La Alhambra

Today we woke up around 10:00 and had to completely rush to meet up with our group. Meg and I could have walked alone, but it was pretty far away and there was some confusion, so we decided to meet up early with some of our friends and take the bus. We rushed getting ready and having breakfast and Maria Carmen was nice enough to rush and make us lunches so that we wouldn't have to hurry back and we could eat at La Alhambra.
We took the bus and, after missing the stop, the bus driver was nice enough to drive us back to the plaza where we needed to meet up with our tour. La Alhambra is impossible to describe, the intricacy of the carvings and the variety of flowers is really overwhelming. I probably took over 200 pictures and I am dreading having to go through them and weeding out the ones that didn't capture the spirit of the palace. For all who don't know (I certainly didn't before doing my research to go here) Granada was the last Muslim stronghold when all the rest of Spain had turned over to the reign of Isabelle and Ferdinand and the official religion of Christianity. La Alhambra was the palace that overlooked the city of Granada and it is absolutely massive with a lot of history. Isabelle and Ferdinand were so focused on gaining control of Granada that, after they did invade and win, they demanded to be buried in Granada. I saw their casks at La Catedral de Ave Maria the other day.
After walking all around La Alhambra and seeing many beautiful rooms and views, we moved on to Generalife (which we all mispronounced and sounded VERY American). To do it injustice and simplify it would be to call it the royal gardens. It is an absolutely huge park with fantastic scenes of foliage and exotic flowers and fountains. My favorite part was Las Escaleras de Agua (The Stairs of Water). It was this long set of stairs flanked on each side by what looked like an intricate tiny water slide. If you stop the water some way up from the bottom and then let it go, it splashes whoever is standing below.
We all ate our lunches in Generalife and had a great time. We decided to walk back and stopped in our favorite Irish pub, Catedral, to have a Coke and paella. Then Meg and I returned home and slept until dinner, which is coming soon!
Overall, it was definitely one of the best days and most certainly the best tour we have had. It is also the last one that we will take with an official tour guide in Granada. Now all the rest of the exploring is left to us! I am feeling a lot better, although I still have a head cold, but I am sure that I will be back to normal this week.

Love Always,
Em

Addendum: Grossest dinner EVER! It was gray and squished. We're going for ice cream.