Andalusia!

 

Ah, what a long time away from blogging! The next post after this one will explain a bit more why, but I cannot wait to tell you about the week that Angie and I just spent in Andalusia. Better late than never.

two weeks ago we got back from a week in Andalusia, the big distinctive chunk of Southern Spain that runs about 300 miles East to West and a hundred or so North to South. The coast is very touristy but once you get inland it is very Spanish and very much itself. The pictures may give you a feel of it.

One of the things that give it such a distinctive feel is that this was the heartland of the 'Moorish' (ie Muslim) kingdoms of Spain/Iberia from about 700AD till 1492, when the very last Muslim ruler stood down (Muhammad XII, The Emir of Granada, since you ask). So on and off for 700 years, this part of Europe had huge influences from the Islamic and North African world, with religious, artistic, scientific and technological traditions crossing the straits of Gibraltar and building a lot of what makes Spain and its visual feel very distinctive. 

The picture at the top is one of the most famous examples of the Moorish influence. The red-walled palace on the hill below us to the left is the Alhambra palace in Granada, the third city we visited. We went up with hundreds of mainly locals to the 'Mirador' or viewing point, where you can watch the sun set over the Alhambra and the city lights start to sparkle.

We started the week with three days in Seville, staying in the Old Town and wandering around churches and convents and the various Palaces that you can visit, loafing along the Guadalquivir river and enjoying the non-English sunshine on our backs. We stopped to look at so many houses, because they have a very distinctive look to them, different even than the ones in Granada. Every hallway (like the one below) seems to be to a very local, beautiful format, with geometric tiles on floor and walls and a beautifully-made wrought iron gateway. Both of these materials were ones in which the Moors excelled.

In Seville we also visited the wonderful 'Pilate's House' which is a large palace started during the Moorish period, which has huge amounts of the syncretic 'Mudejar' style all through it, where Arabic traditions and materials are blended into what looks now very Spanish. Here is one of the wonderful tiled courtyard arcades, beautiful in the heat of the afternoon:

The other thing that was really striking about Seville was the huge amount of very distinctive Catholic imagery. They even have their own style of halo which looks like three flames coming from the head of Jesus. Here are some random images from churches, cathedrals and convents we went into.

See if you can spot St Isidore, the patron saint of computer programmers (no lie!, and we need him this weekend). Also look for the blackleg angels and the well-known cat from the Nativity (what do you mean you've never heard of it?)

We drove over the mountains (on the very fine Spanish highways) down to Ronda, which has a magnificent gorge spanned by an 18th century bridge about 300 feet high. We took the gorge walk which is on a boardway right down by the Tejo river (see the photo)

Then on the last day before our flight out, we went up to a small town right up on a mountain top near Granada. Moclin has a wonderful Moorish fortress that guarded a pass way down in the valley, and it also has a church and Hermitage on the same mountain that was full of visitors and pilgrims for the All Saints Day holiday. We took our leisure as you will see below, looking down on the miles and miles of olive groves that cover the whole of the province.

It was all very entertaining, and we lucked out on that weekend because it turns out that -especially in Granada, and especially in the old neighbourhood of Albaicin - the families really go all-out for Halloween costumes, and because wounds and blood are pretty standard fare in most of the churches (and in the local bullrings come to that), it was the bloodiest and most entertaining Halloween we had ever seen. Top entertainment, as was the whole trip. Viva Andalucia!