Happy Valentine's Day!!!!
Today is a big day. Big because of its Romantic significance, and also big because we are off to see 'El Alhambra'.
El Alhambra is one of Spain's most famous historic sites. It is Moorish in origin and its design reflects the Moors taste in open architecture and the need to fill the spaces within the buildings with light, cooling water flowing about the floors, and the opportunity for cool breezes. Very soothing and meditative, as was their style. Not that they were without fault, they had their little ways too, but they were eventually defeated by the Christian armies after a to-and-fro battle over many centuries. And so their great contribution to architecture fell into disuse and ruin over the following centuries.
It remained unknown to the world until the middle of the 1800's when it was visited by an American writer named Washington Irving. His is a long and interesting story, he served as an Ambassador for America as well as having success in business and most important for our purposes, success as an author. He wrote 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' (Ichabod Crane and the legend of the Headless Horseman, a Disney classic) but significant here, he also wrote 'Tales of the Alhambra'. These writings brought the story of the Alhambra to the public, albeit in a romanticised fashion. We bought the book at the site, where there is a large and permanent presentation of Washington Irving's continued love affair with the Alhambra and with Spain.
The word 'Alhambra' means 'the red one' in Arabic. It is built out of red brick and red rock, sourced and quarried from the surrounding hillsides. Alhambra is built on a promintory on the steep side of a mountain, and the city of Granada lies at its feet. Granada is a pretty little place, landlocked so there is no seashore to walk, and there is a small river running through it. We would call it a creek, not a river, but not in public here as the locals would be offended. There are the inevitable Cathedrals here, and statues and public monuments and ruined castle walls, and Roman ruins, etc, etc. This is Spain, after all, and they do have a lot of history. The city is where we walked around yesterday and, I know, I got lost. But we never got up the last 3 blocks of the city to the road to Alhambra. Just as well, it is very steep, straight up for hundreds of feet.
Instead, we took a taxi from our hotel this morning. The cab was called by the front desk staff and arrived about 10 minutes later. Jan and I got in and I noticed immediately that there was no meter. I pointed this out to the driver, but he (conveniently) had no English at all. Now we're stuck in this cab, roaring off to who-knows-where, and we have no idea what the charges would be. Long story shortened, Jan prevailed on me to remain calm and we got to the top of the hill and to Alhambra's doorstep for a paltry ten Euros. Expensive, yes, but better than walking up. The weather today was perfect, cool but not cold, high and broken cloud, sun shining about half the time and no rain at all. Brilliant, stunning views of the high Sierra Nevada Range (literally 'Mountains Snowy' in Spanish) that form Granada's back fence.
Then we bought our tickets and radios and walked for six solid hours, up and down stairs, over parade grounds, up ramparts and down cellar steps, stunning high vistas and tiny cramped quarters below ground, gardens and reflecting pools, we saw it all. All of Jan's pictures are stunning but they don't show the site in all its beauty, for that of course you have to be here. To get the story, just google Alhambra and be prepared to lose an hour of your life seeing the remarkable history, and if you drill in far enough, the history of the Moors in Spain. That is a stunning story, and they were a stunning race of people. History is written by the victors, as we all know, and the Moors have been treated badly by the Christian faith in the telling of the Moors time in Spain. From what I have learned though, there is more to it. Only one small example is the treatment of Jews in the two dominant cultures. Jews were treated largely with respect in the Moorish culture and were left to ply their trades as merchants and teachers. Jews were treated as objects of envy by the conquering Christians, stripped of their wealth and position and then killed if they didn't leave the Christian areas. At its heart, that's where the Inquisition had its roots is the discovery and banishment of the Jews. Before it expanded further. On the tour, Jan and I met another couple, Adam and Ruth, who told us more about those bad times, from the Jewish perspective. They are off to Cordoba tomorrow to visit a Moorish library, it is thought second only to Alexandria as a horde of the written word in antiquity. The Catholic faith, you may remember, had a less enlightened view of learning and science, and severely repressed those like Copernicus and Galileo who persisted in learning what the Church decided was wrong to know about.
After, very tired and very happy, we descended an extraordinary steep path to the city, past the vendors and pickpockets that we were warned about. We had seen a place yesterday that we wanted to try for dinner tonight, so we went there and had a wonderful 'Valentines Day' dinner. With a bottle of wine of course, and a decadent desert that we shared. It was wonderful, and Jan is still talking about it. That's good. Then home to our hotel, drowsy now with fatigue and full tummies. Off to bed, on the road tomorrow to Cartagena.
