Alhambra, Las Alpujarras y la Bodega

Since my last post, post Morocco, I've had another visit to the Alhambra, FINALLY got to go hiking, and visited a Spanish vineyard and winery!

Alhambra, this week we visited the Nasrid Palaces.

The first picture is from the first section of the palaces, and was the most public part of the palace, where judges and other records could be found.  The picture shows a mihrab in an oratory off of a room that the catholic monarchs turned into a chapel.  The second picture is where someone would have waited before entering the sultans personal chambers, and the calligraphy on the walls celebrates the ruler and talks a lot about how fair and nice and great he is.  I guess if you read that while you wait you'll be nicer once you get inside.

The Court of the Myrtles- Reflecting pool.

This picture is of the celing of the throne hall, which is much more impressive in person than in this picture.  The picture on the right is the outside of the dome.  Because we are "researchers" we got to go look at the inner workings, and the work that has to be done to keep everything in good condition.  Pretty Neat.

Las Alpujarras!!  We hiked in and had lunch, and hiked some more back to a little town.  First time I've wanted to buy something I couldn't easily transport...they make these really cool rugs that look totally different than they feel.  Oh well, next time.

Snow capped mountain tops.

Horses.

Water

My view eating lunch. :)

On the way home from the hike we stopped a vineyard where we had a tour and did a wine tasting.  

Grapes.

The tour was in spanish, so I'm not sure I got all the technical parts, but I did learn that wines color comes from the skin of the grape?  Maybe this should have been obvious but I'd never thought about it.  After that, the wine goes into the barrels, and that room has to be humid so that the wine doesn't evaporate through it.  She said the wine they make usually stays in a barrel for about a year.

The next step gets the wine in bottle, and they are kept for another year or two.  That room needs to be very dry because if the cork is damp, the wine would have other flavors from the air.  And finally, it is labeled and ready for us to taste!  We had red wine and cheese, delicious.

In other news, I have purchased a ticket to Rome for my December break!  I haven't worked out the particulars, but I know I want to take the train to Florence for part of it too.  I'm excited to eat a lot of pasta! Hopefully I won't have too many problems with the whole, not speaking Italian thing... :)

Only one month and one week left till I'm on a plane home!  Listened to a Christmas song today, too.  And Granada is being decorated. Better get on getting some presents...

Bye for now!

Alhambra #1 and Birthday Adventures

The Alhambra, the greatest last and the greatest Moorish palace, was built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Nasrid dynasty, and combines the architectural elements of the dynasties that came before them.  My art history teacher likes to say that the Nasrid rulers had a "carpe diem" mentality, where they worked hard and played hard, knowing they would be the last Muslim rulers in Spain.  The result was architecture that was very lavish, but because of the stress of war, the Alhambra is nowhere near as big as Madinat al-Zahra, which blows my mind, because to me the Alhambra seems huge.  They also used cheaper materials, like concrete and plaster, instead of the masonry that the Caliphate was able to use.

This week we had our first of three visits to the Alhambra, and because we are "researchers" we got to go into areas where normally tourists don't get to see.  We focused on the complex as a military building in this first visit, walking in like people would have been made to in the 14th century, through the checkpoints and walls, and we also visited the towers where soldiers and guards would have kept watch over the city.

View from the bottom, clearly if you're down here you have a disadvantage.

You would have been able to see the whole city too.

View of another tower from the top.

The foundations on one side of the wall mark where the soldiers would have lived when they were on duty for a few days.

On the other side, the area where the royals and high government people would have lived.  We're going to tour all of the inside next week.

One of the main doors to a checkpoint.

We walked through part of the palace, and this picture is dark but it is amazingly beautiful.

These paintings are in a tower that is now called the Peinador de la Reina, the Queen's Dressing Room. It was painted to please Queen Isabella after the Catholic Monarchs took Granada, and it has a bunch of French soldiers names carved into it. Part of the palace was also destroyed by the French, and there is a Spanish legend about a man who ran around all night putting out the fires.

Strange Creatures.  They guess the paintings were done between 1539 and 1546, in an Italian style.  Whoever lived there before the Queen was probably powerful, because they have found a secret staircase that goes down to a clearing in the woods.  With all of the security, it would have been a big deal to be able to get in and out undetected.  This also probably means it was a mans room, as nobody would have let a girl have a secret staircase.

This tower, Torre de la Cautiva, the tower of the Captive was my favorite.

The carvings were this detailed around the entire room, with high ceilings and a nice breeze.  There was a poem that ran around the entire room that was from the perspective of the room talking about how pretty she is inside, even when she looks like a military building outside.

The last tower, Torre de las Infantas, or the Tower of the Princesses, gets it's name from a story that Washington Irving wrote about the Alhambra. The princesses were called Zaida, Zoraida and Zorahaida.  We also saw the room where he stayed and wrote.

The artwork is very much like architecture, with mini columns and arches, and of-course a lot of calligraphy.

My birthday lunch, and my host mom.  It was delicious.

Started the night with the end of the sunset and some champagne.  After that we went for Tapas and bar hopped for a while.

This was a bachelor party, their t-shirts say something like "Grab the Sausage," and they picked me up and sung happy birthday.  From there it only got stranger, as we went to a few more places, and then ended up drinking tea at 4 in the morning?  Anyway, made it to 21.

On Thursday, I'm leaving for Morocco.  First we are going to Gibraltar, then to Tarifa to cross to Tangier.  We're visiting a women's center there and meeting with some students.  Later in the afternoon we'll see Assilah, then go to Rabat where we'll be staying with families that host other international students.  We'll spend the entire next day in Rabat, and on Sunday, we're going up to the Riff mountains to see a smaller town.  Then we'll head north again to Chefchaouen where we will spend our last night.  Should be an interesting experience, I'm very excited.   

Halfway done with this blog?  It's odd that I'll be home so soon. Time flies.