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Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Spain-Granada, Torremolinos, Costa de Sol

Ok, sorry for not posting anything for such a long time. And although it's like 2 months since I'm back from Spain, this is the continuation for my trip. It's gonna be a long post mainly coz it's filled with pictures. I couldn't decide which to upload, so in the end I uploaded so many. Bear with me. ごめん！But it's really beautiful..so enjoy..
On this day, we went to visit the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Built by the Moorish rulers since the 13th century, the architecture has a very Middle East touch to it. The Alhambra is made up of gardens, fountains, streams, a palace, and a mosque, all within an imposing fortress wall, flanked by 13 massive towers. Alhambra Palace was completed towards the end of Muslim rule in Spain and is a reflection of the culture of the last days of the Nasrid Kingdom. It also served as a shelter for artists and intellectuals who took refuge as Christian Spain won victories over Al Andalus. Later, the Moorish rulers lost Granada and Alhambra in 1492 when King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile took over the surrounding region. After the Christian conquest of the city, the conquerors began to alter the Alhambra. The Alhambra architecture now is a mixture of both Muslim and Christian influence.

The entrance.
Another entrance. The path to the garden.

 One of the entrances.

 The entrance to the garden, also known as Torres Generalife. No, it's not pronounced as "general life", but sounds totally different. Dun ask me how to pronounce it coz I forgot.

A view in the garden.

There were tons of flowers and roses, all huge in size..like the size of my face or something. They were beautiful!

Another view in the garden. The woman standing there is from the same tour group.

Another view in the garden. The whole garden is filled with plants, trees, all kinds of flowers, fountains, streams, etc.

Another view

Still in the garden...


Finally the entrance! It took us like dunno how long...maybe an hour or something to walk through the garden.

A view of the inside.

You can see the carved wooden ceiling with the carved Islamic architecture.

A view of some windows. You can see how elaborate the architecture is.

A close up view of one of the entrances to some part of the palace. The entire wall and pillars are all carved.

Another view of the walls.

The stalactite-like architecture is evident in all the ceilings in the palace. And notice those blue porcelein pieces embedded into the architecture. I mean..how elaborate!

A wider view of one of the entrance to some part of the palace.

See the massiveness of the architecture? I mean...how long does it take to carve all these out?! And during that time, I'm sure it's all hand-carved.
One of the rooms in the Palace. There's a fountain like thing in the middle of the room and you can see that if it is filled with water, the water actually flows outwards via the little drain, right in the middle of the photo.
You can see that the flow of water will be out of the rooms to the center of the courtyard where there is a fountain. This fountain has 12 lion statues surrounding it and is famous. Unfortunately, it was under restoration when I was there.
That kinda ends my trip in the Alhambra Palace. I spent like 2 plus hours there, enjoying the view, nature and the architecture. Superb! Next stop was the White Village, also known as Mijas in Costa del Sol.
Mijas

The donkey taxis! Didn't sit on one though...they stank! Looks cute but...

Donkey riding wasnt that appealing either after the smell got too strong.

A small church at the top of a cliff.

The small church. Great view. Romantic.

One of the souvenier shops. Lots of pottery.

One of the streets in Mijas
Finally we headed to the hotel. Great hotel with a balcony on the Mediterranean coast. Minus the fact that it was freezing and there were so many birds flying around which could shit on you anytime, it was great. Just dont stay out in the balcony too long.

Evening view from the hotel room


Sunrise view from the hotel room
Yup, that ends Day 4 of my Spain trip..haha..still a long way to go.. Hope I'm not boring anyone. Till the next time!

~ { 11:32 PM }
reflections @ 11:32 PM