The next stop along our wonderous journey was Granada. It was yet again a very different side of Spain, as it was once the home of the Moorish empire when the Moors had conquered Spain. This can be seen all over the city with it's tile covered buildings, key-shaped doorways, and at its best in the Alhambra.
The Alhambra was our first stop. We chose to see this Moorish palace (the only one left in Spain; it's existence today is remarkable since the catholic monarchy reclaimed Granada in their attempt to spread Catholicism and destroy everything non-catholic in the process) in the evening. It made the palace more majestic to see it at night, but also made our pictures less majestic. The intricacies of the moorish designs are apparent at every turn. Every doorway, ceiling and wall are adorned with molded/sculpted plaster or tiles in amazing geometric patterns or beautiful paint (although after many hundreds of years, the paint is pretty faded). One of many impressive attributes about the palace was the courtyard at the center of the palace, referred to as the "Court of Lions". The fountain at the center of the court is encircled by twelve lions (hence the name). It is said that the lions would once have operated as a clock with each lion spurting water for each hour. However, the christians disassembled the fountain after their conquering and the fountain never functioned again. Damn christians...
Inside the walls of the Alhambra (the name given to the entire structure which encloses the Moorish palace), there is another palace. The palace of Charles the 5th, last ruler of the Spanish Christian royalty to rule from Granada (the moorish palace wasn't good enough, apparently). What was truly neat about his palace was it's perfectly circular courtyard. When standing at the center, the acoustics were astounding, a simple whisper would be heard from the upper balconies.
We spent the next day wandering around the city of Granada enjoying the large promenades filled with shopping, the tributes to Christopher Columbus (Granada was the site of his proposal to Queen Isabel to finance his journey to discover 'India'), and the old moorish quarter referred to as the Albaicin. In the Albaicin, we enjoyed old and impressive architecture, a beautiful view of the entire city and surrounding mountains, and some interesting food. We found a small restaurant near a fountain in the Albaicin and ordered 'la barca' (the boat) which consisted of fried fish. However, this was not your typical fried fish, this 'boat' basically consisted of a bit of every fish or crustacean they could find. Stu was very skeptical to try octopus for the first time.
After Granada, we drove our awesome VW Polo (Ralph) to Alicante along the beautiful Mediterranean highway. Alicante is a smaller and more modern city than any that we had seen and boasted nothing but the finest paella (Alicante is in the province of Valencia, which is the home of paella) and beautiful beaches which was perfect for our small stop along the way to Barcelona. We found a nice hotel right on the beach with a restaurant that specialized in paella and did nothing but enjoy the hotel, wine, paella, and beach. All of which were fantastic!
The beach was especially fantastic, and it will forever hold a special place in our memories. After our wonderful paella dinner, we made our way out onto the beach. We felt like taking in some fresh ocean air and going for a bit of a stroll. Not too far down the beach, we found a nice little outcropping, which looked ideal for a place to sit and dangle our legs above the Mediterranean. So we headed out onto the rock. I was trying to decide where to sit, so I turned to ask Stu what he thought, and to my surprise he was on a knee and holding a ring. He proposed then and there in the most romantic way. I said yes (of course), and we are now engaged!
Hasta la proximá vez,
Kathlene and Stu
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