Give Me Some Moor¨ish¨

For those of you keeping tabs, the place where Isabella and Ferdinand (with the help of one Spanish army) pushed back the Muslim people creating one united Spanish country was at Granada, not Toledo. So all of you making a big deal in regards to that error can rest easy knowing that we know we made a mistake.

Today started early. Kristen and I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and left the hotel by 7:00 for a short metro ride to the train station and a train ride to Granada. Luckily, because Madrilenos party hard and sleep late, the metro was calm for our dash across Madrid. Let´s just say that carrying two large bags and two carry-ons up and down flights of stairs in the metro is not fun and you hope that you have a clear path so as not to annoy anyone and not be annoyed by anyone. Couple that with the fact that my baby is having a baby and I got double bag duty. Kathy, I have a new nickname for your red monster, THE HERNIA! But, we made the train station and boarded our long awaited 4.5 hour train ride to Granada. Funny thing about trains in Spain, they have boarding and schedules down to an exact science. Not like Italy, where 5 minutes before your train leaves you could be changing platforms, but very efficient. Considering their relaxed atmosphere and long breaks, we both found this to be extremely un-Spanish like but very welcomed.

Kristen and I used our time wisely, catching up on our lack of sleep (Kristen snoring, me drooling) most of the way to Granada. I even watched the in-route movie in Spanish...of course I am terrible with the language so I watched with no sound, made up the story and relayed it to Kristen. I am sure that my version of The Illusionist is way better than the movie itself.

Arriving in Granada, we hopped a cab headed for our hotel. What a great place! The only drawback being that it is on the most dangerous street in the entire world. Hardly wide enough for one car much less buses and pedestrians on both sides. Did I forget to mention that one side is up against the front doors of a building and the other a small wall with a deep ravine. The view is excellent, but the road...treacherous...After refreshing, we wandered the streets of Granada, even making time to stop to see the 2nd largest cathedral in Spain. The cathedral in Granada is in the renaissance style and leaves much to be desired, but it is gigantic. Unfortunately, that's about it. The most interesting thing is that Ferdinand and Isabella are buried on the premises. For those who don´t remember them, they commissioned Chris Columbus to find the new world. Pretty awesome!

After a quick tour we made our way to the main attraction in Granada, The Alhambra. Don´t feel bad if you don´t know what I am talking about, Kristen and I had no idea before planning this trip. Turns out, it ended up being one of our favorite spots. Granada is actually the location where Isabella agreed to send old Chris Columbus into the sunset. We actually went in the room where this happened and re-enacted the scene. Blake was Chris... right... but before all that happened, it was a Moorish masterpiece. Ferdinand conquered the Moorish king (Bilbao... I just love his name).

At the top of Granada is an enormous palace. Now most palaces we´ve seen have been kind of stuffy, full of old dusty carpets and pictures of dead kings. THIS was very different. The whole compound was made up of about five buildings and many of the most beautiful gardens I´ve ever seen.

The old fort or Alcazaba (say it dramatically in a whisper it´s REALLY fun) is basically the ruins of the first fort built on the land. Blake got to climb, so he was really happy.

All the way up at the top you got to see these sweeping views of the city and the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains (Yeah, I never realized they were in Spain either... F for me in geography).

The main palace was full of intricately pressed designs into the stucco. The Koran forbids any human or animal images as decorations, so it is all intricate designs and pattern work. Imagine it all painted in bright blue, red, gold, and green.

The other magical feature of the place is that water is seen as a view of paradise in the Moorish culture, so water is EVERYWHERE. There are tiny fountains, waterfalls, elaborate water gardens, and dripping springs. Even inside the most remote parts of the castle you can hear water running.

The other sound is birds chirping from the gardens. The whole effect is so calming and peaceful. I could definitely imagine me in my long flowing princess dress, frolicking through the gardens, my servant feeding me grapes. In fact, Blake and I decided to just go ahead and buy the whole place. It´s an Alhambra Christmas this year everyone. Instead of yapping on more, we´ll just post some pictures. It was BEAUTIFUL!

So our new palace is lit up really well at night and the cool thing to do is eat in the light of the Alhambra.

Very romantic. We did just that, and had a wonderful meal before calling it a night. We wish we had a few more hours to spend here, we missed out on a few things. Guess it´s always better to leave wanting more.

Tomorrow, pray for Blake´s standard driving skills as he takes on the Sierra Nevadas in a standard. We're off to Ronda!