Irish culture, history and countryside.

Visiting friends and family and experiencing the English cultural landscape.

Family time and a wonderful introduction to a fascinating place.

Sunshine, warmth, beaches, ancient and recent history, Greek cuisine….

A beautiful destination but threatened by tourism and climate change.

Lindos – pictures

Rhodes town

Our main objective of visiting Barcelona was to see, again, the Sagrada Familia but we had a couple of days to spare before the days of our tickets, booked months ago.

After changing our place to stay so that we were away from the very busy downtown, we wandered along the beach, and ate a wonderful pescatarian meal overlooking the sea side. Dodging the crowds on Las Ramblas we visited the Palau Guell one of Gaudi’s commissions. It is remarkable how he was able to use so many materials, forms and design elements but we wondered what it would have been like to live in one of his creations even though he did pay attention to details to enhance cooling and ventilation.

Likewise the Casa Batllo which has a nautical theme throughout: beautiful its own way but perhaps not entirely practical.

Paul had previously visited the Sagrada Familia in 2002 and we had both been there with Chris in 2007.
The building is now nearing completion and although the exterior is remarkable with three facades depicting the Nativity (the only one completed when Gaudi was alive) the Passion and the Gloria, the interior now feels whole. The columns of different stones and different colours soar towards the roof and it feels like being in a natural environment- truly Gaudi. The experience was enhanced by an audioguide with a virtual tour of parts that are not visible from below. There are no side chapels which means that the light from the stained glass windows flows in unimpeded. The colours of the windows are different on the east and west sides to complement the morning and afternoon light.
The outside entrances (facades) are each topped by four spires with sculptures of plant life. The building is then topped by six towers representing the four apostles, Mary with a star and the final and tallest one will be for Jesus. The exterior is very biblical while the inside is natural. The plans for the Gloria facade include a flight of steps that would require the clearance of three blocks of buildings to complete. Meanwhile it remains unfinished outside.

Granada is a bustling city but is was easy to find peace and quiet inside the narrow steep alleyways of the old town. There we were very fortunate to find the an apartment which afforded us a wonderful view of the Alhambra from its terrace. We discovered that the building was constructed around a tower in the old wall of the original City which predated the fortress and palaces.

Granada is probably the most beautiful and haunting of all Spanish cities; an African paradise set under the Sierras like a rose preserved in snow. Here the art of the nomad Arab, bred in the raw heat of deserts, reached a cool and miraculous perfection. For here, on the scented hills above the green gorge of the Darro, he found at last those phantoms of desire long sought for in mirage and wilderness – snow, water, trees and nightingales. So on these slopes he carved his palaces, shaping them like tents on slender marble poles and hanging the ceilings with decorations like icicles and the walls with mosaics rich as Bokhara rugs. And here, among the closed courts of orange trees and fountains, steeped in the languors of poetry and intrigue, he achieved for a while a short sweet heaven before the austere swords of the Catholic Kings drove him back to Africa and to oblivion.

A Rose For Winter. Laurie Lee

Every day we descended from our apartment to the Calle del Darro and coffee (Oteiza Coffee – Brazilian (9.3).

Highlights of Granada before we visited the Alhambra Palace:
The 11th-century Moorish public bath complex with sun shining into its vaulted brick rooms through octagonal and star-shaped sky lights.

In the Museo Arqueológico. was saw a rare astrolabe. Apparently there are only forty still in existence in the entire world, only nine of those are Muslim instruments. This is the only known specimen specifically for the latitude of Granada and would have allowed Muslims to know accurately times of prayer, the start of Ramadan and the direction of Mecca.

On the first evening we walked up into the old neighbourhood of Albaicin and after dinner at the Restaurant Aixa in the main square wandered to the Mirador San Nicolás. This lookout was busy for very good reason as the views of the Alhambra and the snow capped Sierra Nevada behind were spectacular. We noticed a group of Korean tourists and were told that as a result of a TV show based in Granada with two famous Korean actors the city has become a favoured destination.

On another day we visited the Palacio de Dar-al-Horra, a 15th-century Nasarid palace, with well preserved patios and arches from which we could see portions of the remaining original city walls.

The Catedral de Granada Adam which was built atop Granada’s former mosque between 1521 and 1704, was not inspiring apart from the unusual wooden busts of Adam and Eve by Granadino Alonso Cano above the altar. On the facade is an inscription honouring Primo de Rivera, the founder of the fascist Falange, added when Franco had Granada under his control.

Adjoining the cathedral, the Gothic Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) is where Spain’s Catholic Monarchs) Isabel I (1451–1504) and Fernando II (1452–1516), who commissioned the building are buried. The interior building is gothic overload and exaggerated but interesting given the great influence of these royals. The tombs were desecrated by Napoleon’s troops in 1812, so are unlikely to contain royal remains. The monarchs are actually believed to be entombed in simple lead coffins in the crypt.

Opposite the Capilla Real, is the Madrasa Yusufia (Islamic college) founded in 1349 by Yusuf I and is part of Granada University. The building still includes an original elaborate mihrab (prayer niche).

Undoubtedly the biggest draw for visitors to Granada is the Alhambra where we spent six enthralling hours .

This was the first time we had been into the Palace, and one’s immediate impression was surprise at its smallness. Here was none of the official bombast of Versailles and Blenheim, designed to impress by sheer weight of masonry. Instead a series of perfect little rooms, like tiny pavilions, draped themselves on slender pillars round courts of orange trees and water. Everything was open to the air, with fretted windows and pierced, arcaded walls framing green gardens and the distant hills.

A Rose For Winter. Laurie Lee

The 9th-century Alhambra was transformed during the 13th and 14th centuries by Granada’s Nasrid rulers into magnificent palaces. It is impossible to recount all of what we saw but here are some highlights.

The Palacio Nazaries is remarkable throughout with ornate Muslim architectural elements. At the centre of the Serallo, where sultans conducted negotiations with Christian emissaries, is the Patio de los Arrayanes, named after the myrtle hedges around its rectangular pool and surrounded by marble-columned arcades. In the Sala de los Reyes are three unusual ceiling paintings depicting everyday palace life, ten Nasrid Kings and fighting and hunting scenes. These were created at the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15thC during the reign of one of the Nasrid Kings but are apparently the work of Christian painters. We had not seen any depictions of people in a Muslim building before.

In contrast to the wonderful Nasrid palaces is the Palacio de Carlos V which is a solid uninviting block. The inside circular courtyard is somewhat impressive but was never used. Apparently the King spent most of his time travelling through (his) Holy Roman Empire.

The 13th century citadel occupies the Alhambra’s western tip. The Torre de la Vela is a bell tower erected after the take over by the Christian rulers in January 1492. Together with the lack of turrets It appears out of place with the rest of the structure of the old Alacazaba.

We wandered through the lovely the terraced gardens of the Jardines del Partal, replete with reflecting pool, on the way to the Generalife, the Nasrid rulers’ summer estate which takes its name from the Arabic for ‘overseer’s gardens’. The Patio de la Acequia features immaculately tended gardens and views of the Palacios Nazaríes; in the Patio de la Sultana, the trunk of a 700-year-old cypress tree marks the spot where Sultana Zoraya allegedly met with her lover Hamet. Nearby, the Escalera del Agua is remarkable with water channels running down the staircase’s stone balustrades. (For photos see next post)

In total contrast, to the Alhambra on the way back we asked our taxi driver to stop so that we could see street art by Raúl Ruiz aka El Niño.