Granada and Alambra (Monday)

The basic attraction in Granada is the Alambra Palace built in the 14th Century by the Moors. It was amazing, rooms decorated with beautiful wood doors and ceilings, stucco "stalactites" and colorful tiles. It was difficult to imagine what this must have looked like with the Sultans sitting upon their pillows the walls covered with murals, tapestries and everything painted very colorful.

The Quran talks about how their shouldn't be any worship of images or "idols" (Moses and the 10 commandments). Throughout the palace there were few images of humans and animals. Its more common to see a flower or vine repeated. They had one symbol repeated throughout the palace on the amazing stucco walls it looked like a W with a nose I believe this means, Allah or God. If you also look at the stucco you can see how intricate it is and how the designs weave in and out this is also a symbol of God being complex and infinite.

The above picture is of the Grand Hall of the Ambassadors the largest room which was used as a thrown room. The room is a perfect cube from top to bottom. Look at the ceiling it is 8,000 pieces of cedar another suggestion of the complexity of Allah. Blocked off in the center of the floor was some original 14th century tiles.

In 1492 after 700 years of battling the Mororish King, Boabdil signed an agreement of his surrender of this country. As he left this continent and was sailing to Africa he was crying and his own mother chastised him for not being man enough to defend his own country. This country which was once ruled by Islam then became a country ruled by Christians.

In 1492 Queen Isabel and Ferdinand sat upon a thrown in this same room. This is where Columbus came and sold his idea of a voyage to find a shorter route to the Asian Countries. Here Isabel, Ferdinand and the professors of the University gathered to here Columbus's ideas. Most educated people at that time DID NOT believe the world was flat, but the professors did think that Columbus under estimated the size of the globe.

Throughout the entire castle there were many courtyards such as this with fountains and water. This symbolized heaven. The water is a symbol of life.

A few of the things that I LOVED about this palace and Spain in general are the beautiful doors and the colorful tiles.

This is a balcony off of the living quarters over looking the city of Granada.

We took a little break within the palace to enjoy an orange.

This was our view at one of our resting moments, my picture does not give it justice. The view with a fountain, green foilage and oranges picture perfect Spain.

The Alambra had many parts the Palace (which I showed above), gardens, King V Palace and the Alcazaba Fort.

This is just one of the many buildings and pools within the Alambra's Walls. There were fountains and pools of water everywhere. To be quite honest it was difficult to enjoy because without adult supervision Lyndi would have done a dive into the pool attempting to catch one of the many goldfish.

We grabbed Lyndi and treked to a "safe place" without water and took some pictures.

Below is Charles V palace

After Charles V conqured Granada he wanted his own palace the Alambra palace didn't quite cut it. He heavily taxed the defeated Muslims in Granada to afford to build. It's architecture is quite unique a square on the outside and a circle on the inside. The girls stood in the center and tested the acoustics, which were quite impressive. There was suppose to be a dome covereing the courtyard, but after Charles X died, his son abandoned this project to build his own palace.

We took a quick look into the Alcazaba fort, but it was basically ruins and the children were ready for food, so we hiked out of there and looked for some food for the kids.

This is a good example of me wrestling with Lyndi. A common scene throughout our entire vacation.

After feeding our children we went into the Royal Chapel (no pictures allowed). Here we saw the tombs of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand. We also saw the jewelery box that Queen Isabel gave to Columbus. It was orginally full of jewels, Columbus sold the jewels to finance his journey.

There were also a number of other treasures such as Isabels crown, ring and prayer book to name few.

The plaza Isabel La Catolica. You can see Christopher Columbus sitting in front of Queen Isabel with a contract which stated "For as much as you, Columbus, are going by our command to discover subdue some Islands and Continents in the ocean..."

Isabel wanted to spread Catholicism, Colmbus wanted to make money.