Granada, Spain 2007

This was my room in Granada.

It had a bidet!

The view from my window.

The Drug Delivery Foundation has its board meeting during this meeting. Not everyone at the meeting is on the board. Here is Marival, Jim, and Hiro. Hiro is not on the board, but he's a really nice guy.

Marival organized this meeting in Granada. She arranged for Gordon to have the "Royal Suite" so that he could host the board meeting. That room was bigger than my first apartment.

This was the view from a window in the hallway.

I went for a walk and saw some interesting shops. This is a Bonsai shop.

It was January, but there were citrus trees on the streets.

ENIAC. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The first computer, built at UPenn in the 40's. But here, it's just the name of a computer store.

Computers are called ordenadores in Spain. They are called computadoras in Latin America.

A tattoo parlor!

I loved this sign -- "Use for the excrement of your dog"

Recicle? Looks like icicle.

On Wednesday, we had the afternoon off. We went to visit the Alhambra. This is a complex of buildings for the Moorish sultans -- their residences, their halls of justice, etc. This round building (which is square on the outside) was the palace of Charles V.

This is a view of the Albaicin, the arabic quarter, that is next to the Alhambra.

The streets in the Albaicin are very narrow, sometimes only a mule can get through some of the streets.

Inside the Alhambra, you can see the intricate patterns on the walls. There are remnants of the original colors.

 

 

 

 

I don't know why there was this tiny opening in this massive wall.

We had an English speaking guide. He was quite knowledgable.

The pools in the center of a courtyard are very typical.

 

 

 

The very famous Patio de los Leones (Courtyard of the Lions). It was a wonderful mix of Muslim, Christian and Jewish themes. We were told that the fountain with the lions was a gift from the Jews who lived in the area at the time. The twelve lions representing the twelve tribes of Israel. During my visit, the fountain was being prepared for preservation, hence the fence around it.

 

 

 

There was an interior courtyard.

 

 

 

Washington Irving wrote the Tales of the Alhambra here in 1829. All the kids in Spain read this book. Americans have never heard of it. The book was for sale in almost all the tourist shops -- in English and Spanish. It was after Irving wrote the book that the Spaniards began preserving the Alhambra.

 

This is a section outside of the Alhambra that is called the Generalife. It was the summer palace of the sultans.

 

This is an ancient cypress tree. There was a legend about the tree -- that if you kiss it you will find the love of your life or something like that. It is called the Sultana's Cypress. She was supposed to have had a rendezvous with her lover under this tree.

One evening, we were all taken into the caves where the gypsies live to see a flamenco performance.

Flamenco has it's own culture. No one explained it to us, so we just watched. The girls came out and danced like whirling dervishes.

Then this guy with red shoes came and tapped his feet incredibly fast. The musicians would play and sing something. It was a frenzy of activity.

My return trip took two days. I went to Madrid and then to Barcelona, where I spent the night at this airport hotel.

The Madrid airport looks more like a mall than an airport. Or was I in Barcelona? I can't remember.

Flying from Barcelona to Amsterdam was beautiful.