Day 3: Alhambra

(Severely long blog post ahead.  Make yourself comfortable before commencing.)

We knew we would have an early morning, and didn't want to have to get up even earlier to head to the dining room, so we ordered room service to be delivered.  (Awesomeness of cruising #217: You can order room service for free.)  

Weeks and weeks before we left Marseille, thecamelridingcowgirl looked up on the cruise website to find out what the excursions would be.  She was beyond delighted to discover that while we were in Malaga, there would be an excursion to Granada, Spain to see the Alhambra, something she'd dreamed of seeing since the 3rd grade.  I'll admit: I'd never heard of it before she mentioned it.  But since I'd already been to Malaga before, and I'd never seen her so excited to see something, I was more than happy to trust her decision to sign us up for it.  It was a good thing she signed us up early: it was entirely booked full before we ever even got on the BWB!  And understandably...it was quite the excursion!

Granada is about a two hour drive through the Spanish hills from Malaga, so we set out early on our bus to have time to get there, tour the palace, and get back to the BWB.  Forgive me for the lousy quality photos, but I tried to be a good tourist and thus took photos through the window of the bus.  The countryside was pretty enough, but when you added in the awesome awesome fogs and clouds, I just was in awe the entire ride.

 Olive trees and vineyards and mountains and the splendor of God's creation.

 I was so digging these clouds!!!  I noticed the windmills in the distance.

 So I zoomed in.  Windmills will always make me think of thecamelridingcowgirl singing songs from Man of La Mancha.  Seems appropriate background music, since we were in Spain, don't you think?

 We finally arrived and began our tour of the Moorish palace, the Alhambra.  Washington Irving did a much better job of describing it than I ever can, so I'm just going to go ahead and quote him a bunch here.  "To the traveler imbued with a feeling for the historical and poetical, so inseparably intertwined in the annals of romantic Spain, the Alhambra is as much an object of devotion as is the Caaba to all true Moslems.  How many legends and traditions, true and fabulous; how many songs and ballads, Arabian and Spanish, of love and war and chivalry, are associated with this oriental pile!  It was the royal abode of the Moorish kings, where, surrounded with the splendors and refinements of Asiatic luxury, they held dominion over what they vaunted as a terrestrial paradise, and made their last stand for empire in Spain.  The royal palace forms but a part of a fortress, the walls of which, studded with towers, stretch irregularly round the whole crest of a hill, a spur of the Sierra Nevada or Snowy Mountains, and overlook the city; externally it is a rude congregation of towers and battlements, with no regularity of plan nor grace of architecture, and giving little promise of the grace and beauty which prevail within."  (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

After walking about a half a mile along the outer wall of the city/fortress, we finally approached the entry.  I peaked through this gate at the bailey (a space between two defense walls that adds even further defense, something I learned at Carcassone).

 Inside the city, which is famed for being a Moorish fortress/palace, there is a Catholic church.  The tour guide explained that when the Moors (Arabs from North Africa) ruled the Iberian peninsula (711-1492), they built Alhambra.  During the Reconquinista (the Reconquering of the Iberian peninsula), Ferdinand and Isabella took over Alhambra (and Columbus actually visited there before sailing the ocean blue).  The church was built, and the other palace that I didn't take any photos of.  (Bad tourist syndrome: didn't take photos nor remember the details from the tour guide.  Sorry.

 "In the time of the Moors, the fortress was capable of containing within its outward precincts an army of forty thousand men, and served occasionally as a strong-hold of the sovereigns against their rebellious subjects.  After the kingdom had passed into the hands of the Christians, the Alhambra continued to be a royal demesne, and was occasionally inhabited by the Castilian monarchs."(Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

"The emperor Charles V commenced a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes.  The last royal residents were Philip V and his beautiful queen, Elizabetta of Parma, early in the eighteenth century.  Great preparations were made for their reception.  The palace and gardens were placed in a state of repair, and a new suite of apartments erected, and decorated by artists brought in from Italy." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)  The emperor's palace was never finished...including the roof never being added!  The outside of this building was perfectly square, and the inner section where we were standing was perfectly circular!  There was molding for where artwork was supposed to be added, and other things you could see from how it had not yet been finished...and yet it was spectacular as it was.

 Eventually, Napoleon worked his way west, and as a major blow to history...destroyed much of the gardens and some of the buildings of the Alahambra.  Don't ask me why.

Heading through the main gate.  "The great vestibule, or porch of the gate, is formed by an immense Arabian arch, of the horseshoe form, which springs to half the height of the tower.  On the keystone of this arch is engraven a gigantic hand.  Within the vestibule, on the keystone of the portal, is sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic key.  Those who pretend to some knowledge of Mohammedan symbols, affirm that the hand is the emblem of doctrine... The key, say they, is the emblem of the faith or of power... The key we are told was emblazoned on the standard of the Moslems in opposition to the Christian emblem of the cross, when they subdued Spain..."(Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

"A different explanation of these emblems, however, was given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, and one more in unison with the notions of the common people, who attach something of mystery and magic to every thing Moorish, and have all kind of superstitions connected with this old Moslem fortress.  According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down from the oldest inhabitants, and which he had from his father and grandfather, that the hand and key were magical devices on which the fate of the Alhambra depended.  The Moorish king who built it was a great magician, or, as some believed, that he had sold himself to the devil, and had laid the whole fortress under a magic spell.  By this means it had remained standing for several hundred years, in defiance to storms and earthquakes, while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin, and disappeared.  This spell, the tradition went on to say, would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would be revealed." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

I wish I would have read those two passages above before I went to the Alhambra, because it would have been fun to look for the Hand and Key.  Oh well.  I did fall in love with this lovely door.  Everything about the Alhambra was so intricate, I could have taken pictures all the livelong day.  In this one below, you can see some of the blue paint that still (barely) remains.  Before, it was all painted as lively as the tiles in the photo above.

The tour guide explained how the carvings were done, and even Irving talks about it in his book...but I still can't remember all the details.  I think: molds are made for certain tiles, and then after that is finished, it is overlain with a type of plaster, and the design is carved into that.  Then the tiles are pieced together.  That's close enough to correct.

We were led into a room called The Hall of Ambassadors.  Here's Irving's description again, because maybe, between him and my photos, you might get a small glimpse of how awesome it was.  "I was suddenly dazzled by emerging into the brilliant antechamber of the Hall of Ambassadors... [It] is separated from the court by an elegant gallery, supported by slender columns... At each end of the antechamber are alcoves, and its ceiling is richly stuccoed and painted.  Passing through a magnificent portal I found myself in the far-famed Hall of Ambassadors, the audience chamber of the Moslem monarchs... The walls are beautifully stuccoed and decorated with Morisco fancifulness; the lofty ceiling was originally of the same favorite material, with the usual frostwork and pensile ornaments or stalactites; which, with the embellishments of vivid coloring and gilding, must have been gorgeous in the extreme. [It reminds] one of those ceilings of cedar and vermilion that we read of in the prophets and the Arabian nights." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)  None of my photos of the ceiling would come out, but in the photo below you can see the windows near the ceiling and the carved walls below them.

"The royal throne was placed opposite the entrance in a recess... Everything in this noble hall seems to have been calculated to surround the throne with impressive dignity and splendor; there was none of the elegant voluptuousness which reigns in other parts of the palace." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)  The tour guide explained that when ambassadors would enter the room, the reigning monarch would be silhouetted by the light behind him on this throne, so that none of them could see his face.  The room would have been covered in Arabic carpets and pillows, with incense burning that would fill the room with an other-worldly smell and aura.

The room was so dark it was hard to get a good picture that showed the intricate detail work on all the walls.  This next picture is with the flash on, but that's not really how it looked in person.

This was the same spot with the flash off, which was more how it looked.

Somewhere near the Hall of Ambassadors (which is located under the tower pictured below) is the Court of the Alberca.  "We found ourselves in a vast patio or court...paved with white marble, and decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles, one of which supported an elegant gallery of fretted architecture.  Along the moldings of the cornices and on various parts of the walls were escutcheons and ciphers, and cufic and Arabic characters in high relief, repeating the pious mottoes of the Moslem monarchs, the builders of the Alhambra, or extolling their grandeur and munificence.  Along the centre of the court extended an immense basin or tank... a hundred and twenty-four feet in length, twenty-seven in breadth, and five in depth, receiving its water from two marble vases.  Hence it is called the Court of the Alberca (from al Beerkah, the Arabic for a pond or tank).  Great numbers of goldfish were to be seen gleaming through the waters of the basin, and it was bordered by hedges of roses." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

"Passing from the Court of the Alberca under a Moorish archway, we entered the renowned Court of Lions.  No part of the edifice gives a more complete idea of its original beautity than this, for none has suffered so little from the ravages of time.  In the centre stands the fountain famous in song and story.  the alabaster basins still shed their diamond drops; the twelve lions which support them, and give the court its name, still cast forth crystal streams as in the days of Boabdil..." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

"The lions, however, are unworthy of their fame, being of miserable sculpture, the work probably of some Christian captive.  The court is laid out in flowerbeds, instead of its ancient and appropriate pavement of tiles or marble; the alteration, an instance of bad taste, was made by the French when in possession of Granada.  Round the four sides of the court are light Arabian arcades of open filigree work supported by slender pillars of white marble... The artchitecture, like that in most parts of the interior of the palace, is characterized by elegance, rather than grandeur, bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to indolent enjoyment." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

"When one looks upon the fairy traces of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet, though no less baneful, pilferings of the tasteful traveler; it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition that the whole is protected by a magic charm." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

"Those only who have sojourned in the ardent climates of the South, can appreciate the delights of an abode, combining the breezy coolness of the mountain with the freshness and verdure of the valley.  While the city below pants with the noontide heat, and the parched Vega trembles to the eye, the delicate airs from the Sierra Nevada  play through these lofty halls, bringing with them the sweetness of the surrounding gardens.  Every thing invites to that indolent repose, the bliss of southern climes; and while the half-shut eye looks out from shaded balconies upon the glittering landscape, the ear is lulled by the rustling of groves, and the murmur of running streams." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

I liked this star-shaped tower that we walked past.

This man gave a demonstration of how they make the wood inlay.  It was fascinating...and expensive.

A walk through the gardens.  Later, in another post, I will tell a story about a weird moment that happened right at this spot...and came up later on the boat.  Stay tuned!

"For myself, being in a manner a haphazard loiterer about the world and prone to linger in its pleasant places, here have I been suffering day by day to steal away unheeded, spellbound, for aught I know, in this old enchanted pile.  Having always a companionable feeling for my reader, and being prone to live with him on confidential terms, I shall make it a point to communicate to him my reveries and researches during this state of delicious thraldom.  If they have the power of imparting to his imagination any of the witching charms of the place, he will not repine at lingering with me in the legendary halls of the Alhambra." (Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving, chapter "Palace of the Alhambra," Kindle edition.)

After all those moments of wondrous delight, we scurried back to the bus, without any time to souvenir shop, and headed back towards the port.  Once on board, I headed straight to what would become my favorite hang-out spot: the Schooner Bar.  Not because of the bar part, but because it was where they held the Trivia sessions.  This first one was Tri-bond trivia, and I did pretty well at it: I won a highlighter!  I was looking forward to the music trivia that night.  But more on that in another post...this one is long enough!