Adventures in Spain: Andalusia: Granada, Cordoba, Sevilla, and Merida

Gardens of the Alcazar of Sevilla

Hola Todos!

Sorry it took me so long to finish getting this together! It’s been a crazy week! We’re now in crunch time with classes, so teachers have been assigning tons of homework, presentations, and essays, not to mention the fact that finals begin in exactly one week. On top of all that, I woke up sick Wednesday morning, so yesterday was basically a waste as all I did was sleep and try to recover (I’m feeling much better today, thankfully). Anyways, Sunday night I returned from a long four-day weekend in the southern most region of Spain-- Andalusia. Andalusia is known for a rich Muslim history, a unique culture, and sweltering hot summer weather, of which we got none. Comically, despite the fact that the summers in Andalusia are notoriously hot, this was the coolest and rainiest weekend we've had here in Spain. The weekend was packed full with activities, most of which were based around the our art presentations. Though we didn't have as much free time on this excursion to do and see what we wanted, what we saw as a group was all pretty cool, so that made up for the lack of free time.

Thursday afternoon when we arrived in Granada we briefly went to see the Cathedral of Granada which, unlike all the cathedrals I had seen thus far, was in not in the Gothic style, but rather was a Renaissance cathedral. My favorite part of this Cathedral was a starry light blue sky painted on the inside of the cathedral's large dome, with stained glass windows surrounding it. It brightened the Cathedral and looked wonderful against the white cathedral walls. I also liked that it felt less heavy and extravagant than the ornate gold decorations covering the walls while still being heavenly and extracting religious sentiments. The other really cool part about the Cathedral was that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were buried in a tomb there. The same King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that sent Christopher Columbus (whose tomb I also saw this weekend) to discover America in 1492 and the same King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who conquered Granada from the Muslims in the final battle of the Reconquista to unite Spain also in 1492 (they were busy making history that year). Aside from seeing where they were buried I also got to see Isabella's crown and Ferdinand's sword, so I enjoyed all of that a lot.

Thursday evening was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. For dinner we went to a Flamenco show in the old part of Granada called Albayzin. The Flamenco club was in a building that had been built in a cave in the side of a mountain. I should mention Granada is located right next to the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, so in general the area was fairly mountainous. It was a quaint little restaurant with a small stage at the front. We had a traditional Andalusian dinner, which didn't seem too different than the other traditional Spanish foods I have been eating-- lots of pork just like everywhere else. Side note: you should not visit Spain if you don't like ham/pork because sometimes it feels like that's all they eat here. Well, that and bread. The food was good though, and after we were finished eating we got to see an hour long Flamenco show. I lucked out and had one of the seats closest to the stage, so I had a good view not only of the dancers in general, but also of their feet specifically. Flamenco was very different than any style of dance I am used to. For starters, for music they had a man playing Spanish guitar and a man and woman singing occasionally. The singing was not normal singing though. It sounded very tribal or primitive to me, and the words did not seem to be in modern Spanish. The dancing consisted of a lot of stomping, clapping, and dramatic movements. In relation to dance styles I am familiar with, it reminded me most of a mix between character and tap. I spent the majority of the show staring at the fast moving feet. After the show we took a brief walking tour of Albayzin. This old, small area of Granada has narrow cobblestone streets and sits on a hill opposite La Alhambra, so at the end of the tour we had a stunning view of La Alhambra lit up at night, a view which my photos do not even come close to doing justice.

Friday was crazy! We were in three different cities that day, and I had my presentation to give for art, which was stressing me out. This was the most overwhelming day by far, but we saw some pretty cool places, starting with La Alhambra first thing in the morning. La Alhambra was a Muslim fort turned palace. The name Alhambra means "red palace" in Arabic, a name which it gets for the reddish color it has when seen from afar. Over the course of my Spanish career so far, I've had to do two presentations on Granada and La Alhambra, so it was fun to visit there and see it for real. After La Alhambra we got on the bus and drove to Cordoba for city 2/3 for the day.

The only item on our itinerary in Cordoba was the Mosque of Cordoba (which is now the Cathedral of Cordoba). Unfortunately that was where my group was giving our art presentation, and the lead up had not gone too smooth. In the research phases everyone kept getting their parts confused and we even had to change some of the information at lunch right before our four o'clock presentation because after asking Jesus a question, we discovered an entire part was ever so slightly wrong. I was finally feeling confident about my part, until we got there and he told us that, unlike the other group that had gone at La Alhambra, we would be wearing headsets and microphones so we could give the presentation as a tour walking through the mosque. That made me a lot more nervous, and I didn't get to enjoy the mosque as much as I would have if I wasn't preoccupied with presenting as we went through the building. As interesting and beautiful as the mosque was, I was happy when that part of the weekend was over. The mosque itself was really cool though. Its really large and all the arches are red and white striped, so they kind of resemble candy canes. Also, right in the center of the mosque is a church, thus the reason it is now called the Cathedral of Cordoba. After the Reconquista, the Catholics built a church in the middle of the mosque to keep the beautiful and impressive mosque intact while asserting the dominance of Christianity.

After we left the mosque, we almost immediately had to get back on the bus to drive to Sevilla, our third city of the day. We didn't do anything in Sevilla Friday night, but we had a busy day there Saturday. The first place we visited on Saturday morning in Sevilla was a beautiful plaza. The plaza had a large fountain in the middle with bridges all around connecting the part with surrounding buildings to the part with the fountain. There were mosaics all around the plaza and bridges, and the back half of the plaza opened up to a large park area, where lots of very fit runners were getting a nice view during their morning workout. In the park was a statue of the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, who we had studied in my lit class. As homework, my lit professor told us to take turns reading Becquer's poems in front of his statue, so we took about fifteen minutes for that.

After the plaza we had two more stops to hit as a group before free time in the evening: the Alcazar of Sevilla and the Cathedral of Seville. We first visited the Alcazar of Sevilla, which is a large, stunning palace for the Spanish monarchs, created in a Muslim style. There were lots of stunning mosaics on the walls and ceilings throughout the palace, but the most beautiful part were the gardens. The alcazar had large, lush gardens filled with plants and flowers. There were small ponds with fountains and walkways that wove though the greenery like a maze. Andalusia has a warm climate, so patios and gardens in the middle of houses and buildings are not unusual there, but the gardens at the Alcazar of Sevilla were among the nicest I saw (and that includes the gardens at La Alhambra, which were also incredible!). A fun fact about the Alcazar of Sevilla: a scene (or multiple?) of the show Game of Thrones was shot there.

After the Alcazar we visited the Cathedral of Sevilla. The Cathedral of Sevilla is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. And remember how I said I saw the burial site of Christopher Columbus? Well, this was it. Actually, that’s an interesting story. Apparently there was some controversy over whether Columbus was buried at the Cathedral of Sevilla here in Spain, or if he was buried in the Dominican Republic, so they tested the DNA of his bones in the Sevilla grave with the bones of his son who is buried nearby. The results tested positive for some bones, but not all, so I guess it would be more correct to say that I saw the burial site of part of Christopher Columbus, and the burial site of some other random people as well.

Sunday was the shortest and least busy day of the trip. We left Sevilla in the morning and drove to Merida, a smaller city with Roman ruins. In Merida we saw the ruins of an old roman theater and amphitheater. The theater was semicircular with a stage, an orchestra area, and tiered seating. The stage had roman style columns and statues. In the theater they would have out on plays, but in the amphitheater, they held gladiator fights. The amphitheater was more circular, with seating on all sides. To be honest, it was relatively small and plain, and would not have been all that impressive if it weren’t for the fights that were held there thousands of years ago. Around the time we finished seeing the roman ruins, it started to rain, so we all had a quick lunch and then got back on the bus to Salamanca, cutting our time in Merida about an hour short. We got back to Salamanca around 7:30, so I took a run before dinner, and then immediately after dinner I fell asleep.