adopting a new lifestyle

As mentioned in the previous post, our return flight from Portugal landed at around midnight Barcelona time (the two countries have a time difference of 1 hour). Since we bought several bottles of wine, we had to check our carry-on luggage, which contributed to us missing the last train back to Sants, so we split up into 3 cabs and went home to quickly unpack and repack for southern Spain.

We met Sophia back at the airport the following morning, received our boarding passes, and flew in to Federico García Lorca Granada-Jaén Airport. After checking into the Juan Migel Hotel, we packed up our murses with pens, pencils and sketchbooks galore, and set out to climb the hill opposite La Alhambra for a nighttime vantage point of the historic Moorish palace from the 14th Century.

The journey through the Albaicín was really interesting. The district is separated from the rest of the city by the Darro river, and is composed of many narrow winding streets that will surely disorient you.

We arrived at Mirador de San Miguel Teterias, and stopped to watch the nightfall and La Alhambra light up. We whipped out out sketchbooks to draw what we saw..but we couldn’t see much at night.

I was trying to snap a few night shots of the palace, but before I knew it, Michael and I were the only ones on the plateau. We made our way back down the winding Albaicín, and somehow retraced our way back down the way we came, which was truly amazing (to us at least). But when we arrived at the Darro river, nobody was waiting for us. It was then that we received a text from Ian saying that the group huddled into a café called Casablanca midway down the mountain towards a different direction. A little disappointed that we were left behind, and that Sophia still hadn’t realized our absence, I took advantage of this time to return to the Jewelry district we had passed on our way to the Albaicín to look for a birthday present for my mom. No more than 15 minutes later, I found the perfect gift. Being born in October, my mom’s birthstone happens to be Opal. And boy do the Andalucians love Opal! I found a hamsa necklace with a blue Opal stone in the center, and matched it with blue Opal earrings. Turns out the artist was even Israeli. Since we accomplished what I thought was going to be impossible (a gift for the mother) in such a short time, we decided we’d give finding Casablanca a chance, so we asked the Jewelers and headed up to meet up with the rest of the group in a Turkish Café, and ate some baklava and drank some tea.

The next morning, we had reservations to enter La Alhambra, courtesy of USC (who finally decided to begin paying for our entrance fees). I say reservation because they limit the amount of people who can wander through the palace at any given moment, so this had to be planned ahead..we spent roughly 3 hours there.

We stopped by a statue of Washington Irving so Sophia could enlighten us as to who this man was and why he was so important. Irving was an American author, essayist, and historian who wrote many books and served as the Minister to Spain as well as the Secretary to the American Legation in London. While living in Spain, he took up residence in La Alhambra and spearheaded an effort to rededicate the palace as a national park and open it to the public with efforts to restore many of the structures. This statue on the way up to the palaces serves as a commemoration for his efforts.

As I mentioned earlier, La Alhambra began construction in the 14th Century to serve as a palace for the Moors who were in control of Andalucia at the time. Part of the Darro river was diverted so the palace would receive a consistent flow of water, eventually turning La Alhambra into a small city. The water helped farming and irrigation purposes and developed an area called the Generalife.

In the 15th Century, when the Catholics took control of the region, they built many more buildings within the walls of the city, including the Palace of Charles V within the Nasrid fortifications.

Not only is La Alhambra one of the main reasons people visit Granada in the autonomous region of Andalucia, but it is also one of the main reasons people journey to Spain. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts over 2 million visitors each year.

Looking back to where we stood the previous night:

The picture above doesn’t quite capture the weather at the time of this sketch, but I retreated into the colonnade to sketch this courtyard (from the left side). I used some of the rain to turn this pen sketch into a half water-color sketch.

Islamic Architecture revolves around geometric shapes and mathematics. As Sophia explained it, most everything is based off the square. The √2 hypotenuse, if rotated upwards, will form the √2 rectangle. Repeating this process will create the √3 rectangle and so on to √5. These shapes inform many Moorish designs and are prominent in La Alhambra.

Palace of the Lions (even though they look nothing like lions):

Then we headed to the gardens and Generalife:

After our morning exploration, we headed back down the hill towards the city to explore old courtyards and get a feel for the urban fabric:

The following morning, we walked to the city’s edge to visit a museum dedicated to the history and culture of southern Spain, but were side-tracked by the Macroscopio in Parque de las Ciencias by Carlos Ferrater. Seems to be an educational science museum geared for the younger generation:

Then we crossed the street to see what we came to see, the Centro Cultural CajaGRANADA Memoria de Andalucía, designed by Alberto Campo Baeza. It is enormously massive and overbearing, composed of mostly concrete. The museum inside is very modern and interactive, with tvs hooked up to devices that resemble Microsoft’s Kinect for XBOX. We didn’t have much time because we had an appointment with architect and professor Antonio Gamiz Gordo, so we rushed through the exhibits.

Double spiraling walkways inside the center courtyard, which were closed of course due to the weather.

We climbed the concrete tower (which is a library, or at least just on the floor we stepped out onto):

After a short lunch break, we walked over to Casa del Chapiz, a combination of 2 Arab mansions built in the 16th Century. It is said to be a prime example of Moorish architecture and is covered by mudejar motifs throughout the property. It is currently the location of the School of Arabic studies and contains an extensive library on Islamic Architecture.

After the tour of Casa del Chapiz, Antonio Gamiz Gordo gave a lecture on his research and analysis of historical buildings in Andalucia. Unfortunately, very few of us understood his lecture, so it was supplemented by English translations every several sentences. The presentation was pretty interesting, but difficult to stay attentive due to the language barrier. We returned to the hotel room, where Ian and Michael taught me how to play the card game Rummy (which we proceeded to play every waking hour we had free for the rest of the trip in southern Spain..I got pretty good).

Granada is a gorgeous old city, and I highly recommend visiting there. I was told there was a rather large Jewish community there before it was destroyed. After the exile of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, many of them settled in Granada. They prospered under the Ummayad caliphate from 755-1013. Samuel HaNagid, a Jewish refugee from Cordoba became the King’s vizier in Granada, and the city became an important center for Jewish learning and culture. After his death in 1055, however, Jewry in Granada took a twist turn. His son, Joseph, lacked his fathers humility, and alienated the ruling Berbers. On one Shabbat in 1066, his palace was stormed and he was murdered by crucification. The entire Jewish community came under a riotous siege, which resulted in 4,000 deaths. The community quickly recovered but fell again in 1090, and under the Almohads regime from 1148-1212, during which only those who converted to Christianity were permitted to stay in Granada. Jews returned to the city under the Naserite dynasty from 1232-1492, but the saga concluded when, on March 31, 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella signed the edict of expulsion in the “City of the Jews.” (Read more here http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Granada.html). That’s why I was surprised to see a relatively fair amount of Jewish Jewelry in the city.

The next morning, we set out to the train station by cabs to catch our ride to Cordoba. Unfortunately we only spent 1 night there, so we had to pack in a lot of attractions in a little over 24 hours.