"Tales of the Alhambra"

My apologies for missing a couple days of posting, it was just way to late when I got in last night to tell you about the rest of my weekend. This is a picture of a small portion of the Alhambra, i took this photo from the highest point in the castle. The actual grounds of the entire Alhambra stretch to the top of the closest mountain behind the castle walls in the photo.

Monday morning bright and early; myself, Rolando and Mubera all headed out to Granada to visit the Alhambra. I didn't know anything about the place other than there were three palaces, a castle, and a bunch of gardens and reflecting pools. It has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The Alhambra was at one time was like a city within a city. There is a little U.S. history attached to the site as well. As we were driving up to the place, I started seeing things named after Washington Irving, such as the Washington Irving resturante'...etc, I think we might have even passed the Washington Irving laundromat; I'm not really sure! Anyway, it became apparent that Washington Irving had some significance in the area. Come to find out, Washington Irving was a U.S. Diplomat and back in 1829 he decided to travel from Seville to Granada to visit the Alhambra. He lived in the Alhambra for quite some time and wrote a book entitled "Tales of the Alhambra"

When you first enter the grounds, you step into a beautiful garden full of roses and lavender and you are surrounded by huge evergreen hedges that are perfectly manicured. As you walk through the garden you continually find little fountains and vineyards scattered throughout the area. Once in a while you catch a glimpse of a building as you make your way through acres of gardens, and then suddenly you arrive at the first of three palaces. The palace of General life is where many of the lower ranking people lived. These people were not peasants by any means they just weren't worthy to live with the nobles, basically. When you finish touring the palace, you make your way to the second palace, which is the Palace of Carlos V. This palace is nice but I must mention that not one of the palaces are what you may have pictured in your head. It's not the palace at Disney World. These palaces are more like several rooms connected by gardens and pools, in fact, much of the interior of the palace is actually outdoors. The third palace is the Palace of the Nazaries (Palacios Nazaries) I imagine that this is where the elite lived. I don't know the entire history of the Alhambra so I can't say for sure, but this was definitely the nicest of all the palaces. Very ornate carving and architecture surrounds you from the second you step foot through the door. It easily takes an hour and a half to walk through this palace and see everything.

The last of the Moorish architecture and influence is the castle that protects the gardens and the three palaces. If you were the enemy at the bottom of the mountain, you would first encounter the castle and the outposts that surround the entire Alhambra. If you were strong enough to enter the castle, you would first encounter the palace of Carlos V then the Palace of the Nazaries, and finally the General life Palace. Hopefully that puts it in perspective a little bit for you? I should have mentioned at the first that the Alhambra sits atop a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, so it's pretty high up.

The Moors originally inhabited southern Spain until the Romans conquered the area. There is an interesting mix of Muslim and Christian architecture. In the middle of the Alhambra amidst all the Moorish influence, there is a huge square building that is obviously not of the same era. Once you step inside, it confirms that it is truly from the Roman empire because there is a small Colosseum inside the building.

So, seeing the Alhambra in person was a once in a lifetime experience for me. It was so interesting to see. I tried to picture what it must have been like to live there when it was a busy place, full of life and people, it must have been something!

The trip back to the base was quite eventful. We were coming out of the mountains and suddenly we see flashing lights everywhere and a police officer stops us and won't let us go any further. Luckily Rolando speaks fluent Spanish and he asked what was going on. An 18 wheeler had overturned and the highway was shutdown. We sat on the side of the road for about 25 minutes and then the officer told us we were going to have to turn around and take an alternate route. You haven't lived until you've seen hundreds of cars trying to turn around on the interstate. Spainish people drive terrible anyway, constantly laying on the horn and driving like idiots so you can imagine the chaos! We finally traveled about a mile back down the wrong side of the interstate and found a road. Luckily, Shane Whitford had loaned me his GPS for the trip and we were able to recalculate and get home without too much extra difficulty. I gotta get one of those little gadgets, they are so cool! Needless to say, we were anticipating getting home around midnight and instead I got to my room at 2:00 A.M. Today was a little rough at work but a power nap after work got me through the Tops in Blue performance tonight.

Tops in Blue was great! These are airman from all different career fields, some officer, some enlisted, and they try out and if selected, they take a one year tour to perform 90 shows for the troops. They did a great job performing songs from several Disney movies, Rocky, Hairspray, Men in Black, as well as a little variety from all genres of music.

Overall, it was a great 3 day weekend, touring Spain.

Since I missed a day of Signs of Life, I'll give you two days so we can get caught up.

Life Sign, Day 12: The needs of others are as important as my own.

Life in Action, Day 12: What can I do to change my focus from self to others?

Life Sign, Day 13: I am a walking, living, advertisement for the Lord!

Life in Action, Day 13: What fuels me? What can I do to ensure that my power comes from God and not another source?