Moorish Experience 

7/7/2016Granada😘😪

Vale.

Meet the people. Mama brown did it again. I am so glad I didn’t take a ride home from Madrid. The caves. Continuing our theme from No Shya Flya, we stayed at t Las Cuevas Al Albanica.

Granada pulled out all of the stops for us. It started with the complications of the ride here from Seville. The tracks were being repaired so we had to transfer fro the tracks to a bus. While the experience itself was easy enough, understanding what was happening while it was happening was one of those little mysteries to be solved while traveling.

We arrived soon enough at the station under construction which explained why we changed to A bus. As well as I just saw a major project replacing the tracks, the station project is probably just a parallel side project.

While our destination was close enough, we correctly decided to take a taxi because this place is a lot like Santa Fe, very hilly and very windy roads.

So taxis all lined up, we ended up with a young driver. He didn’t know exactly where it was and we did t know exactly where we were going so we paid a tax. Up a cobble stone path, switching back in the 100 degree afternoon sun. Because I am more like a mule I elected to carry our luggage because the casters did not work. Are we even at the right place? What did mama brown get us in to? 

Luckily there was a bench on top of a hill. There were people selling beer out of their house. It seemed like the perfect chicota. Besides, I smell some sweet flowers. Mamabrown said I’ll be back and bravely continued alone down the cobbled road into the unknown. Besides, we were warned by Rick Steves that this is in fact gypsy territory.

I was beginning to get a little bit nervous, when mamabrown came skipping around the corner with a huge smile. She found our place and it was better than we bargained for. As stated it was indeed a hobbit hole in a cave.

After we settled, I went back to the vista and hung out with some locals, Nuncio, Adrial, Julio. It turns out we were overlooking the alahmbra! I later met Nincio’s mom, Conchi. Minus the dreads, I fit right in. Nuncio offered to sell me a cave. Who knows…
As we were planning this trip we discussed how we wanted to experience the Moors. Our options were 1) look forward from the romantic eyes of the of the Alambra to Seville and then Morocco. Or 2) from the present day Moreucos looking back into the romance of the mysterious past. We correctly chose option 2. However, we could not have made a mistake.

In Rabat, we visited the Chellah, a place first settled by Phoenician in 70 ad. Then by the Romans, followed by the moors.

My imagination was set off in this place. 2000 years of people… People on people on people. I was so jealous of the people that first settled that land. The engineering marvels. My impression was that the engineers used the natural elevation to pressurize their water supply. I assumed that I was correct and put it out of my mind as a mystery.

What a precious oasis it was.
 Then it was on to Seville. Beautiful engineering and architecture with a blatant omission of moorish influence except that obviously the castle/cathedral builders borrowed everything from the moors! More about that later. I do after all have a point…

So, on to Granada we go. En route we discussed that we were only 70 kms from the beach. After all this is supposed to be “a beach trip”. However, 30 minutes in the cave house and we never wanted to leave. So e did the next best thing. We got reservations for Hammam bath house for our last night. 

Again, thanks for mamabrown doing her homework. We preordered tickets to the Alahmbra. We took the 2 mile stroll the back way to the spot.

it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a living Chellah! That was just the beginning. When we got to the top, everyone else had taken taxis or a bus. I felt so good having used the back passage. So we made our way in to the Alahmbra! It was absolutely amazing. Fantasy alive. The details the craftsmanship. Mind blowing.

The Alahmbra is as if engineers and architects married. The architects finally allowed the square building to be built. The hydraulic system is perfectly balanced. The gardens are intelligently laid out and the architecture is grandly practical.

My new friends said indeed that there were Aguascalientes at the bath house. If you know us, we are all about the “what?” springs! But Granada had to show off and make us second guess ourselves. An outdoor rumba, funk, hip hop show right by our cave starting when our hotsprings reservations were scheduled. Bummer. Piqued by the soundcheck, we made our way to the Museo de las Cuevas(the concert venue). We got to hear the soundcheck and imagine what a show in such a magical setting would be like.
Well it was worth missing the concert. I have no photos of inside the bathhouse. However pictures can be found online. The bath house was an experience of the glory days of the moors in Spain. The tile work was exquisite. The beauty of the balance was magical. The scrub down was annoying, but I got clean!!! And I really am that brown! The bath house was the experience that tied it all together.

The question that drowned out all others, the one that still burns in my mind,”how did the moors lose it?” 

It is said that the last moorish king wept overlooking this view as the kingdom fell.

What did them in, the moors were superior, seemingly in every way? It takes me back to a post that Hattak Ninvh posted. If the moors were driven out of Spain after 800 years of occupation, perhaps we will return the favor to our occupiers in the next couple of hundred years!