Granada 1

         On Thursday night, two of our friends from Manila (and their new son) arrive in Salamanca. The husband is Spanish and they’re in the country visiting his family. They’d been on a week-long trip within Spain and stopped in Salamanca for one night. We met up for breakfast on Friday and took a quick trip through some of the sights of central Salamanca before we all managed to squeeze our luggage into their car and make our way down to Granada, where’s he’s from.

         We left a little after noon and made our way through the plains of Castilla y Leon and Castilla-la Mancha, stopping for a huge lunch in Toledo. Once we passed into Andalucia all we could see were olive trees in every direction. We passed through lots of mountains and smaller hills along the way before finally arriving into Granada around 9:30pm. We’re staying in his parents’ apartment, right in the middle of town.

         We had a long, leisurely morning today and then went out for a walk in downtown, stopping into the cathedral for some time. Our Spanish friend studied art history in school so he was able to tell us lots of interesting stories about all the old buildings. There’s a lot fascinating history here, much of which shows up in the architecture, especially the combinations of Muslim and Christian elements.

         We just finished up a very long siesta and are planning on heading out to explore another part of time this evening. We have early morning tickets for Alhambra tomorrow.

On Friday, we took one last look at the Salamanca Cathedral

we showed our friends an unusual detail in the carving 

during the 1992 renovations, they added an astronaut onto the facade

During the drive, we saw several Osborne bulls

we passed by a dam during the drive

we had a quick stop in Toledo for lunch

as soon as got into Analucia olive trees were everywhere

We passed through some beautiful mountains right before arriving in Granada

a view of Alhambra at night

The pomegranate (granada in Spanish) is the symbol of the city. It shows up everywhere

lots of the old streets were very narrow, some with mosaics on the ground like this 

a view of the Arab market

outside of Granada's cathedral

near the cathedral were several places selling all sorts of teas and spices

the crest of imperial Spain