!
We toured Alhambra, a beautiful palace built by the Islam’s before the Catholics took over in 1492. It was full of the most gorgeous flowers I had ever seen! The roses were huge and there was colors everywhere you looked. The entire palace smelled like a florist shop. It reminded me of Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia Canada, except with far more history and architecture. There was Muslim architecture everywhere. Beautiful geometric patterns covered every floor, wall and ceiling. Muslims use shapes, coligraphay, flair all patterns and abstract colors because it is forbidden for them to use humans or realism in their art. This is because Allah is everything, so to depict human beings in their art could be considered idolatry. There were also fountains and man made ponds all around the palace. Islam is a very clean religion. I learned in my world religions class how Muslims practice wudu, a ritual washing before each of their 5 prayers a day. The high number of fountains and ponds made washing very available for the Muslims who lived here. Also, Our tour guide said there was fountains before almost every door because water is the best thing you can offer your guests. It represents purity and life.
My favorite area of the Alhambra palace was a courtyard that tied the 3 religions that influence Spain together. It was called “the patio of the lions.” Inside the patio, There was a Jewish fountain that had 12 lions representing the 12 tribes of Israel. The walls around the fountain are decorated with marble engravings representing Islamic art, around the perimeter of the patio, are Christian style columns that support a more renaissance style roof. I loved this room because it showed how different religions can come together and form something beautiful. When the Christians took over the palace, they didn’t tear it down, they embraced the beauty and added to it, even though it was made by Muslims. Another highlight of the tour was visiting the room where Christopher Columbus met with queen Isabella, asking for money to fund his expedition to the new world. I would have loved to see the palace in its prime. Our tour guide said it used to be full of stained glass, and the moorish walls used to have gold on them. Today, the gold is gone and only one stained glass window remains, yet the palace and fortress are still breathtakingly beautiful. After the tour, we hiked to the edge of the city to see a view of the Alahambra’s palace and its fortress. We also was a great view of the Sierra Nevada mountain range which has the highest peaks of the Iberian peninsula. The mountain peaks had snow o them! Our tour guide said when it rains in Granada, it’s snowing in the mountains. It was gorgeous. After looking at the view we walked through the town a bit. We saw many caves that are home to gypsies. Granada has a pretty large gypsy population. After this, we checked into our hotel then went out to dinner. We had paella!
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