Wednesday, May 18. For those of us having breakfast on the Sun Deck at the stern we were treated to a pod of dolphins off the port side. The day began overcast and we were warned that there could be some "liquid sunshine".
Buses met the ship docked in Motril. These were typical of the tour buses we rode in in Europe. Notice the two mirrors that extend from the top front of the bus--like insect antennae. You can also see the additional right side door towards the middle of the bus.
We had a narrated bus ride to the Alhambra (the red fort), originally built as a palace and fortress on a hilltop by Mohammed I in the 14th century. For Mohammed I it contained a spa. We learned is was from salutem per acqua--health by water--that we get the word spa. The baths were used by men in the morning; women in the afternoon. There were three: hot, warm, and cold.
The Alhambra became a collection of summer palaces and gardens in a royal city. The plantings included cypress trees, bitter orange trees, myrtle hedges, pomegranates, and eggplants. A garden inside one palace is shown here. Another is shown in the picture at the top of this blog entry. [While we were there the water streams appeared continuous. Notice that the picture, taken at 1/400 of a second, shows the stream as individual drops of water.]
We visited the Palace of King Charles V (right). He stayed there only one night. Inside were statues of King Solomon's 12 lions, representing the 12 tribes. [No photographs permitted.]
We walked around the fortification wall. The name of American author Washington Irving (1783-1859) came up several times and we saw a plaque with his name. Over the years the palaces and gardens had been abandoned and were decaying. Irving spent some time living among the squatters in the area. He collected the stories they told and published them as Tales of the Alhambra. That ignited interest in the palaces and fortress and prompted their restoration.
We left through this gate and walked to the Carmen de San Miguel Restaurant for a local lunch. At our table we asked for seconds of the fried eggplant with honey; it was so good. There was a lot of food.
After lunch, we left Spain's Sierra Nevada (snowy range in Spanish) for the bus ride back to the Corinthian II.
