Granada

     As part of our program travel to various parts of Spain, after attending a thorough lecture. Our first trip came only a week after our arrival -and before our real classes even began- and took us to the Southern areas of Andalucia and Granada. Spain consists of 17 autonomous regions, each which has a very distinct culture. Granada is infamous for being the last area that the Moors held, and that Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand had to retake before Spain was complete. Thus one finds a very strange mixture of European and Arab influences in the art and architecture of Granada. 
     Our most significant stop there was the Alhambra, a fort/palace resplendent with ancient art and years of history. (We also saw the church where Ferdinand and Isabel were buried, which was the most amazing part of Granada, but I forgot my camera and thus will not talk about it here) We saw it first at night while walking to dinner, where it sits peacefully in a grove of trees, watching over the city. 

     The next day, we took a tour to end all tours and were educated on the significance of every. single. inch. of the Alhambra.  The architecture of the whole thing was very thought out safety wise- here you can see that this building was designed so that an attacker could only view a certain number of windows at a time, and thus  would have a harder time laying siege on the building. 

     Everything in the Alhambra was handmade and hand carved, including huge wooden walls covered in the most intricate designs, only slightly weather-beaten. 

     The Arab influence in the Alhambra was quite obvious, and the water features were gorgeous. The Alhambra also offered the best view of the city, where the white buildings peek out of the surrounding vegetation. 

     The Alhambra also sported a series of exotic gardens that had almost as many fountains as it did plants, a welcome respite after an hours long walking tour.