Ronda, Spain, July 28th, 2011

 Ronda, July 28^th

I love my Ronda hotel, the Alavera de los Banos.  I arrive bright and early by 10am having taken a disgustingly early 6:50am train to the charming hilltop town of Ronda.   Christian, a German who has been living in Spain for 15 years, the proprietor of this hotel for the past 8, greets me and I’m served my breakfast one day earlier:  fruit, bread, cheese, cold cuts, juice, and a whole thing of coffee, all on the terrace overlooking the beautiful countryside surrounding Ronda.  

I spend the day walking around the town.  

   

 

 Apparently Michelle Obama stayed in Ronda with one of her daughters and checked into a spa with baths nearby for 3 nights.  Good on Michelle for having interest in Spanish history, culture, and catching a little R&R at at the same time!

 

 

 

 I indulge in two McDonald’s ice lattes and visit the lookouts to enjoy the Ronda hilltop vistas.  I visit one Moorish house and meet an nice Californian lady who, along with her husband and another couple, rented a vacation home and are doing daytrips into the city.   

 

 

                        

 

I also walk towards the defense ramparts which also included a church built right into the walls.  That's the church behind me!

My delicious meal was a delicious local dish of braised Ox tail...yummy!  

After dinner, the Ronda sun was setting behind the hills and it was just beautiful.

This is the beautiful scenery on the way to the hotel, just a 10 minute walk to the tourist office.



















 

Beautiful horses grazed the hills in the ranch just behind the Alavera de los Banos.

The beautiful hotel pool I admired in the website is tinier than the typical condo pool:  max 5 laps before one is at the other side.  Nonetheless I make the most of it and cool off !

Granada, Spain- July 27, 2011, The Alhambra Palace, Generalife, Carlos V palace, July 27th

The Alhambra Palace, Generalife, Carlos V palace, July 27th

Rob and I make it back by 4:40pm and take a few minutes to shower and freshen up before we head out to the Alhambra Palace and Generalife, a 10 minute walk away.  

 
 We start with the Renaissance palace of Carlos V. The circular plan with rounded arches ending on Ionic pillars on two levels, within a square plan, uses the Renaissance architectural design elements of geometry and mathematical balance and 








 

proportions.  This roofless structure reminds me of a cross between the Pantheon in Rome,
with its round oculus above, and an open coliseum which allows sunlight to enter inside. 

Realizing we needed to boot it (read: recommended time for the Alhambra is 4 hours and arriving after 5pm, we were doing it in less than 3 hours!), we took off for Generalife, meaning “Architect’s house”, at the far end of the complex.  

The most beautiful and enchanting gardens welcomed us into the Generalife grounds and invited us to stay to admire the framed views of the city and the palace.  

 

The Moorish influenced Generalife is designed with very typical architectural features admired by many architects.

It’s southern facing orientation, hilltop site, windows framing picturesque views, playful interaction between water, nature, and architecture reminds me of other masterpieces, in particular the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi, in Assisi, Italy.  
 

Open windows continued to frame outside views.  

Water and nature are key architectural elements throughout the building highlighted in the courtyards and gardens throughout.

The palace rooms typically include rounded arches, beautifully intricate carved tracery tiles or vibrant and beautiful blue tiles or stained glass windows.  

When the stained glass is placed above the open windows, it creates a beautiful interplay between the site and the building.













I admire the beauty and character of doorways. These two Islamic arched doorways show the character of Moorish architecture of the Alhambra.

Palace rooms endlessly opened onto courtyards, which felt like at least 4 or 5 in throughout the palace.  

The Alhambra is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I have ever experienced!

The interplay of light and shadow is dramatic and playful.

Round plan rooms I believe were places of worship, topped with circular domes symbolizing heaven. 

The Alhambra is all about views of nature and places of spirituality, worship and God and the interplay of nature inside architecture.  I believe one of the Islamic inscription is loosely translated to: " Allah is the one".  Here, the second story window provides a great opportunity to look down into the courtyard.

Granada, Spain, July 27, 2011: Waterfall tour

My unofficial tour guide, a Brit who has been in Spain for 2 years, takes the group of us on our 6 hour hiking and mini-waterfall tour.  Grabbing a quick breakfast, and then grabbing Rob because we have Alhambra palace tickets timed for the evening together, we take off for a local bus to the countryside where we hike all the while admiring the beautiful landscape. 

I meet some cool people on my tour:  Denise and Andrew, cousins from Florida whose American Airlines and Delta employed parents give them the blessing of free standby travel.  I found their close sibling relationship very heart warming.

I also met Marina, a 2^nd year teacher from Toronto, who I bonded with over her broken camera.  

 Marina is freaked out with the "Indiana Jones" tensile bridge" which our guide clearly instructs to all:  "Only 4 people on this at a time!"  (To no surprise, someone doesn't hear it!) The ends are fine, but the wooden pieces are widely spaced and one could certainly step into nothing if not careful.  The middle of the bridge is particularly shaky.  I try to be as reassuring as possible to all- including myself!  You gotta love the element of surprise and danger- mostly when you've survived it though!

Marina later declared, “ My camera breaking was the best thing that ever happened to me!”

!” when we decided to be each other’s Sports Illustrated photographers, an inside joke you will get once you look at our pics!

A set of brothers from Florida, with six pack abs at that (sorry hard not to notice), a med school student, and a bunch others, it was definitely a fun group to hike and explore with!

After hiking along cliffs using climber’s handles to scale the walls, we make it to the end, where some of us take off our shoes and take a dip into the cold glacier fed stream. 

.  A pool gathers under a mini water which create more picture taking opportunities!  Marina gives me her impressions of trust and honesty in a relationship, while I encourage her to highly value great sincere loyal guys who truly love her (because they are rare in life), which currently happens to be her boyfriend of 9 months whom she met on Lava Life.

I tell her that limited life experience (aka youth)sometimes makes it easy to take a good thing for granted.  I also tell the Florida guys a story and they liken it to, “ That’s a “guy lie”...do you ever watch Jerry Springer and the guys on that are like: ” Well, I bought you a pair of panties because I was thinking of you and that’s why you found those under the couch...really babe!” Hilarious! 

Everyone thinks that I am under 27 because, well, they themselves are under 27.  I guess being enthusiastic about adventure, jumping into waterfalls, laughing and joking around are all good measures of youthfulness whatever your age!

The Indiana Jones bridge is another element of surprise and fear that makes one feel confident once it is conquered!

.  A waterfall allows Marina and I photographic opportunities underneath the water.  

Taking these shots was a hilarious in itself!  We could not stop laughing!

We jump up and down like 12 year olds and admire the Andalucia landscape once more before heading back to the city of Granada.

My favourite shot of me and the Andalusia scenery!