Arrival in Cordoba

We have been dodging the rain again today, although it is not quite so cold. Here is a castle we passed on the trip from Granada with orange trees in the forground.

We have allready fallen in love with Cordoba even though we have only been here half a day. The tourist office is housed in what was the chapel of an old hospital, and this means very, very old. Check out the doors!

We walked past the Mezquita with it's ornate exterior decoration over some of the old entrances,

and then walked over an old Roman bridge (Puente Romano) that spans the river.

There was an excellent interactive representation of life in Cordoba during medieval times, so we spent some time there hiding form the rain (and being educated at the same time) At one time Muslims, Christians and Jews lived peacefully side by side here. There was a fantastic model  of the old Mosque in the Mezquita before  it was rebuilt as a Cathedral. There are 850 columns of granite, jasper and marble and the original building dates back twelve centuries.

The Alhambra

Our beautiful weather has come to an end. It was only 9 degrees for most of the day and raining for the most part. When in Rome etc, so we had churos and chocolate for breakfast this morning to try to warm ourselves up

 

There is really only one word to describe The Alhambra and that is WOW. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and should be on everyones bucket list. Construction began in 1278. The spectacular Nasrid Palaces contain room after room of incredible architecture, some of which is in amazingly good shape. A lot of the finely detailed work is carved out of wood and then plastered over. There are mosaics, arches, fountain, ponds and sculpted gardens.

 Don't you love the caligraphy in the decoration? Then in 1492 it was surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs and in 1526 Charles V built a palace which is one of the most important works of the Spanish Renaisance.

There are courtyards everywhere.

And the gardens were looking beautiful, with everything in flower.

But it was oh so cold and wet, such a pity but now I have warmed up I must say it was worth it!

 This is breakfast, Spanish style. Freshly squeezed orange juice, toast, tomato and coffee. I don't know why Frank looks so serious!

One of the major streets in Granada is the Grand Via De Colon which is lined with elegant buildings. If a building needs renovating or has a change of use then is is simply gutted but the facade is kept.

 There is an area of Granada, the Albaicin, which is like a rabbit warren of steep streets and laneways. It is on a steep hillside opposite the Alhambra .At the top is a wonderful lookout, the Mirador de San Nicolas. It was the site of a 13th Century fortress where there were once over 30 mosques.

The mountains in the distance are the Sierra Nevada which can have snow on them till July. Spanish roof tiles fascinate me as although they are all the same shape they are multicoloured.

Slow train form Seville

When I say slow it is all relative. Todays train only travelled at 160kph, which is slow by European standards, but still hard to take a photo from. Here is some typical Andalusian countryside. 

Our hotel here in Granada is in a quite little street not far from the Cathedral which has an arabian market by its side.

The Cathedral can only be described as opulent, with the central dome at least 40 metres high.

On our way to get some tapas this evening we looked up a side street to see this wonderful example of Moorish archictecture.

We found out at he hotel that tapas in Granada are still free with a glass of wine or beer!

Sunny Seville, Day 2

We had our first taste of local Tapas last night. This is something the locals have from about 5.30pm, then they have dinner around 10pm, at which time we were fast asleep! Today we spent the day wandering around the Plaza de Espana. A truly amazing building in a very large park that was the setting for the Ibero-American Exposition in 1929. The building is decorated with locally produced glazed ceramic tiles depicting the various regions of Spain.

The surrounding gardens are vast with huge plane  and eucalyptus trees, providing shade from the 25 degree heat here today. Lots of fountains and seating everywhere covered with local ceramic tiles.

Location

We then spent a couple of hours in the Archaeological Museum as it had an exhibition of artifacts from Italica 9 km north west of Seville. It was founded in 206BC. (that is not a typing mistake!) It is one of the earliest Roman Cities in Spain and was the birth palce of Emperor Hadrian, you have probably heard of his famous wall in England. We would have loved to go to theMuseum of Cultural Arts pictured below. but as it was 3.30 we needed to eat.

Thee are so many little, narrow streets here, you often have to duck into a doorway as a car comes past and the footpath, when there is one, disspaears. But then there are a lot of streets free of cards as well. This is a photo of a typical Plaza.

 

This last photo is the courtyard of our hotel, the window in the centre is our room. I hope you have enjoyed your glimps of Seville, tomorrow we are off to Granada and the Ahlambra!!!

Seville

Our first day in Spain and I think we have both fallen in love with Seville. Here is a photo of our hotel which is a converted 16th Century Palace!

We spent the morning at the Real Alcazar a wonderful rabbit warren of rooms beautifully restored which were originally built in 1364, well that is when they started!

Did I mention I love doors?

We went wondering down extreamly narrow streets, getting lost a few times and finding interesting plaza, stunning doorways and lots of cobble stones. The small of orange blossom will forever remind me of Seville as you often find them lining streets.

This key hole is around 10cm high and was in a door almost 6 metres high. Not at all unusual for European dities.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Cathedral and Giralda tower. Flying buttresses are another favourite of mine!This last photo was taken from the lookout at the top of the tower, a climb up 36 steep ramps inside the tower to the viewing platform.

Here are some photos from Dubai which really is an incredible place. We flew right over the Maldives on our way as well as some beautiful desert and arrived in a sandstorm, with dust everywhere. Not uncommon here we were told and they can last for days on end. There is building going on everywhere and the locals (just 20% of the 2,000,000 population) are extreamly proud of their city. Petrol is 45 cents per litre and no one drives small cars. However water is very expensive as the annual rainfall is around 120mm. The traditional Arabian architecture as seen in the mosques and the older buildings is stunning.

But then so are some of the newer buildings like the Atlantis Hotel which is built on reclaimed land. You have to see this to really appreciate the size of the place which includes aswim with the dolphins "experience", a water park and its own aquarium.

 

And I found a set of doors that would look perfect in Hurstbridge. I realise that they may need to be cut down a little but I am sure we could do it. But Frank says that they definately wouldn't fit in my luggage allowance. How mean can you get, he wouldn't even try!

A leisurly day in Perth

Perry and the city of Perth

Banksia Flower, Kings Park

Rainbow Serpent, forest canopy walk

Today was spent having a leisurly brunch at Aubergine in South Fremantle before heading off to Kings Park. This 400 hectare bushland park is elevated and looks down over the city. It showcases Western Australian flora and the Banksias were blooming everywhere. I have a fascination for manhole covers and can often be found photographing them on my travels. While this is not a manhole cover, it could be! It is a steele plate at the start of the elevated  walk through the treetops and depictst he rainbow serpent, an Aboriginal Dreaming story.

On The Way At Last

Well I have finally decided to join the 21st Century with this blog! I am hoping that this will be the easiest way to keep family and friends uo to date with our trip to Spain and Turkey, the idea being that I will post a photo a day! It will be interesting to see how long I can keep it up. Today we are in Fremantle with it's myriad of old convict built, colonial era buildings. Lots of old stone and ornate wrought iron. We are staying with youngest son Perry, in his modarn apartment in the old Woodsons building in the heart of Fremantle.