Europe 2008 Part 30

At last to Granada

Monday morning we had our first look at Granada by daylight. and here are some of the shots we took:

 

 

This is the cathedral, built by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who were the royals who united the crowns of Spain, sent Columbus to find America, and conquered Granada from the Moorish rulers, the last part of Spain to be conquered.

 

They added a Chapel Royal to the cathedral, which contains the tombs of these two still.

 

Behind the cathedral is the central square of Granada, the old town centre. And all this was just a few steps from the hostel where we were staying.

 

Granada (population 500,000) is in a valley north of the Sierra Nevada mountains, which you can see in this photo topped by snow. ("Nevada" means "snowy").

 

South of the mountains is the Costa del Sol on the Mediterranean coast down to Gibraltar. 

   

In the opposite direction is the oldest part of Granada, the Albaycin, where the Moorish section of the population has traditionally lived for centuries.

 

 

You can see from this shot of one of the local schools how proud the people are of their style of architecture and of the beauty of the developed landscape.