One day, I am not sure which day as it has taken me so long to write my blogs, we went to the Real Alcazar de Sevilla, or Alcazares Reales de Sevilla. It is basically a royal palace that is actually still in use today. If the royal family comes south to Sevilla, they will stay at the Real Alcazar.
It is an amazing palace complete with amazing gardens. The gardens are like the ones you see in movies. They are so intricate and beautiful. Again I would recommend checking out the pictures I have posted online. I will post more of the gardens on my Facebook. I lack the vocabulary in order to describe that amount of vegetation in such a beautiful manner.
On Friday, not yesterday, we went to Granada. We woke up early and took a bus which took at least a few hours. I don’t remember exactly how long it took, as I fell asleep many times.
Once we arrived, we were dropped off just outside the town center. We then walked five or ten minutes to the Cathedral of Granada. The cathedral was not as amazing as the cathedral in Sevilla, but it was certainly breathtaking.
Instead of the dark, gray, stone structure from the inside, it was all painted white. There was a substantial amount of gold throughout the cathedral. There were gold sculptures and relics of sorts which were very cool to see, but the gold flake paint was pretty mesmerizing. At first I assumed that there was way too much of it to be real golden paint, but it was in fact all gold. The gold and the white stones and wood look very nice together.
We also got the chance to see the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabela. It goes underground and you can literally see their caskets through a large glass window. Quick history lesson. The Royal Duo won Spain back from the Moorish, or Muslim, rule which lasted from the 8th-15th century. They were involved with the Spanish Inquisition as well. So to be blunt, they are very prominent figures in Spain.
It wasn’t necessarily surreal to be there, but it certainly created ‘a moment’ when we were in there. That’s the thing about Spain: there are so many breathtaking structures or pieces of art that you just have to really sit back and reflect on the experience and imagine how much work and time was put into each of these masterpieces or amazing structures. I have had so many of these moments while I have been in Spain.
One of those moments occurred shortly after our visit to the Cathedral in Granada. We took our bus to the AlHambra.
The AlHambra is an amazing large palace, which I posted many pictures of. There are actually 3 palaces, and it used to be basically its’ own city as it was very self sufficient. The AlHambra is significant because it was the last Muslim palace to be taken over when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela took over Spain. It was such a terrible loss for the Muslims, as they would be now forced out of Spain. It is said that the mother of Boabdil, the last Muslim ruler in Spain, said to him, “Don’t weep like a woman, for what you could not hold onto as a man” referring to losing Granada to the Christians. As you can see, it was a total blow to the Muslim population in Spain at that time.
It was built by the Muslims and was a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in harmony for literally hundreds of years. The palaces are ridiculously detailed. Every single part of every wall has some kind of oscillating design, carvings, script, or some other mind blowing designs. I truly cannot explain how intense it was to walk into each room. The pictures, again, do no justice.
It was the most moving place I have ever been to. At first I thought the Cathedral in Sevilla was the most amazing place, but it changed when I went to the AlHambra. However, the Cathedral in Sevilla is still a very close second, but the AlHambra took the prize with all of the detail and such.
There were beautiful views off into the mountains where white houses are built into the side of said mountains. It was like those pictures people show you, and the mentality you get when you think ‘Europe.’
We were in the room where Christopher Columbus first asked Queen Isabela for funding to sail to the Americas. That room was the most moving room I have ever been in, and not because of that little piece of history. The detail everywhere was incredible. The expression “7th Heaven” literally comes from the ceiling in this same room. I would love to share the reason for this with y’all, but I forgot. It’s a shame. It’s because I waited so long to write in my blog, I apologize.
Anyway, I recommend the Wikipedia article on the AlHambra if you want to learn more about it. I Just wish I could share the sights we saw with y’all.
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