The Final Stop and New Years Eve in Cordoba

On our last full day in Spain we spent the day in Cordoba.  It was a beautiful city, but unfortunately it was rainy and cold the whole time we were there so we didn’t enjoy our time as much as we should have. 

Here are a few shots from around the city:

ANDALUSIAN HORSES

The Andalusian are a breed of horses that were developed in southern Spain (hence the name Andalusian).  They are a beautiful breed and a group of them are held in some stables in Cordoba.  

Here are the stables.

And here are some of the horses!

NEW YEARS:

That night G and I went downtown for the city’s New Years party.  

The Spanish have a really interesting New Years tradition: They eat 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of the New Year.  You’re supposed to have one grape per second.   

Happy New Years!!

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Stop 3 and 4: the Andalusian countryside and Granada

After leaving Gibraltar we drove along the Spanish coast for a little bit and stopped to see the beach near Malaga and touch the Med one more time.  To our surprise the sand was almost black!   

Isn’t that strange?  Anyway, Seeing the beach here made me realize how much I love the Florida Panhandle beaches.  The sand there is so white and clean.  As pretty as the water was in Spain the beach experience was kinda ruined for me because there was so much litter along the beach.  It’s too bad- the area has so much potential to be beautiful.

Southern Spain has acre upon acre of olive groves.  We found out later that Spain is one of the largest producers of olives, but they sell the majority of them to Italy, who then press it into oil, packages it, and sells it as Italian!  

WARNING: apparently there are enough Spanish motorcyclists who like to do synchronized front wheelies on the highway to warrant precaution signs. Now THAT I would have liked to see!

GRANADA

Here’s a view of part of the town.  

We spent the first half of our day in Granada touring the Alhambra, an ancient Islamic palace that was used when the Moors controlled Spain. The place is HUGE with amazingly detailed engravings everywhere.  The photo above shows just part of the Alhambra complex.

Here’s another section of it.

We had a great time touring the place.  One hint if you ever decide to go: they only sell a limited amount of tickets every day, so if you can I would advise buying them online in advance.  Otherwise you have to wake up really early, hike up to the top of what feels like a mountain, and stand in line for a couple hours.  Not really the best use of time, but worth it if you have to.

Here’s another shot of Granada. 

Meet Wes, is my sister in law’s cousin! We met him over Christmas in Belgium.  He’s living in Granada studying Spanish and gave us a great tour of the area.  The best part was all the food!  He took us from one place to another to test the local flavors.  It. Was. Awesome. 

Random Factiod: Apparently you can grow your own weed in Spain, but you can’t sell it or carry more than a single serving.  I found it kiiinda wierd.

This is the Granada Catherdal

Again with all the gold!!

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First Stop in Southern Spain: Seville

Two days after Christmas Dad, G, and I packed up our bags, said a sad goodbye to my brother’s family, and flew south to the Andalusian Region of Spain.  One of the largest regions in Spain, Andalusia is located on the southernmost section of Spain and is famous for flamingo, bullfighting, olive groves, and tapas.   

 

We flew into Seville, the capital of Andalusia.  On our first night G and I went and saw a flamingo show.   

It was really neat to watch the dancers and hear the flamingo music.  I had never seen a flamingo show before and it was really fun see it for the first time.  

This is the Seville Cathedral.  Fun Fact: It is the largest gothic cathedral in the world and legend has it that the builders of the church stated that they wanted to build "a church so beautiful and so great that those who see it built will think we were mad."

Aren’t the carvings beautiful? 

This is Christopher Columbus’ grave

I don’t really know why they had a mirror on the ground, but a lot of people were gathered around it, so we figured why not take our turn!

One major difference between the spanish cathedrals and the other european cathedrals: the GOLD.  Every spanish cathedral we went into had tons of gold engravings.  You really won’t find that anywhere else.  

The cathedral had its very own orange grove.

This is part of the view of Seville from the church’s belltower.  You can see the bullring in this photo.

I loved how white the buildings are!

Part of the cathedral’s treasury.    

After seeing the cathedral we meadered the city a bit

My number one favorite thing about Seville: the orange trees.  The streets are lined with orange trees.  They are so beautiful and add just the right touch of exotic to the area!  

There were motorcycles everywhere!  

The inside of another church.

This is at the Plaza de Espa.

He’s such a stud :)

I swear I did not pose this guy.  

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