Ready for more Spain?  Alrighty!  Well I have to back up a little.  Before we went to Cordoba, we did stay one night in Madrid.  I skipped over it before because I really don’t have that many photos from there.  It wasn’t my favorite city by any means.  Just big and crowded.  So here’s what I remember about Madrid.  These were all taken on my point and shoot.

There were some beautiful buildings.

We made sure we went to this famous place for churros y chocolate.

And this was the sketchy place we stayed that had hookers standing not far down the street.  The first thing Lanette did was pull back the covers to see if the sheets were clean.  I didn’t blame her!

Then we stopped in Cordoba for a few hours on our way to Granada.  The further south you get the more Moroccan/Moorish influence you see.  This was a cool little market that I probably could have spent a lot of money in.

The signature Moorish keyhole doorways.  This was part of the old wall or old gate….. I don’t remember, but it was really old. 🙂

Our trip to Granada was all about the Alhambra, the Moorish palace built in the 14th century.  We hiked up to a spot with a beautiful view of the Alhambra.  It’s huge!

I was continually amazed by the carving in this place.  Amazing.

There was a team of photographers doing a “day after” type of shoot there.  If the couple wasn’t out of focus I would totally put this in my portfolio and say, “look, I’ve shot a wedding in Spain!”  Just kidding I would never do that.  It was really hard to not go pose that couple though.

Look at all of that detail!

Of course, after the Reconquista, portions of the Alhambra were used by Christian rulers.  Charles V, however, decided he needed something new to live in and built this interesting palace.

I’ve always wondered what the public baths that I’ve heard about in the history books looked like.  Well, here’s one.  Pretty cool.

The gardens were stunning.

Not a bad place to live, huh kitty?

Which one do you like better?  The horizontal or vertical view?

Water means life in the Muslim faith, so there were lots of water features.  The stairway below had cold, cold water running down either side so as you walked up the stairs you could run your hand through.

Beautiful.