Granada

Today was another glorious day. Blue skies and sunshine and much warmer than we expected. Our planning meeting with Paul and Chris over coffee this morning finalised the details for the next few days; we are setting off to Algeciras on Monday to buy our ferry tickets to Morocco and do our final "big shop" at Lidl and hoping to travel over on an early ferry on Tuesday. First stop Moulay Bousselham, then Sale, Oulidia and Essaouira. Only another three days and we'll be in North Africa!

This afternoon Phil and I caught the bus to Grenada. Yesterday the Alhambra took up all of our day but there was more we wanted to see so today we first visited the Cathedral which was breathtaking in it's scale. Everything is super large from the pillars to the height to the length, it's just massive. There are two enormous pipe organs, two ornate pulpits and the sacristy is bigger than some churches we have visited. This door must be fifty feet high, that's Phil standing just to the right to give you an idea of the scale.

My photos today weren't the best but here are a few more,

Despite the grandeur, ornate decoration and sheer scale of the building it felt more like an architectural statement and expression of wealth and power than a place of worship but I guess it kept a few folk in work during the two hundred or so years it took to build. Afterwards we visited the adjacent Capilla Real, another fantastically ornate chapel and mausoleum wherein lie the remains of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand in simple lead coffins in a crypt beneath marble monuments above. All quite outstanding and more so considering it is over five hundred years old. We emerged cold, I can't imagine these buildings ever get warm, even in the height of summer. Massive stone walls, ceramic floors and marble, marble everywhere, chilly. A stroll through the artisans quarter, mostly full of tourist tatt shops and we stopped for a beer before stumbling across the Iglesias del Perpetuo Socorro and the Basilica de San Juan de Dios which really capped off a great day.

I mentioned yesterday the stunning views on the bus ride to Granada from our campsite. As the bus winds down the surrounding hills the city opens up and I've only ever seen similar views from an aeroplane when landing in big cities. Tonight as we left it was dark and a million twinkling lights bade us farewell but not goodbye. We loved Granada and we only scratched the surface in two days so we've promised to return and spend longer here. We had wanted to visit the Albaicin, Granada's old Muslim quarter but just ran out of time, we'd go tomorrow but there are no buses from here on a Sunday and taking the Motorhome isn't really an option and we have plenty of last minute jobs to do tomorrow, not least trying to FaceTime our children and grandchildren before we leave Spain on Tuesday.

For those of you waiting for news - I won't be joining the Granadian ukulele orchestra just yet, sorry.

,

 

Posted with Blogsy