Granada, Spain

I am staying with a friend here in Granada who has the most gorgeous apartment with one of the best views in the world. I can confidently say that because walking out onto her balcony, you are looking up at the Alhambra. Granada was the last Moorish stronghold in Spain (after having been in the country since 711), and the Christians kicked them out of the peninsula, along with the entire Jewish population that did not convert to Christianity, in 1492. The Alhambra and its gardens, the Generalife, compose the fortress/palace of Granada. The exterior of the building belies the ornate decoration within, causing Washington Irving (I believe- and I probably paraphrase) to pronounce: "If you die not having seen Granada, you have not lived."
This is the view from my friend's apartment, looking both left and right. There is a narrow, one-way street that leads up the hill to the Alhambra, following the River Darro. To the left is a convent where cloistered nuns sell sweets through a revolving door so you never see them, and to the right are more apartments and a couple of former 16th century palaces turned into hotels. My pictures do not do the view justice.

Due to over seven hundred years of coexistence, much of it peaceful, between Moors, Jews, and Christians, Granada displays a unique synthesis of cultures. Tea houses abound, while churches that were built on top of mosques and temples still retain architectural elements of their former selves. The new mixes with the old, the east with the west, and everything is blended into a distinctly Spanish atmosphere.

I will leave Granada tomorrow morning to head back to Madrid. The students are in class today, their "Spanish families" having picked them up yesterday. My work here is done, and it's time to head back to Maine and then Minnesota. I leave you today with one of my favorite quotes from history. King Boabdil had lost the battle with the Christians and was being driven out of Granada and Spain. As he turns to look back at the gorgeous city his people has lost and will never see again, a tear rolls down his cheek. His mother, in scorn, tells him: "Do not cry like a woman for what you could not defend as a man."