Coffee break in the Alhambra... finally back to modern clean toliets :P I must say that on this tour, I drank more coffee than I have ever drank in the entire year..... Every morning was like expresso shot please!!! And on really tiring days, one more in the afternoon.



One of the more famous images of the Alhambra: the reflection of the buildings in the water...

Inner courtyards within the Alhambra



The court of the lions

Was so amused by Deborah lying down on the floor to take a good picture of the ceiling that I took a picture of her too...

View of Granada from the Alhambra. Story behind the lower left picture: I'm quite a lazy person when it comes to posture, so I'm always finding things to lean on while waiting for things to finish up (ie: people taking pictures/guide to stop talking). Somehow my pose must have been worthy of a picture, coz F. took one of me while I just stood there very amused at him.


This was the last city stop on the tour, from here on, it was on the road back to Madrid. Couldn't believe that we had already spent 2 weeks on the road with hardly any internet service or phone connections.... it was almost surreal when the familiar Madrid hotel showed up in front of us.... and it was back to reality.... haha... but overrall, while this tour did nt have the best hotels and food, the things that I saw in the 3 countries, including the friends that I made were definitely very rewarding. In a sense, can't believe that I've been able to finish uploading my pictures about the entire trip! There were a 1000 in all.... and next up, last pictures at the hotel.. and a bit about Lyon, the place where I'm at now :)

A really early early start from Rabat that morning. 4am wake up call to be exact... I don't think I was awake till midday at all. This because we needed to cross the border to get back to Spain and when you count the fact that we lose one hour crossing over to Spain, plus all the custom controls it was really like the whole day was spent travelling literally.... Over at the Spanish border after getting off at the ferry, we actually had to take our luggage out of the bus and go through customs with our luggage and after passing through immigration, wait outside for the bus to come back through and load the luggage back onto the bus all over again. Our guide had explained to us that the buses would be check separately and very thoroughly, therefore the need for unloading the luggage. I didn't really think too much about it, but was more impatient for the bus to come, coz it really took a while! It was only back on the bus that our guide told us that two stray Moroccan kids had been found hiding in one of the buses, a very common occurence apparently, that it hit me why the need for such stringent checks.... Even now I'm still amazed that that kind of occurence actually happened to one of our tour buses... I was wow... when I first heard the news..

Lunch stop along the Spanish coast, Costa Del Sol... near the city of Malaga... if I remember correctly, the 6th bigggest city in Spain. Famous people like Antonia Bandaras and Julio Iglesias were from this city.

Hanging around the road after lunch...


Arrival into Granada, Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance

Got into Granada about late afternoon. The hotel we stayed in was probably like my least favourite, coz my room was small and smelled of stale smoke, I couldn't wait to get out of there once I dumped my luggage. So went out with the girls and Dew to explore the city centre. Christmas lights were still on around the city, which was quite beautiful... but the city is small and easily covered... Personally, I preferred Seville.

Cathedral in Granada

Scary street poser standing in one of the crooks of the church. He would occasionally flash his glasses and let out wierd alien noises...

The main reason for our stopover in Granada, a visit to the La Alhambra. It is a palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers. Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, Granada was the final city to be re-captured by the Christian rulers of Spain. After the re-conquest, the site became a Christian palace and within the Alhambra, the palace of Charles V was errected. After being along to fall into disrepair, the Alhambra was rediscovered during the 19th century. It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions and exhibits the country's most famous Islamic architecture together with Christian 16th C architecture as well.

First stop, around the gardens.... Menita stopping for a drink in one of its fountains..





Water was a precious commodity then, and a symbol of wealth and power in those days was the ability to have flowing water in the palaces, hence many parts of the courtyards were often accompanied by such fountains as the one below. The fountains also provided a feeling of peace and tranquilty and a way of relaxing...


Charles V Palace...

Seville city tour: part bus ride part walking tour, Seville was once the site of the world expo, and many of the buildings built for the expo still exist and have been converted into other functional buildings, including the current Seville tourist office!

The landscape of Seville is dotted with orange trees. I must say that I ate alot of oranges during this trip. However, Seville oranges are very bitter, that's why you don't see people picking them from the trees. Oranges from Valencia are sweeter and the variety that most people eat. Seville oranges are used to make marmalade more than anything and also as a decoration as seen on the streets.

Palace of Lebrija, is now a museum. Originally a mansion built in the 16th century, extensive renovations in the early twentieth century by the Countess of Lebrija incorporated original mosaic floors that had recently been found in Santiponce, in the former classical Roman town of Italica. It also contains both local furniture and decorations, and items, sculpture and pottery, rescued from the ruins at Italica.

Personally, I was quite taken in the tiled walls and thought them very pretty, hence couldn't resist taking heaps of pictures :)

Continuation of the walking tour along the streets of Seville. Our guide showed us the old Aqueducts built by the Romans centuries ago when they inhabited the city. Bottom pic, middle. When you look at it that way, you gotta admire the engineering feats they achieved then, being able to bring water to the people over long distances.

While walking along the streets, this spanish guitarist suddenly appears and starts playing the guitar for us, which was actually a little annoying... Shirley wanted to help me to take a picture but I didn't want to pay him a tip, so she took it discreetly for me below.... haha...

Back at the Cathedral again, this time in daylight. Unfortunately, didn't have a chance to go in due to the timing of the trip, where we were in Seville on a Sunday and the church was closed the whole day due to Christmas services, but nevertheless it did look very pretty from the outside.




Interesting hotel advertisement.... enticing potential customers with the smell of your hotel :P

Last stop of the Seville Sightseeing tour: Old Roman preserved site where we got to see an Ancient roman city along with the stadium and the houses

These were originally the pride of the ruins, preserved tiles detailing animals and other themes, but due to a bad preservation idea gone wrong, many of the tiled floors were washed away by the rains and very few remain today..

Best part of the ruins, the stadium...


Spent my last few hours browsing through the shops in Seville, was actually quite excited by the shopping atmosphere in Seville and was looking for something to buy but of course you never find anything then do you? But i did try those fresh bunelos made in front of you.... pretty nice... and i actually got some sauce smeared on my coat, but luckily was able to clean it off :)

Overrall, I really welcomed Seville coz it was soooooo different from the quiet Christmas celebrations in Portugal.... and more excitingly... we were off to Morocco next!!! Obviously that was my favoure part of the tour...

After 2 days in Lisbon, including a very drunken christmas eve dinner at the hotel (:P), we left Portugal to head back into Spain, more specifically, the city of Seville located in Southern Spain. It was the last Spanish city we visited before heading into Morocco. It was a long drive to Seville from Lisbon and on that day we passed by many agricultural fields, including olive trees, cork trees, salt pools, Eucalyptus trees and orange trees.

Lunch stop in a small town in Portugal just 4km off the border of Spain. Saw the locals transporting livestock using these mini carts, and animals which looked suspiciously like mules or donkeys...

Arrived in Seville in the late afternoon, and as there were a couple of hours to kill, I ventured out into the town to look see look see. The city of Seville is easy to navigate and we were lucky that our hotel was located near the city centre. Within 15/20 mins I was in the city centre and happily snapping away. That day was the 26th, just after Christmas and the city was burstling! Quite a contrast from quiet Lisbon just a day prior. Pictures of Seville below.
\
While walking along the streets, came across a live band performing all the streets which was pretty fun to watch. There were also many sellers selling roasted chestnuts which reminded me a lot of home...


Seville Cathedral. It was built from 1401-1519 after the Reconquista on the former site of the city's mosque. It is amongst the largest of all medieval and gothic cathedrals. The interior is the longest nave in Spain. Most famously, the Giralda, orginally a minaret, was converted into a bell tower. It is topped with a statue, known locally as El Giraldillo, representing Faith.

Seville at night. Top right picture is the Seville Bull ring stadium. Bull fight season is usually in Spring/Summer. In Spain, there is a controversy about Bull fights as the Bulls are killed in the ring, and animal activists see the bull fight as an act of animal cruelty. Notably, in Portugal, their bull fights are different in the sense that Bulls are not killed in the fight. Victorious bull masters are usually rewarded with a body part of the bull, usually the ear, or the tail.

That same night, we went for a optional excursion to see Flamenco dancing. It was in stark contrast from the Portuguese Fado the night before. I think that most people enjoyed this optional better. The dancers were really good, though it became obvious later on that it's a very strenuous dance and as such, Flamenco careers are often very short.