Sunday 13 April 2014

Day seven: Granada

We awoke to the sounds of bells.  It is Palm Sunday today and the bell tower in the cathedral was going all out, it was practically deafening outside.  We headed down to the train station to catch the train to Grenada.  It was about a 3 hour trip through some very varied countryside.  Much of the landscape was flat or rolling hills covered by olive trees, but then there are steep rocky hills and ravines.
Our apartment is a typical Grenada one, 2 bedrooms and a terrace spread over 7 levels!  It is very narrow, but pretty with enough room to spread out.  It overlooks the Alhambra.
The Alhambra is a Moorish palace fortress, that was the last outpost of Moorish influence in Spain. It was captured in 1492, the same year Columbus sailed to America.  Being Palm Sunday, it is the start of Semana Santa, or Holy Week.  Churches parade life sized depictions of various scenes from the bible concerning the crucifixion of Christ.  They are accompanied by church goers wearing a traditional regalia. 
The floats are massive weighing around a tonne. They are carried by men walking underneath the floats ( note the feet).
They took up the whole road and nearly knocked us off into the river below.
The procession walked very slowly as they stopped frequently to change bearers.  They don't get to wear quite a as fancy an outfit though.
There are 4 or 5 of these processions a day now for the next week.  Tomorrow we head off on a tapas tour and the Alhambra 






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8 comments:

  1. grandma kathleen14 April 2014 at 06:07

    What a wonderful week to be in Spain! Really jealous!

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    1. BBAL16 April 2014 at 06:32

      It is so interesting. It is more than I imagined.

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  2. Bill Slavin14 April 2014 at 06:40

    The pictures of Alahambra are glorious. The pictures of Bridget and Lila looking worried that they are about to be knocked into the river and the fat guys in t-shirts swapping out from under the float hilarious.

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    1. BBAL16 April 2014 at 06:34

      I was thinking which would be worse fall off the bridge or get crushed by the float. I think we found out why that part was still open!

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  3. kate_mc14 April 2014 at 09:06

    Hi Mrs SW (and family!!!)

    We got all caught up on your adventures this morning and loved reading about it all!!! The guys who had to carry the float looked like sumo wrestlers! Did you guys hop under to help carry??? We want to know what Lila thinks of the bull fighting? We think the bullfighting sounds terrible and we took a vow to never go see one!! We're curious about your skinny but tall apartment- do you have any photos of it? Why was that elevator so fancy? The elevator matches Adison's pants she is wearing today!!! How fast did that elevator go? We thought the viewing deck looked pretty neat! Did you guys like it? Or do you agree it looks out of place? When was that built?? Will you be buying Lila's birthday gift in Spain or is it already purchased? Has Alan got his sword yet? Have you bought anything for yourself. Mrs. SW, or are you saving your money for the fabulous shopping in Madrid? We think you should get yourself a flamenco dress so you can falmenco dance for us!!! Kiera wants to see a photo of the purses and shoes so we can see if they are different from here!

    We're excited to learn more about Spain from our booklets!!
    Miss you!!!
    Your class :) (... is the best)

    ps wally may be going on strike anyday...
    ps#2 Callie tried to go on the edmodo blog- it wouldn't let her write anything on the grade 3 thing because it says the teacher has to submit it to allow her?
    ps#3 anything more about the food??

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    1. BBAL16 April 2014 at 06:46

      Hi
      We did not help out but they kept switching people so no one got too tired. We agree that the bullrings are interesting but we all including Lila are not interested in seeing one. The food is great! Lots of olives, bread, fish and other spanish dishes. We liked the observation deck and it is interesting to see new among the old. I will check out edmodo! No sword for Alan yet. Lila bought some flamenco dresses for her dolls but I don't think I will get one. I have not bought a lot yet. I bought some earrings that look like tiles from the Alhambra. We bought some gifts to bring back and some souvenirs for our house. There are crazy pants here so Adison would fit right in! I will try to find a picture of shoes for you Kiera. There are tons of shoe stores and the women wear high heels on the cobble stone streets! We are going to go see some more Semana Santa processions. We will FaceTime tomorrow!
      Love Mrs.Sw

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  4. kate_mc14 April 2014 at 09:07

    PS #4 Ms. McKinnon was VERY excited to hear about Patrick Stewart! Did you talk to him?? I love Captain Picard.

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    Replies
    1. BBAL16 April 2014 at 06:35

      We did not talk to him but bruce recognized him by his voice and turned around to look!

      Delete

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