Thursday, March 20, 2008
Seville III: day trip to the Alhambra
The most exotic and mysterious location to date in my world travels is hands down the Alhambra in Granada.
It was a three hour bus ride on the second day of our trip at 7am. Yikes.
I pondered whether the bus driver would believe I was carsick and let me out to take photos of the rolling hills and olive groves of the Southern Spain country side.
I love a good road trip, although it was killing me not to be able to capture the experience of watching the sunrise and the steam billowing around the silvery green leaves of the millions of rows of olive trees.
Once we arrived in Granada, we hiked it up the enormous hill to the Alhambra--originally a 9th century fortress, reincarnated over the ages by the Moors, Ferdinand and Isabella, bands of wild gypsies, and even Washington Irving.
As you can see from the images here and here, the Northern African influence was evident everywhere. I felt like we were in Morocco instead of Spain. I didn't know which way to turn my head or camera. Occasionally I had the nagging feeling that perhaps I should just EXPERIENCE the place, not spend so much time trying to capture it digitally. I tried to do a little of both.
Needless to say, at the end of the day we were completely wrecked. I think it was the Jamon sandwich in the bus station after our bus got delayed by an hour that put me over the edge. It was midnight Spain time when we got to the bus station back in Seville, then walked a little over a mile through the streets back to the apartment.
Good thing we had some ice cream to sustain us! Lauren rates all the Helado or Gelato places by several criteria: presentation and value being of utmost importance.
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Alabama... we can go there anytime. its like a 2 hr trip...oh wait
I was lucky enough to visit Spain when I was 15 and visited the Alhambra, it is absolutely stunning, the gardens were my favorite part. Thanks for the little trip down memory lane!