We started and ended our Christmas vacation in Granada. Our family gets a kick out of silly things ... like escalator ramps where the carts don't roll down. Elena wanted to push the cart so she didn't smile for the picture. Bronson is on the other side, running up the down ramp. Afterward, we "stole" the cart to take the groceries back to Mayra's house. I didn't want to get in the picture. I didn't want to be implicated if Mayra forgot to take the cart back.
As we do everywhere we go, we walked up and down all the hills ... touring the neighborhoods. We met a man who speaks more languages than we can name. He gave us a tour of his cave house - solid, quiet, and peaceful. He reminded us that we can hear the joy in our hearts when we quiet all the noises in our heads. We tried and it worked for a couple of seconds until the kids started giggling. They are not used to quiet.
We went to Mass at the cathedral. It was big and beautiful and all but the absolute best part was that pews were heated!!! None of us wanted to leave at the end of the Mass.
We saw lots of little towns of Bethlehem (Belenes ... traditional Spanish Christmas decorations). The holy family and the three kings and lambs and cows and bulls (of course!) were everywhere ... in the shops, on the street, up in the air. One thing they try to do when making Belenes is to incorporate everyday scenes. Here is a mother spanking her child. Sometimes they have people going to the bathroom. (Matthew DID take a picture of one but we'll spare you.)
Matthew's favorite Belen was tucked in the shelves of a pub - next to the liquor.
Yana and Maria treated everyone to dinner at a restaurant of their choice. THANK YOU!! They wanted to be able to go out for dinner at least once and not have to share their plates.
And, of course, we went to see the Alhambra. A l h a m b r a ... all the a's sound like short o's (like "hot") and DO NOT pronounce the H or Yana will cringe, Maria will roll her eyes, Elena will correct you, and Bronson will giggle.
The Alhambra is a fortress (think castle) with many palaces and endless gardens surrounded by big walls and guard towers. It was built during Muslim rule in Granada only about 600+ years ago - so it is relatively new when compared to other monuments in Spain.
The Nasrid palace grounds were especially impressive with detailed Arabesque art of geometric shapes and symmetrical designs and arabic script in every building and every room, on every high wall and every tall ceiling, inside and outside - even the endless garden pathways and bushes and flowers that surrounded the palace.
There was an echo room - one of those where if you whisper in one corner of the room, a person in the opposite corner could hear you as if you were whispering right in his or her ear. We would tell secrets about the cute boys walking through who had NO IDEA why people in opposite corners would suddenly and simultanesouly burst out in laughter. The boys would check their hair and their zippers and, of course, we would then laugh harder and louder.
We spent most of a day at the Alhambra - Matthew and I could have stayed longer. But, our pesky children were hungry after walking up and down and all around for 6+ hours with just a few Maria cookies (round graham crackers) to hold them over. Hee hee.
We spent most of a day at the Alhambra - Matthew and I could have stayed longer. But, our pesky children were hungry after walking up and down and all around for 6+ hours with just a few Maria cookies (round graham crackers) to hold them over. Hee hee.
Here are 100s more photos in Granada that may not interest you:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abrownell/sets/72157612246744630/
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