Granada

My mom returned for another visit, so we decided to take another road trip. This time to Granada.

Granada means pomegranate in Spanish. And there are pomegranates everywhere.

The main objective of visiting Granada was to see the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a Moorish fortress and palace built in the 13th century. Originally the buildings were white. But after years of baking in the sun, the buildings were baked to its current red color, leading to its name (Al-hambra means red). It is actually a gigantic complex with a fortress, palaces, towers, ruins and gardens.

It is also a major tourist destination, requiring us to purchase our tickets 3 months ago. So when the weather forecast surprised us with rain, we put on our raincoats, boots and can-do attitude and set off in the rain. And it rained hard for hours.

Despite the rain, and cold, the Alhambra is quite a sight. The most impressive thing for us was the level of detail in decorations.

Another special feature of the Alhambra are all of the water features. The fortress was built with an extensive water system with water channeled water from the nearby Darro River. There is a constant supply of water running throughout the complex through endless fountains and water channels. This water provided irrigation for the extensive gardens and orchards, as well as supplying water for the Arab baths and providing refreshing relief from the heat.

I imagine we would have appreciated it on a hot and dry summer day.

Mom and Leo finished their visit a little earlier (the cold and wet became a little much, especially after Mom soaked her shoe in a deep, cold puddle), and Todd, Oliver and I headed to the Generalife gardens. Amazingly, the rain stopped and we finished our visit with quite pleasant weather.

After a couple hours resting cuddled up in blankets or in a hot bath we headed to old town Albaicin for dinner and a flamenco show, which mom was especially excited about. The show was a high energy hour of beautiful guitar music and dancing. We all loved it.

The boys were inspired by the dancing and did a bit of their own as we headed home.

Then the trip took a sad turn. Albaicin Is a very old neighborhood on a very big hill with roads made of river rock. As we headed down the hill, my mom slipped and fell (the video above was taken just minutes before she fell, to give you an idea of what the road looked like). We could tell something was very wrong with her leg, so we didn’t want to move her. Many people came out to offer help. 3 calls were made for an ambulance or the police. We all hovered around her on the edge of a narrow road, while someone directed the steady stream of taxis and buses around her. Sometimes they came as close as 10 inches! Finally, after what seemed forever, but was probably 30-45 minutes, an ambulance came to take her to the hospital, where we learned that her ankle was broken in 3 places.

Todd and I spent the next two days taking turns being with her in the hospital or entertaining the boys around Granada.

On one of my outings with the boys we happened upon a sign for the Camino de Santiago and decided to follow it I wherever it took us. I think we followed the signs for close to an hour.