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I, and my good friend planned a short trip to both Spain & Maroc on winter 2011.
The plan was to rent a car from Madrid Airport, and drive all the way towards our hotel in Granada which we booked online, then spend 1 day in Granada, 1 day in Tanger (Maroc), and 1 day in Madrid. Total of 3days.
I would like to share my photos with all of you DF community, hope you enjoy it.

Day One - (Granada)

1) We arrived at Madrid Airport, and rented a car to start our journey.

At that time, the airport was in a chaos due to a strike carried by employees who refused to show up at work, thus created a big mess that many airlines had to delay their flights and a lot of passengers got stuck in Madrid. We were luck to get the last car which was ridiculously EXPENSIVE, but we had no other choice.



2) On the highway from Madrid to Granada.



3) Olive trees were planted through out the whole highway! It was amazing!



After the last Islamic Andalucian kingdom of Granada was overtaken by the Christians of Castilla, few changes occured in Alhambra such as the attempts of adding some Italian architecture in addition to the main Islamic architecture of Alhambra.

4) Courtyard of Charles V in Alhambra, was built next to the main Islamic Andalucian palace in the 18th century.



5) In the center of the courtyard, there is a circle which if you stand on and clapped, you can hear the echo all around.



6) Walking towards the main part of Alhambra.
Alhambra is actually pronounced as Alhamra. The proper old name is Qasr Al Hamra, which means the Red Palace. The word Hamra (Ahmar) is Arabic for Red.



7) One of Alhambra gates, this is the typical architecture of the Islamic Andalucian kingdom.



8 ) The whole palace is decorated with beautifull calligraphy of poems from the Andalucian period, and also some motos and phrases praising God, and the Nasrid kings, the last Muslim Andalucian dynasty of Granada.

I had to gaze and read the words very carefully as they're written in the Andalucian font which is different than the modern one of today. It says .. Alqudrato lellah (Ability to God) .. Almolko lellah (The Kingdom is God's) ..



9) Inside the rooms of Alhambra



10) Walls are all completely decorated beautifully!



11) Wall decorated with more calligraphy ..



12) This is the Nasrid dynasty's moto .. Wa la ghaleba ella Allah (And no victor but God).



13) The ceiling .. Its decorated in a way to resemble the seven heavens.





14) Another decorated ceiling ..



15) The calligraphy in this wall is written by ibn Zomrok, a famous Andalucian poet.

It says the following:

Beh-el marmar-ol majlowo qad shaqqa noroho *** Fa yajlo min-al thalma ma kana dajeya

With the shining marble shimmering light *** Burnished by the darkness that can no longer be overshadowed



16) Landscaping of the palace ..



17) Inside ..



18) Behind the columns are the 12 lion fountains, which were taken inside for some servies..



19) The 12 lion fountains ..
It was placed indoors for some servies. No cameras were allowed inside, so I took this shot from this angle.




20) ...



21) Towards the gardens of Alhambra ..











22) The view of Granada from Alhambra. The view was breath taking! One would think its a portrait!





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To be Continued..

Beautifull !

Thank you for sharing Sym. Really lovely photos.

Nice pics Sym, looks like you had a fantastic trip. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing. I like Spain especially Barcelona but have never been in the Southern part yet.

lovely pics Symm..

@DDS, Gracias amigo

@Bora, Your welcome dear. The view from Alhambra is just breath-taking ^^

@Chocs, Your welcome dear. I enjoyed every second of that trip, specially in Granada =)

@Mahmood, 3yoonek el 7ilwa

@Red Cheif, I've been to Barcelona too as well RC, but in my opinion the south is more beautifull and even romantic .. You shouldn't miss it! I plan on going back there again to visit the other southern cities such as Cordoba, and Seville.

- - I'm uploading more photos of the rest of our day in Granada, followed by Tanjer and Madrid photos as well.

WOOOW Amazing pics Sym, thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed them.

@Melika, Your most welcome jan
You know I keep on looking at the photos again and again and I just get more eager to back there again!
Aaaakh if I only I could go back in time and live there to enjoy it 24/7

I can't see your pictures Sym, I'm at work and I can never see anything from this computer. I will have a look when I get home. I love Spain, too. We had many a good holiday there when we lived in Germany. We used to drive there. I remember nearly getting driven off a massive roundabout in Barcalona by the Spanish Police. The Spansish drivers are nearly as good as the Emiratis!

Thanks for posting Sym. It's always nice to see people's holiday pictures.

Your welcome BM .. Make sure you browse the photos soon
Indeed, it is fun to share photos of our holiday!
I hiiighly recommend you go to the southern part of Spain, its amaaaaazing

-- Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:35 pm --

After I and my friend left the tour-group, we went driving in downtown Granada to explore the city.


23) On the way to downtown Granada, you can see the neigbhourhoods with the mountains far away behind covered with snow.



24) On the road ..



25) Thought it would be nice to take a shot of the signs

You can see Bario Albayzin, which is the old Islamic Andalucian district next to Alhambra.



26) Lost in the narrow streets of Granada!



We had our late lunch, a good walk in the downtown, and then went back to the hotel to rest.
Later at night, we were preparing ourselves for another tour-group to visit Albayzin district, and to attend the flamenco dance activity.

27) Albayzin, which means the quarter of the falconers, others suggest it means the miserables.
The district is so genuine reflecting a typical Islamic Andalucian archeticture of neigbhourhoods.
The houses are all built up a big hill or a small mountain, all next to each other with very narrow alleys.



The tour guide was from South America, Uruguay if I'm not mistaken. She lives in Albayzin and told me she's studying Arabic language to support her career in tourism. She was very friendly and kind like most of the other Spanish people I met.



Aljibe .. Arabic, Alkhibb.
(Untouched since the time of the Andalucian period. Its the place where people used to get their water from).



Aljibe is that brown thing you see in the middle ..



28) Walking in Albayzin with out tour-group ..



29) You can see Alhambra from here!



30) Alhambra from Albayzin..



31) An old dwelling in Albayzin, where we enjoyed the Flamenco show by the Gypsies





Interestingly, I heard plenty of stories about those Gypsies, but what I understood is that they're originally Indian people who immigrated to Europe and lived in several countries in the continent. They got mixed with different European people and perhaps some Moors of Andalucia.

Say hello to the gypsies



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((I always try to put extra efforts ensure that the shots are being taken in a good shape, so if there are any comments regarding them, perhaps I can improve something next time I travel))


To be continued...

It looks just like Cumbria Sym!

Very nice!

Glad you liked it
Whats Cumbria though??

Its a rock band

Great pictures Sym, thank you.

symmetric wrote:Glad you liked it
Whats Cumbria though??

The very beautiful English Lake District.

You're mOst weLcome Sage, glad you liked them.
Where have you been bro?? Long time no hear, no see.

So is Accra worth a visit??

-- Fri Aug 05, 2011 11:44 am --

Bethsmum wrote:

symmetric wrote:Glad you liked it
Whats Cumbria though??

The very beautiful English Lake District.

I'm adding it to my looong to-visit list