Thursday 29 March 2012

Granada Photos



I can't edit posts properly on my phone but last week I was putting away my Spanish photographs and thought you might like to see a few of them - so hope you enjoy them. . Above is S. Juan de Dios in Granada during a regular evening service.Go here for a Youtube clip of one of the festivals at this church. Spanish festivals are always worth seeing.

Here, below, is a view over the Alhambra

You can see the old fortress in the background.

Here is some absolutely divine cold almond soup I had in the Pousada (hotel) in the Alhambra. The hotel was a convent in the 15th century but is more comfortable now than then.

(later) I couldn't post my photos while I was away- these were the only three I had access to. Now I'm back, I've put a few more below. Here's the outside of the pousada, so calm and peaceful with the snowy mountains just visible in the distance.


And the almost unearthly feeling as you wander through the topiary gardens in the Generalife Gardens in the Alhambra, with their glimpses of ponds and fountains.


Since I first posted this, a few people said they thought that the picture of the church (it's not the cathedral, but another famous church in Granada) looks like a painting. It really was very brightly coloured and golden and also shadowy and generally overwhelming, and in particular it was wonderfully lit. I have always thought the Spain is full of dramatic artistic effects, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the way some of the attractions are lit. Below is the organ in Granada cathedral - an eye-bursting sight in real life, with its baroque gilding, but made even more dramatic by the golden lighting.


And here's a fountain in an open air market place in the downtown shopping area, at night. Spanish shops tend to shut in the afternoon and open again in the evening, so despite the late hour it was quite lively here.


I have some photos of Malaga too, a city I liked very much indeed, but these will have to wait for another time. I don't suppose most people will see these later pictures since they'll already have viewed this post a few days ago.


59 comments:

  1. Intriguing: The S. Juan de Dios photograph looks like a painting. How did you do that?

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  2. OOO the places you go and the things you get to see! I have job envy right now :o(

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  3. Grenada, a magical city in all aspects, such sunset in the Albaicin and the Alhambra. A city that I love. Good looks have that soup!! Greetings.

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  4. One of the places I've always wanted to visit is the Alhambra, it appears in lots of historical fiction.

    Darla

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  5. My son and his s/o are going to Barcelona in May and are so excited about this trip. Spain looks like a beautiful country. How fortunate you are to have such an interesting job.

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  6. Is the soup intended to be a dessert? It sounds like something I'd like, too!

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  7. A strange sensation for me to view pictures of Granada as I lived there for 3 months in 1973. It was a magical city to me, and daily walks around the hills of the Alhambra were enchanting. Sadly, I don`t have one photo of that sojourn as I`d intended to get to the know the city first and take pictures later. A sudden departure ruined that plan, but taught me a valuable lesson.

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  8. Great photo of Alhambra, I can feel the air and smell of the blossoming trees.
    This soup doesn't look tasty, does it?

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  9. Someday, i have to get to the Alhambra. That church looks much brighter than i remember many cathedrals of Europe being.

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  10. Actually Dave it looked amazing and neautifully coloured and brightlygilded. IN a way overwhelming. Im pleased with this picture because it conveys that impression but it really was full of the most intricate detail and artistically lit. Reminded me of a stage set!

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  11. Fantastic Grenada!!!
    This post took me back to a time I traveled Toledo in Spain, almost 20 years ago.
    Though I was not able to see those regular services of Churches in Toledo, my memories in Toledo have not faded away. I really enjoyed your post and You Tube.
    I am so pleased to see the town which is a birthplace of classical guitar piece “Memories of Alhambra”. I am envious of your travel and beautiful almond soup in such a beautiful hotel! Thank you for sharing, Jenny.

    Tomoko

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  12. At first I thought your cathedral picture was from the interior of the Grand Mosque at Cordoba, which has a cathedral in the middle--very strange looking--but I see this isn't so. I've been to the Alhambra and found it a magical place.

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  13. Beautiful cathedral . . . I remember many years ago when my mother was in Granada . . . A "hilltop moment" in her life.

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  14. Great photos (as usual). The church looks fantastical--not quite of this world--do you think that was the intent? The formal bushes in the photo over the Alhambra remind me of the Queen's garden in Wonderland.

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  15. The photos are beautiful. The cathedral ...breathtaking. I am interested in the almond soup. It sounds like a good soup for summer. My daughter is traveling to Spain in a few weeks. I will have check out you blog. Bonnie

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  16. One of my favorite spots in Spain!I love this city very much.

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  17. Thanks for sharing these beautiful photos. Spain is one of the places we have yet to visit, but with our daughter going to study at Oxford this summer, I'm afraid it will have to wait until another year, LOL!

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  18. That first photograph is like a painting, wonderful.

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  19. Very intriguing photos - - the church is spectacular!

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  20. Oh my what lovely photos, dreamy and enchanting and such a joy to see what you have captured! Thanks for posting them!

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  21. The almond soup sounds intriguing. I can't even imagine what it would taste like. The cheese on the plate next to it looks delicious.

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  22. What an amazing church! Really curious about what the almond soup tasted like

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  23. Granada looks a beautiful city, I must go back there one day. So far my only experience of it is being diverted to the airport there when lightning struck the control tower at Malaga - we (and several hundred other people of varying nationalities) spent 6 hours there with three children aged 13, 11 and 6.

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  24. That place is so beautiful! I wouldn't want to ever leave.

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  25. To think how many cinemas were named after the Alhambra! The real thing looks impressive.

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  26. Somebody's been to a lot of trouble with the topiary at the Alhambra. Some very severely disciplined hedges and bushes....

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  27. There is such a contrast between the first two photographs : the richness, the somewhat over-elaborate decorations of the church compared to the sharpness of form and line of the general view

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  28. Hi Jenny,
    Lovely to see your holiday photos of Spain. It is one of my favourite places to visit and I like the traditional Spanish culture and festivals.
    Your first photo of the church is so vibrant that it could easily be a painting!
    Alhambra, looks like a fairytale city. A place I will have to visit.
    Have a great weekend!
    Best wishes,
    Jo May.

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  29. Almond soup? What does that taste like?
    ~Aidyl
    www.aidylewoh.blogspot.com

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  30. Love the photos. They sure look like paintings. :)

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  31. It appears you had a wonderful trip

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  32. That first one is absolutely breathtaking.

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  33. oh my goodness i would love to visit (and eat!) there. great pictures!
    thank you for your thoughts today. I am grateful for our blogging friendship. I appreciate you!
    happy happy weekend!!

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  34. oh wow...lovely pics..a.nd i would def love to visit...i have been traveling so i missed you as much as you i as far as posts...just got home last night and playing a bit of catch up....

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  35. So many places on my "must visit" list and now here's another, if only partly to taste the cold almond soup.

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  36. The Alhambra's been on my list of places to go to for some time. Because it involves culture it's on the list of places not suitable for kids...
    Which isn't to say I won't get there in the next couple of years.

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  37. Lovely. I've always wanted to see the Alhambra.

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  38. Mmmm, cold almond soup sounds luscious. Your photos are so intriguing--I think we all want to visit there now.

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  39. Really lovely photos.

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  40. I visited the Alhambra Palace some years ago - it's absolutely beautiful!

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  41. They are great shots. I like second photo. It is a nice view.

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  42. Alhambra looks brilliant. I'm jealous that you get to travel so much!

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  43. Thanks for your comment just now on my blog.

    Talking of Malaga, my wife is going there on Good Friday to see our daughter in Malaga — the 'semana santa' processions are supposed to be quite spectacular.

    How I love Spain!

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  44. Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am glad you did because I am now thoroughly enjoying looking through all of your previous posts and becoming very envious of all of the amazing places you have seen. I am loving the photography so beautiful and that soup looks delicious!

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  45. Thanks for dropping by my blog and your comments. I'm glad I waited to look at this post as I got to see all the photos, which are superb - the illuminated church and the archways of topiary and the silvery fountains...

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  46. Hi Jenny! Love those pictures... and I'd love to visit Spain again...

    Thanks for your comment. I've been living in Germany since June 2008. My mum is from Germany and after my parents split up, she decided to move back since my grandparents are in their seventies now and she missed the country and the language. I had just graduated and I decided that it'd be the right thing to do to not let her go alone, and besides that, I wanted to get out of London anyway... most of my friends left to study somewhere else, while I didn't even have a clue what I wanted to study.
    My mum bought a house in Lüneburg which is a quiet, beautiful town, and I moved to nearby Hamburg. Rents are still high, but I've never had a problem to pay the rent which I wouldn't have been able to do in London without asking my father for help, and back then that wasn't an option as far as I was concerned.
    So yeah, it was a total change, new city, new friends, it wasn't easy in the beginning but now I love it. There are at least five other countries I'd love to live in at some point in my life... And don't get me wrong, I love London and there's not a week that has gone by since I left that I didn't think about the old times at least once... but I left when I was 19 years old and it didn't take me 19 years to get bored. My friends keep asking me why, but visiting as a tourists and living in London are two completely different things. It's not as if I went on a sightseeing tour every weekend. :-)

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  47. Thank you for your comment on my blog, much appreciated. I have a real soft spot for Spain so your photos were a delight to see. Thank you for sharing them with us.

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  48. Lovely, lovely photos! What an interesting life you lead!

    Anna :o]

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  49. I travel with your and your photos, and I am enjoying your impressions of the places where fortune brings you.

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  50. It is not easy posting to a blog from a phone. Your first picture of S. Juan de Dios looks more like a painting to me. I would've loved to have tasted the almond soup.

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  51. I haven't been to Spain for ever...and look what I am missing. How do you find the time to go to so many lovely places? I am feeling very jealous right now!

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  52. I've only been to the Spanish mainland three times and seen but not been in the Alhambra. So many places. So little time.

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  53. Thanks for the info on why you ended in Germany Dominic, makes sense, for some reason I didn't think of you having German relatives before you said. It's great to have a foot in 2 cultures. @Solitary Walker, your wife is lucky, I'd have loved to see this procession. And nice to have someone there to visit! As for the cold almond soup, it was probably sooo full of calories, I didn't enquire. It tasted mainly of ... well, almonds. I have no idea how they made it so creamy though. I never much liked cold soup before but this was wonderful. they put a little bit of fig artistically arranged in the middle of the plate and poured the soup over the fig from a jug. It made the soup seem really special to have that presentation. Thank you to everyone as usual for the great comments, I love to read them.

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  54. So many wonderful posts I missed in the past weeks. Granada is divine! I've never been there, and have only been to Madrid and Toledo but would love to see so much more of Spain. My mother's side has traces of Spanish blood so I feel a slight kinship to this part of the world. I love that photo through the topiary arches, quite inviting us into a lushly manicured land.

    As for our renovation, this is our second one. The first was in NYC, and that took about a year as well! We moved to California into "temporary" lodgings until we found the right site. By the time we found this house, we were so sick of forcing our lives into cramped quarters -- really like wearing an ill-fitting suit! So we decided to make the house fit us. We loved the architecture, and kept its bones, but brought it to the 21st C with updated wiring, energy-saving windows, wall cut-outs to view art work, niches, etc. Most importantly, we converted 2 rooms into 1 large library! It was a dream to have many of our bookshelves in one place, though we still have books in every other room of the house. Anyway, I don't foresee any other big renovation like this over the next 15 years. We didn't touch the kitchen and bathrooms since we just wanted to move in, but that may be the only thing we might do going forward.

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  55. That's another one on my list of places to visit soon. It's very cheap for us to travel to mainland Spain from here and now we've tried it with Madrid and found out how pain-free it was, we want to go to other Spanish cities. These photos are a good reminder to do it.

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  56. Amazing pictures. Thank you so much for sharing them. I feel like I got a mini-vacation!

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  57. A beautiful city, nicely photographed. That quote about the beggar seems as true as ever: there could be nothing worse than to be blind in Grenada.

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