Category: Andalucia 2019

Andalusia 2019 – Part 11 – Granada

The day after the Alhambra, on our last day in Andalusia we visited Granada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granada).

As you could see from the last photo in the last post, the Granada really does surround the Alhambra.

View of the Alhambra from Granada
Sadly not directly the bit you could see in that last photo but the thought was there

Granada was the fourth city we visited and the fourth completely different vibe.

Granada had a much wider range of building styles, and some really cool lampposts

Modernist lamppost, the fitting around the bulb is a square broken down into smaller shapes. It is both unusual looking and very cool.
I just think it’s cool
Corner of a pebble wall at the bottom of a hill of houses. There is some graffiti on the white wall to the left, and a green tree growing out of the join between the white wall and the pebble wall.

I also really liked the statue at the top of this building, but it loses something in isolation, so please find a full photo of the building plus a close up of the statue.

Yellow white multi-storey stone building, with the top window guarded by two angels and an eagle
Close up of yellow white stone angels and the eagle
Left and right are rows of shops. In the front of the photo are people walking along the street. At the back is an orange stone arch in mudejar style.

There was also a fascinating statue of Isabella the Catholic (unfortunately, I think of her as Isabella the Catholic. I am sure she actually has a regnal number and stuff).

Statue of Christopher Colombus kneeling in front of Isabella the Catholic. The plinth is an off white stone, the figures are in bronze. Isabella dress cascades down the front of the plinth in ripples.

I’ve never seen the ripple effect done by different colour material on such a large statue before.

More information on the statue, and that it helped cause a riot, here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_Isabella_the_Catholic_(Granada)

Their Catholic majesties (don’t look at me in that tone of voice) were pretty much the theme of the day as we spent most of our time in the Royal Chapel of Granada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Chapel_of_Granada) which contains the tombs of Isabella and Ferdinand, as well as Joanna of Castile and Philip the Handsome.

And some very cool artwork.

It is an understandably fancy building, in what I’ve been told is Isabelline style, a variant on late Gothic.

Carved triptych over a door. The two saints are probably Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist surrounding a Virgin and child. The roof behind it features lots of twisty gothicness.

Because they get everywhere, I also suspect this of being a Hapsburg eagle holding the coat of arms of Isabella and Ferdinand.

Decoration at the top of a door. It is the side of an eagle holding a shield. The design on the shield cannot quite be clearly seen.

We didn’t get to see the San Juan de Dios Hospital (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_de_Dios_Hospital_(Granada)), which was our tour guide’s favourite site in Granada (and may have been her favourite in all of Andalusia, Sharon being awesome that way), nor did we manage to have any tapas in the home of tapas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapas#Origin), but all in all, it was a very successful trip, and I would recommend a visit to Andalusia to everyone.

Andalusia 2019 – Part 10 – the Alhambra

The reason for our prompt departure from Antequera was that we had tickets to enter the Alhambra in the afternoon. Much like the Alcazar in Seville, it’s the sort of place where you stick to your slot.

It didn’t feel as busy, but I think that’s because it’s built over a much bigger area. A much, much bigger area. There’s a reason it’s described as the Alhambra complex in lots of books.

The Alhambra was the main reason we went on holiday to Spain. Mum had always wanted to go, and spurred on by her friend J’s wise words of advice to “just go for it,” I decided to take her.

It was totally worth it.

The route the guide took us in took us via the Palace of Charles V (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Charles_V), which was very impressive, even if it didn’t fit it with anything else.

Circular building, open to the sky, with regular pillars. Guide books describe it as renaissance-style.

We wandered through the Alhambra at quite a pace, so yes, this is also on the “to be revisited” list.

The Alhambra pays thanks to Washington Irving with a plaque.

Stone plaque dedicated to Washington Irving. It says "Washington Irving, escribo en estas habitaciones sus cuentos de la Alhambra en el ano de 1829." Which translates to something like "Washington Irving wrote his stories of the Alhambra here in the year 1829.
My terrible translation of this is “Washington Irving wrote his stories of the Alhambra here in the year 1829”.

We saw the Court of the Myrtles.

Fuller information about this courtyard can be found here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_the_Myrtles

Very mudejar-style building. There is a very plain tower in the background, the Comares tower. There are arches which separate the walkway around the courtyard from the courtyard. The stonework is intricately decorated. There are tiles on the wall to about midway, and the rest is white painted. There is a row of myrtle bushes in the foreground.

The plain tower in the background is the Comares tower, and those bushes are the titular myrtles.

We saw the Court of the Lions:

A fountain basin surrounded by stylised lions. The lions go all the way around, from this angle, you can see either of them. In the background are arches and a lot of tourists.
Meet some lions

For further information on the Court of the Lions, please see here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_the_Lions

The ceiling of the Sala de los Abencerrajes was possible the most intricate thing we saw all trip.

Elaborately carved ceiling, a proper description is immediately below, written by someone who knows what they are talking about

Borrowing the description from Wikipedia – “It is covered by an elaborate muqarnas vault ceiling, featuring a 16-sided lantern cupola in the shape of an eight-pointed star, possibly symbolizing the celestial heaven.”

My less technical take is “imagine beautiful inverted termite mounds”.

There is an even prettier ceiling in the Sala de Dos Hermanas, but I was particular taken by the interplay of the muqarnas ceilings and the stained glass in the Mirador.

The muqarnas ceiling, which, as I said, looks like the most beautiful inverted termite mounds, takes up the top third of the picture. They are white with blue highlights. The centre of the next third is the stained glass, which is red, blue, green and yellow with the expected black lead lining. The remainder of the photo is the white and blue detailed walls.

The rest of my photos are outdoor photos:

View of the Partal palace

Details of this palace – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partal_Palace

There are pine trees on both sides of the photo. In the front is a patio that leads out onto bushes. In the middle is a brown building. The right hand side is one storey, the left hand, two storeys. The front is mostly arches.

View over to the Generalife:

Details of this palace here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalife

We did get to walk over to the Generalife, and the view back helps show how big the whole Alhambra complex is.

The foreground is dominated by gardens, and particularly a pine tree about a third of the way in from the left. In the background is a white multi-storey building, which is the generalife.

View back from the Generalife:

View from the white building in the last picture over to the rest of the Alhambra complex. The brown towers of the buildings are interspersed by trees.

The Alhambra really is surrounded by Granada, as can be seen from this photo:

View over part of Grenada. The buildings are white walled and have orange tiled roofs.

And that was where we went the next day.

Andalusia 2019 – Part 9 – Antequera

The day after Cadiz, we spent the morning in Antequera, which is a delightfully named town which became even more evocative when the tour guide explained it was called that because it was old when the Romans came.

Local tourism board – https://antequera.co.uk/

Andalusian tourism board – https://www.andalucia.org/en/antequera

We arrived near the Tourist Office and walked along to one of the squares which had some pretty fountains:

Four water fountains, with the spouts coming out of faces. Behind them are three storey white buildings.
Bronze animal head that is also a fountain. It is probably supposed to be a lion, but might be a bear. The artist was trying, alright.

From there, we walked up the hill to the arch of the giants, created for Philip II of Spain.

Big stone arch. On the left hand side is some sort of fir/pine tree. The stone arch is as high as them. It is about 7 metres high.
They were not exaggerating when they called it the Arch of the Giants

Past the arch lies the Real Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor (https://www.andalucia.org/en/antequera-cultural-tourism-real-colegiata-de-santa-maria-la-mayor)

Very pointy renaissance church. There is a statue outside it and fir/pine trees on both sides.

I also managed to get probably my best photo technically of the trip, capturing the flag fluttering in the breeze.

White flag fluttering in the breeze against a blue sky with clouds. There is a heraldic lion in black on the flag.

From the top of the hill you could get a very nice view over the whole town.

A view down some steps. On the two sides are white painted houses with orange tiled roofs. In the centre of the stairs is a fir tree. In the distance is an orange stone church.
Photo over the top of more orange tiled houses. In the centre is another church, the top of bell tower is in a black stone

There is a distinctly large number of churches per square foot. According to the tourism board it has the highest churches per person in Spain, and I could believe it. In a panorama shot that didn’t quite come out, unfortunately, I managed to get 15 church spires in one shot.

Thick wooden church door with a niche above it. In the niche is a statue of the Virgin Mary.

I must admit my favourite bit of decoration was this graffiti.

White wall, with a very basic drawing of a planet with something orbiting it. Underneath is something that says something like Me siento astronauta pendida en los lunanes, which google translates as I feel like an astronaut hanging in the moon

The next photo is from the top of the hill too. In the distance, you can see a hill that looks like a man’s face coming out of the ground. The hill is called the Lover’s Rock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pe%C3%B1a_de_los_Enamorados) and has the exact star-crossed lover’s throwing themselves off of it stories you’d imagine.

A panorama of white walled houses with orange tiled roofs. At the front are the black metal rails of a balcony. In the distance is a mountain that looks like the face of a giant lying down.

We had a very nice lunch in the town square, and then on to our next destination.

Andalusia 2019 – Part 8 – Cadiz

Cadiz was a completely different vibe after Cordoba.

Partly it was the temperature difference. Cordoba was the other side of 30oC, while Cadiz, being on the coast, was a good 5-10 degrees cooler.

Seafront brick wall with old fashioned street lamps. This runs along the left of the photo. The top right is the sky and the bottom right is the sea.
The seafront of Cadiz

In Cordoba we had a walk through little twisty streets and looked at flowery courtyards. In Cadiz, we stayed pretty much along the main streets which were much broader.

On the other hand, they are not broad enough for tourist coaches when you’re sent on diversions. Coach driver earned every penny that day.

Multi-storey building. White fronted, there are four windows with no frames on each floor, with a balcony on either end of the floor. At the bottom are the tops of palm trees, and top there is a three-columned older style top with bronze winged victory on top. Towards the bottom of the building is a black sign saying Diario de Cadiz with a red line underneath.
Headquarters of the Diario de Cadiz

The Diario de Cadiz is a local newspaper. I just liked the building.

This is a view of the Plaza del la Cathedral and the new cathedral.

Front of a sort of mudejar-baroque mixture cathedral. The stone is in three bands, a white bottom, a more orange-y middle then a white top.
The “new” cathedral, built 1722-1838

Because my entire family are contrary, and it was on the the way to the Roman Amphitheatre, we looked in the old Cathedral instead.

It very much feels like a working church and was absolutely lovely and welcoming. I am therefore linking the following to encourage others to go to the Iglesia de Santa Cruz also (https://turismo.cadiz.es/es/rutas-y-visitas-en-cadiz/iglesia-de-santa-cruz-catedral-vieja , https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iglesia_de_Santa_Cruz_(C%C3%A1diz)).

Photo of the back of the old cathedral. In the centre is a white tower with an orange dome, which belongs to the new cathedral. On the left is a more pointy white tower, with a figure on the roof, belonging to the old cathedral. Not sure who the figure is supposed to be but it looks like a Roman soldier to me. On the right is another white tower, this time with a white dome, also belonging to the new cathedral. In the front are two brown walls. The one on the left looks like stone, the one on the right like brick. I
View of the back of the old cathedral. You can also see the new cathedral from here.

For those who don’t know, my Spanish is terrible. In my defence, I never studied it at school, so it’s me using a phrase book and some guessing. The other problem is that the Romance language I did study at school was French, so I start sentences with Spanish intentions but they descend into French with unfortunate speed.

So, when we got lost on the way to the amphitheatre, I was quite pleased I managed to make myself understood enough to get us to where we wanted to go.

View from the right hand side of the amphitheatre looking across. The tower you can see in the middle of the other wall is the tower of the old cathedral.
View down into the centre of the amphitheatre. The arches at the back have been reinforced with reddish metal.

For more information on the amphitheatre please see here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Theatre_(C%C3%A1diz)

https://www.andalucia.org/en/cadiz-visitas-roman-theatre-archaeological-site-in-cadiz

My fondness for Roman history meant that I wanted to visit, and it’s worth it (free entry). I have walked where Caesar watched. It still makes me quite giddy.

(Yes, before L says anything, my fondness for Roman archaeology has since caused much misery. I regret nothing.)

After lunch, we walked round a little more and found the Plaza de España and the monument to the Constitution of 1812. We didn’t have quite enough time to explore it thoroughly, so Cadiz is also on the “I want to go back” list.

White pillar with Cadiz written along the top. At the top are four figures holding up a book which I suspect is the 1812 constitution
Monument to the 1812 Constitution from a distance
Fuller view of the same pillar. You can now see the figures around the bottom. At the left is what looks like one man on a horse surrounded on the others. On the right, it looks like a king also on a horse. At the front is a naked man with fabric round him.
One side of the monument in more detail

A view of the other side of the monument:

This side says 1812 instead of Cadiz, and there is a female figure in a blue robe. Given her helmet and sword, I am presuming it is Minerva or Athena.

There’s lots of allegorical figures. Hopefully this link provides more information – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_Constitution_of_1812

With that it was back to the hotel in Seville for the last time.

Andalusia 2019 – Part 7 – Cordoba

There aren’t quite as many photos of Cordoba on my camera because in the process of going OTT on photos of the Alcazar in Seville, I filled up my memory card. This has since been solved by buying a much bigger memory card, but at the time, I had to try to quickly delete photos from the memory card I had to make space. It also means two of the photos came from my phone camera.

St. Raphael is Cordoba’s patron saint and protector (https://sientecordoba.com/en/st-raphaels-day/) so there are lots of statues of St. Raphael. My photo of one of them, which features a monster being speared by St. Raphael on side didn’t come out quite right, but you get the general idea.

A white stone statue of St. Raphael on top of a pillar. On the near side of a pillar a monster that looks like a dragon is climbing up.

Possibly the most famous site in Cordoba is the Mezquita (or Mosque-Cathedral, depending who is doing the translating) – https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/en/

On the left hand side is another very pretty building with regular towers. I think it is a more modern construction. On the right hand side is the golden stone of the outside of the Mezquita. It is very square with regular crenulations. On the outside, you can see what were the entrance of the mosque.

The doorway nearest the front of the photo may be the Bab al-Wuzara (“Viziers’ Gate”), now known as the Puerta de San Esteban. It is one of the oldest surviving gates of the mosque and dates from 855.

Balcony on the Mezquita. The decorations around the balcony are very mosque, the balcony is very Gothic church.

I’d read about it and I thought I understood. It was a mosque, and then after the reconquista they turned it into a church.

So I was expecting a mosque with church insides.

That is not what the Mezquita is like.

Imagine they’d listed the features you’d expect from a mosque and the features you’d expect in a church and written them on cards, then shuffled the cards and built according to the first half a deck drawn.

And I was mostly getting my head around that when I hit the Renaissance bit (https://mezquita-catedraldecordoba.es/en/descubre-el-monumento/el-edificio/capilla-mayor-crucero-y-coro/). Quite frankly, I thought I was having heat stroke.

Every part is beautiful, and the mixture is unique. I thoroughly recommend seeing it for yourself because the pictures do not convey the effect of the mixture. (The pictures in the Wikipedia page do give an excellent taster though – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque%E2%80%93Cathedral_of_C%C3%B3rdoba).

As part of the coach trip, we got a guided walking tour of Cordoba, which was very much worth it, and very recommended.

Because of the heat, many of the houses are built around courtyards, a concept introduced by Moors.
Every year there is a Courtyard Flower Festival (https://www.turismodecordoba.org/-en-1-1), which we were far too late for in September, but many of the owners kindly leave the shutters open so you can peek in and see the beautiful interiors. (This, according to the Alhambra tour, was also a style picked up from the Moors, plain outside, pretty inside.)

As I said, unfortunately, I ran out of memory card space, so please see a few highlights I was able to capture.

Door with a stencilled image of Mary
Red and white painted arches in a courtyard behind a church. At the top of the picture, two out of three church bells can be seen. They are also in arches. In the foreground are trees. One, on the right, is very small.
Two white-walled houses, with a few tree branches coming in the left hand side of the image. The house on the left has yellow window frames. Between the two houses you can see the top of the tower of the Mezquita.
More white walled houses. These have flower pots hanging outside along the wall. Again, the Mezquita can be seen in the gap between the houses.

Before the Expulsion of the Jews, Cordoba also had a sizable Jewish population. Only one synagogue survived from before the Expulsion, and it is now open as a museum.

Photo of the inside of the synagogue, it is also decorated in Mudejar style, like many of the local buildings.

For more information:

https://www.turismodecordoba.org/synagogue

https://www.juntadeandalucia.es/cultura/enclaves/enclave-monumental-sinagoga-de-cordoba

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B3rdoba_Synagogue

Maimonides is from Cordoba, and has a statue near the synagogue.

Metal statue of Maimonides. He is wearing a cloth cap and a robe. The metal is a dark brown, but there are golden glints where it is worn. This is particularly strong on the feet of Maimonides, the bottom edge of his beard and robe, and around the book he is holding.

(A better photo, or at least one without a crowd in front can be seen here – https://www.andalucia.org/en/cordoba-cultural-tourism-monumento-a-maimonides)

Nearby, there is also a bust of Muhammad ibn Aslam Al-Ghafiqi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Aslam_Al-Ghafiqi).

White stone bust on a grey-green stone plinth. Al-Ghafiqi is also wearing a cloth cap and a robe.

I had a great time in Cordoba.

Andalusia 2019 – Part 6 – Walk Around Seville

After the cathedral, we had a couple of hours to walk around Seville.

These are the highlights of that (plus one from between the Plaza de Espana and the Alcazar).

That one is this set of very nice pillars with a boat on.

White double pillar with a dark green boat statue three quarters of the way up

A view along the Guadalquivir.

View from one side of the Guadalquivir to the other. There are palm tress on this side, alongside cobblestones and a cyclist. There is a structure in the middle of the river and buildings on the other side.

Statue of King Juan Carlos’s mother

Statue of a woman on a horse. She is dressed very simply, and wearing a hat.

Not quite sure why she’s outside Seville’s bull ring, but there she is.

Statue of a matador

P1030458

Him, I know why he’s there. It is a statue of Curro Romero (more information here).

Of course, there is also a statue of She, The Woman, Carmen.

Statue of Carmen. She is wearing a long loose skirt and a corset with her hair down. The statue is in front of green trees.

(If I talk about Carmen and don’t share something from Carmen 1983, please assume I have been kidnapped.)

And since we’re outside the bullring, please also have this

We also looked round the outside of the Torre del Oro (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_del_Oro)

The Torre del Oro is called that because it is made of mortar, lime and pressed hay, and it projects a golden shine onto the river.

It’s is a three level tower. The first level is 12-sided and dates from 1220, under the Almohads.

The second layer, also 12 sided, is from the 14th century, under Peter of Castille.

The third circular layer is a replacement for the previous one which was destroyed during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

The Torro del Oro is a twelve sided tower, made of what looks like pale stone. There are trees around it, and a Spanish flag flapping in the breeze on top.
Photo of one side of the tower, looking up to the Spanish flag fluttering in the breeze.

With that, we said farewell to Seville.

Pinky white sign saying SEVILLE in capital letters at a roundabout with grass, fir trees and some flower bushes

Andalusia 2019 – Part 5 – Seville Cathedral

After the Alcazar, we went on to Seville Cathedral.

The outside featured many orange trees.

Photo looking up at an angle at a Seville orange tree. The oranges are green.
The famous Seville oranges

It was a very impressive building

View of the roof. Grey stone and frills.

Balcony jutting out from the side of the cathedral, surrounded by trees. There is the figure of a head, over some lines of light that look like a vertical sundial.

We went inside.

No photos because I tend not to inside churches (not without explicit permission, holy sites are holy etc), so you will have to rely on websites for the indoor pictures. The big highlight is the tomb of Christopher Columbus (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tomb-of-christopher-columbus) which is full of symbolism.

(In a statement to annoy L., the Assassin’s Creed film did a very good job of recreating the inside)

I then walked up to the top of the Giralda bell tower (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giralda). I cannot comment on whether the walkways are big enough to walk horses up and down, as the story goes, but they certainly were broader and were flat not stairs, so far easier to climb.

Meet the Lizard of Seville

Wooden model of a crocodile, hanging from the ceiling by chains
Hello crocodile

Allegedly a real crocodile was a gift from the Sultan of Egypt for Alfonso X. It has been replaced with a wooden model since then.

From about mid way up:

View onto the roof of the rest of the cathedral. The view is through a metal lattice that looks like diamonds

View from about the top:

View from the tower towards the river Guadalquivir (Betis to Romans). The yellowish circular building with lots of arches is the bullring


View back to the alcazar

View from the tower back towards the Alcazar

Another view from the top

This time the bullring is in the middle. There is a modern circular tower, ribbed blue and brown sort of middle right

Andalusia 2019 – Part 4 – the Alcazar, Seville

A pottery plant pot, white, with golden yellow and mid blue hoops. It has R. Alcazar and a crown painted on it.
I warned you I’d cheat and add a ninth photo in some of these.

At the end of the last post, I explained we had to get to Alcazar exactly on time. I expect that’s always required, but it was made more of a thing by the circumstances of when the tour was. I must draw you back to the beforetimes and the heady days of Summer 2019, possibly the height of Game of Thrones mania. The show runners had used the Alcazar as the Dornish palaces (https://www.andalucia.org/en/game-of-thrones-in-andalusia), so there were even more people than usual wanting to see it. According to our tour guide, you booked 6 months ahead if you wanted tickets to see inside.

And, as you’ll hopefully see from my photos, you really want to go inside.

(For more information, please see: https://www.andalucia.org/en/sevilla-visitas-real-alcazar-de-sevilla, www.alcazarsevilla.org or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alc%C3%A1zar_of_Seville).

The Alcazar is where I really went OTT on the photographs. It’s because the things I like in art and design, whether it’s painting, architecture or decorative objects, is colour, shape and texture. Mudéjar style is basically catnip for me.

Carved underside of a roof. There is white and blue tiles at the bottom. Above them some very intricate stone work, with a trace of blue paint left. Above that is stone work in a larger pattern, all brown soft stone (probably sedimentary), then a green and yellow rail, followed by a dark wooden roof
Underneath one of the overhanging roofs
Ornately carved dark wood ceiling. The shapes are repeating squares, lozenges, squares going down the photo and squares or lozenges in a row going horizontal along the photo. At either end there are small star shapes.
A very decorative ceiling
Carved stone arch in the foreground, from a cream coloured stone, with blue inlays. In the background is a carved stone wall, again with blue inlays but it looks much paler because it is further away
One of the rooms that leads out onto the patio de las Doncellas
At the front of the photo is a carved arch, all in very white stone. In the back, another carved wall, in very white stone with blue inlays. In the front carved arch there is a shape that looks like a human skill. The three right angles underneath it make it look like a skull attached to a rib cage
I just think he’s cute

Unfortunately my notes and memory can’t remember if the tour guide said anything about the little face being deliberate or whether it’s just an accidental pattern made by the weathering, but I find it intriguing.

One of the ceilings in one of the rooms of the Palacio Mudéjar or Palacio de Pedro I, depending who’s talking.

Another carved wooden ceiling, this time the shapes are pentagons, but two of the sides are longer than the other 3. In the centre of each cluster is a star design. The carvings are covered in what I think is gold leaf, except the pentagons.
A golden decorative ceiling

Many of the rooms in the Palacio Mudéjar are that style and covered in gold leaf or gold in the same way.

Carved archway. This time the stones are inlaid in red and blue. More carved arches are seen in the background, surrounding another courtyard. The people in the front are being used to demonstrate how busy it was.
An archway into another courtyard. You can see how busy it was.

There were also historical treasures.

A wooden boat with a painted white hull and blue sides. It has two masts and no sails
A very old model boat

I think it’s the idea that someone >500 years ago saw exactly the same thing, and it’s still there that gets to me.

The inside decorations are but one of the highlights. The gardens are spectacular, and not sharing some of those photos was one of the hardest decisions when cutting this down to 8 photos.

I am sharing one of those below because the contrast of how green it was and the aridity of the surrounding countryside, as seen around Ronda and Grazalema really helped explain the things about the first wave of Caliphs saying “this, this is what heaven looks like.” (Some paraphrasing from the story involved)

Ornate wrought iron archway, looking almost calligraphic. The foreground is shadowed, and you can see the carved stonework of the ceiling and wall that the arch fits into. Outside are verdant green leaves on trees.
Again, this just made me happy. I love the calligraphic style of the iron work.

One day I’d like to go back to walk around it at my own speed and do more ooh-ing and ahh-ing.

Andalusia 2019 – Part 3 – Plaza de España, Seville

Tile map of Seville, surrounded by neighbouring territories
(This is the first of the posts where I’m cheating and adding a 9th photo with the excuse of it being a sign)

From the hotel in Seville, our coach went along the road of buildings built for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and then onto the Plaza de España.

I would have liked to have spent more time here.

It was fascinating building/monument (more information here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_Espa%C3%B1a,_Seville or here https://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/plazadeespana.htm).

Tile map of the building. The tiles are white, with a floral border around in (with a blue outline). The building is in orange, and the alcoves of the different provinces of Spain.
Tile map of the complex, at one of the entrances

What the tile map doesn’t convey, because it can’t, is the curve of building, and the intricacies of its decoration.

The two towers at the ends face each other and the building surrounds the plaza.

Light brown neo-moresco tower
The left hand tower
View of the same tower from the bridge, with photo of the decorative tiling
Same tower, from the side, as viewed from one of the four bridges
Same tower, from a different bridge
Same tower, viewed from a different bridge

The remaining photos are close ups of some of the decorative tiling

A close up of the blue and white tiles that cover the railing/balustrade of the bridge.
At the ends of the bridges is more decorative tiling. Each bridge is for one of the 4 kingdoms of Spain. I'm guessing this is Catalunya from the yellow and red stripes at the centre of the design.
At the ends of the bridges is more decorative tiling. Each bridge is for one of the 4 kingdoms of Spain. I’m guessing this is Catalunya from the yellow and red stripes at the centre of the design.
Blue, gold and green tiling around the emblem of the city of Teruel and an Alfonso. I thought it was Alfonso I of the Austurias, which would fit with the very "Norman" helmet he's wearing (pointy with a nose cover) but Alfonso II is the king who recovered Teruel, and he's sometimes Alfonso I of Barcelona, so it's probably him.

The building was designed by Aníbal González, and

Statue of Aníbal González who designed the Plaza de España. The statue is of a balding elderly man, wearing a double breasted long coat, and shirt with a tie and smart trousers, holding a Homburg hat. He is looking to his left, at the Plaza.

in 2011, probably commemorating the restoration. (The restoration work is excellent)

As the Andalusian tourism board website suggests, I did take a photo of the Seville alcove, which is where the photo at the start comes from.

We had to rush, because we had to walk from the Plaza de España to the Alcazar so we were there for our tickets slot.

Andalucia 2019 – Part 2 – Grazalema

Grazalema is much smaller than Ronda, very much a village, sitting more or less in the middle of the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park (https://www.andalucia.com/province/cadiz/grazalema/home.htm).

It’s a very pretty village

Stonework and white front door with many blue and white flower pots
A very pretty example of the local front doors, but there were several that were just as pretty
Panorama over the whole village, white houses with terracotta orange roof slates
This was the view from near the top of the hill. There’s a reason it’s called “the village of the white houses”.

with roots back to the Visigoths.

Sign saying the fountains are of putative Visigoth origin
I am not making the Visigoth part up
Four fountain gargoyles with pipes in their mouths. The gargoyles are made of worn stone.
Aren’t they adorable?

It also has vultures.

Sign about the local vultures. Sign is written in Spanish.
I am also not making the vultures up

No-one in the coach party thought they saw one, but there were some very carnivorous-looking silhouettes in the sky.

Grazalema also has an excellent bull-related statue.

Statue is two men in front of a bull. The bull has got loose from the rope holding it. The figures look like they are about to try to run away.
I choose to believe the bull got free and is about to make a break for it.

Much like Pamplona, it has a day where a bull is allowed to run.

Following a short visit to Grazalema, our coach party moved on to Seville.