A Weekend in Andalucía (Part 2)

Hola amigos! Hopefully you've had a chance to read my most recent post about my first day in Andalucía! Now it's time to recount my second and third day!

After a good night's sleep in a comfy bed and a delicious breakfast buffet in our hotel, we hopped on a bus to La Alhambra, a palace and fortress in Granada. If you read my last post you may remember that we saw La Alhambra from afar the night before! But to continue...La Alhambra was originally built in 889 and then converted into a royal palace in 1333 by a Muslim king. While no kings currently live here, it serves as a major tourist attraction in Spain and people from all over the world come to see the beautiful Islamic achitecture.

La Alhambra
But to be honest...I wish I had taken this picture myself!

Before entering the palace, we began our guided tour around the gardens. I took tons and tons of pictures...I have truly never seen gardens as gorgeous as these!

Exploring the gardens!

I wish my mom could have been there to see these!
She loves to garden! 

As we were walking around the gardens, we came across the Palacio de Generalife, which means "Garden of the Architect." It is one of the oldest surviving Moorish gardens! Back when this was built there really wasn't much of a difference between a gardener and an architect because architects were responsible for arranging the gardens as well as designing the building. Below you can see the long pool lined by beautiful plants and flowers! GORGEOUS.

Palacio de Generalife!

Over an hour later, we finally began our tour of the palace itself! Yeserías, or decorations made with clay, line the walls. These yeserías were once painted in vibrant colors, which you can still see to some extent. 

Yeserías with inscriptions
that read "The world is for God."

In addition to yeserías, there are azulejos (tiles) to add color and to protect the walls. 

Amazing tile work!

Check out this ceiling!!!

Now if you're not convinced that this is one of the most beautiful palaces in Spain, check out the picture below! Here a pool reflects the building above. The color of the pool has to be a dark color, such as this dark green, in order to show the reflection. Moreover, the yeserías on the walls of the tower used to be full of color, but after thousands of years that color has obviously faded from rain, wind, etc. I can't imagine how beautiful this was when it was first constructed!

B-E-A-UTIFUL!

Then as our tour was coming to an end, we visited the Patio de los Leones, or the Patio of the Lions. This is the heart of the palace's private section that served to protect the king's residence. In the center of the patio is the Fountain of Lions with 12 lions surrounding the basin. Each hour one lion would spew water. Think about that!!! This clearly demonstrates the Muslim's genius regarding engineering, architecture, and design--especially so many years ago! Furthermore, four small rivers extend from the basin of the fountain. In Islam and many other religions, water used in this manner symbolizes paradise.

Patio de los Leones!

View from the top of La Alhambra!

After nearly four hours, our time at La Alhambra came to a close. Needless to say, we were exhausted! For those of you who don't know, Granada is towards the south end of Spain and the northern part of Africa...so it was dreadfully hot! I really appreciated the air conditioning during the bus ride back! But overall, I really enjoyed our tour of La Alhambra and would love to go back one day! If returning to Spain ever happens, I'd definitely take my mom--I couldn't help but think of her the entire tour! She would have loved it! 

Later in the day we went to scope out a place for lunch and came across a cute outdoor restaurant. Not only did the menu of the day seem delicious, but every 5 minutes misting fans turned on as well! This made for a great lunch! For the first course: macaroni bolognese...second course: calamari...dessert: chocolate ice cream! I was extremely satisfied and EXTREMELY full! We then shopped around a bit to try to walk off our food comas! Later that night I was still too full to eat dinner, but knew I had to eat something. I'm somewhat embarrassed yet also proud to say that my friend Katelyn and I had a Coke, Lays Chips, and gelato for dinner. But hey! It was good!

Several hours later we went to one of my favorite places here in Granada--the Arab baths! We made an appointment for 10:30pm, and as we walked through the doors, simply the aroma made me feel relaxed! The building was absolutely beautiful! For 75 minutes we were free to use a hot pool, a warm pool, a cold pool, or a steam room. We also rested on a hot stone, drank some delicious tea, and picked out our favorite scent for a 15 minute massage. I chose lavender! ALL of this for only 35 US dollars! How can you beat that?! It was so worth it!!! Once again, I really wish my mom could have been there! She really deserves something like that for all the work she does day-in and day-out! I truly hope we can go together one day!

Arab baths! Took this picture off their website...
it wasn't exactly the place to take pictures...
but look at this relaxing environment!!!

After such a relaxing hour and a half, what else to do but head to a discoteca with some friends! We danced the night away to tons of 90s throwbacks! It always amazes me how nearly all of the music here in Spain is in English...but thankfully I love me some Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl," and the Spice Girl's "Wannabe"!

DISCOTECA! 

The next morning we went to a Catholic mass at Granada's most famous cathedral. I was exhausted and it was a little hard to keep up with, but I can finally say I attended a Spanish mass! Besides that, the cathedral was so much more beautiful than any church I've seen in the US! 

Catedral de Granada

Afterwards I went with my friends Mary and Katelyn to the house of Federico García Lorca, a famous Spanish author who wrote a play I just finished reading! Unfortunately he was executed during the Spanish Civil War because of his outspoken liberal views, but I personally love his work and believe he stood up for what was right during this controversial time period. 

La casa de Federico García Lorca

We then had lunch and boarded the bus yet again for our trip back to Toledo! Overall I'd have to say that Granada is one of my favorite cities here in Spain! Not only did I love the ice cream shops on every corner (much like the Starbucks in NYC), but I loved the romantic environment. It was definitely a relaxing yet fun-filled weekend! More posts to come soon, but adiós for now!

Picture credits:

http://www.ignaciopara.com/?attachment_id=433

http://granada.hammamalandalus.com/

http://www.spaniaguide.no/granada/severdigheter-og-attraksjoner-granada