Pool at the Alhambra

Day 13, Wednesday, June 2: Granada (cont.), Cordoba

Visit to the Alhambra
We arrived too late last night to do the complete sight seeing of Granada, so before we left the city, Vitor arranged a guided tour of one of the major political centres of the Medieval world this morning - the Alhambra.

Fountains at the Alhambra

Granada was the Arabs’ most treasured city. They still morn its loss in their prayers. We had local guides for this. The Alhambra itself was a major fortress, built by the Moors, surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella in January of 1492. Yes, before Columbus sailed the Atlantic. The King and Queen lived in the Alhambra of Granada for a few years, and it was here that they met Christopher Colombus. During the hot summer months, the court spent a lot of time in the “Generalife” , no, this is not an insurance company. Somewhere in the beautiful book we bought about the Alhambra we will find the explanation of the term. The days were spent in the cooler structure, but at night Isabella insisted on returning to the fortress because it was better defended. This was a subtle reminder that life was dangerous in those times.

The water system is very efficient. The system used by the Alhambra today is still gravity fed from the mountains through aqueducts of various types. Even the pools and fountains are part of the system as the edifice continues down the mountain.

Trivia: the pomegranate fruit is native to Granada.

Cordoba - After arriving at the ‘Hotel Don Juan’ we headed for the Alcázar. Wednesday there is not charge. This is a palace of the Christian Monarchs, (view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alc%C3%A1zar_de_los_Reyes_Cristianos ).
We had a little difficulty finding our way to the entrance and wound up walking around a large part of the outside until we met a British couple going the other way looking for the entrance. We retraced our steps plus a little and finally got there. It is very large with beautiful gardens. Unfortunately there is no furniture or explanations in English. We didn’t climb the tower as Dick’s foot was hurting a lot. The gardens were, as usual, lovely. Heading back to the hotel we again passed beside the old defensive wall (they're hugh!), then the old Synagogue in the Jewish quarter,(it was closed) and back to the hotel for dinner at 8 pm. I (Eva) was going to wear a new navy summer dress for dinner for which I purchased a lovely scarf, but I seemed to have left it behind.

We are amazed at the olive trees. In this part of the country they cover the land as far as you can see. Spain is the major producer of olive oil in the world.

Olive trees on the way to Cordoba