A Day at the Alhambra

Last night, I ended up hanging out by the Malaga Catedral and had some beer and food while relaxing by a garden. I love how Spanish culture is so laid back. Nothing great or extraordinary happened, it was just very relaxing. I called it a fairly early night, coming back at 2300 since we had the great Alhambra tour the next morning.

For the tour, we mustered at 7:30 on the dock and at 8:00 we were prompty picked up by the bus and our tour guide, Hernando. As we drove through the country, we learned many interesting, and useless factoids about Spain, such as how they grow asparaguses, peaches, and how Iberian ham is superior to other ham. I promptly put on Johnny Cash and Elvis when he started getting into how the Spanish prepare trout. It was a bit too early in the day for trout.

Our destination was the fabled Alhambra, the citadel of the last Moorish kingdom of Spain. Our tour guide was a man named Frederico who was fluent in about four languages. His erudition really impressed the cadets and crew that were on the tour, but even more impressive was the Alhambra itself. I was actually surprised that the normal apathy of our students was overwhelmed by the beauty of this complex. Photos are at the bottom of this post -- I tried to also take some surreptitious photographs of the cadets in case any of the maritime affliliated readers know them. They are in no particular order. This is just a selection of numerous photos I took since the uploading time is taking me well over an hour!

Anyway.... After wandering through the Alhambra in a nickel and dime tour (we only had 2.5 hours), we were sped off on a bus where our friend Hernando returned to provide us with fun and innocuous details of Granada as we sped through a penny and farthing tour of the city. By this time, it was 1:30 in the afternoon and we were all hungry. We had a free lunch with the tour and they knowing what Americans like, brought us to a buffet at a hotel! There we ate ham, paella, potatoes, steak, and other food that only mix well together when you are hungry. Apparently, Hernando thought it was important for us to completely absorb Spanish culture which meant eating late.

We gorged and I feel muy gordo. I know tonight there are a number of cadets seeing a bullfight, and they seem excited about the prospect. Most of them seem in good spirits although one commented to me he can´t wait to get to Greece because it is closer to Dublin and then closer home, so there definitely is some homesickness. Also, the cadets don´t know what to buy for their girlfriends or for themselves, which I found interesting. I just told them buy something you think she´d like. I´m not sure what sort of crafts Andalucia is known for, but I did tell them in Greece they should buy marble and vases for their loved ones. Anyway, tonight, all hands must be back by 2400 and we sail at 0800 so this will be the last batch of images until Greece. Hopefully, the email situation will be running smooth so I can stay in contact.

Incidentally, the funniest thing just happened. As I was sitting here in the internet cafe, typing this out, a cadet came in and logged into Facebook and what should I see but one of the pictures I took! This is the one of the Empire State VI from the Alcazaba. How weird! Anyway, I chatted with the student for a couple of minutes, but duh, I didn´t get his name!


Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Joe




A ceiling of the Alhambra

Bonus Photo: The Cathedral at Malaga

The Alhambra

The Alhambra

Alhambra

Alhambra - Generalife Gardens

Frederico our tour guide with rapt cadets and crew

Me at the Alhambra