Day 35_Girona

"We don't speak Spanish here," said the man at the cafe.  I had a long and interesting discussion with a young man (who had visited the United States and was very fluent in English) about his country.  Actually, what I had wanted to know was whether the Art Museum was worth a visit, but our conversation went to a discussion of Girona, Catalyuna, Andalusia and Spain...Like my initial feelings yesterday, ordering coffee this morning, I was greeted with "Hola" and goodbyed with "Merci"-- a combination of French and Spanish.  The impact of Spain's longtime leader Franco has never been on my radar.  Perhaps it was a lack of political science classes, but I didn't realize how his regime had effected Spanish culture.  I gave a lecture on Franco the other day and this is what we discussed.  Francisco Franco (1892 - 1975) was a former military general who became dictator of Spain from 1936 - 1975.  He was in charge during the civil war which defeated Catalyuna in 1939 and drew this part of Spain into its borders.  To win this war, he enlisted the help of other good guys including Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.  In fact, Germany tested many of its blitzkrieg innovations during this civil war which they ultimately used against Poland to start WWII.  (Picasso's Guernica was a depiction of this war.)  After Franco conquered this part of Spain, he required all of Spain to use only Spanish for documents and forbade the use of Catalyuna language (which is kind of like a mix of French and Spanish--mostly Spanish).  His right wing authoritarian regime dissolved the Spanish parliament and instituted a platform of Spanish nationalism, Catholicism and traditional values (which sounds good on paper).  In fact, he maintained control of Spain through systematic suppression of dissident views through censorship, coercion, imprisonment of his ideological enemies in concentration camps and the death penalty to make his point.  Some credit him with the death of 200,000 people.  For Franco, national homogeneity was a political matter so Spanish and Spanish values were instituted.  For women, Franco believed that their role in society was traditional and that they were to be a)  good daughters to their parents, b) support their husbands, and c)  raise the children.  Because Catholicism was the national religion, there was no divorce, contraception or abortion.  When Franco died in 1975, Spain slowly changed to a democracy and allowed artistic, sexual and political freedom in Spain. 

I visited the Museum of Archeology in Girona which showcased its history from hunter-gatherers some 700,000 years ago, through Roman times, to the Middle Ages.  The museum is inside an 11th century church, which became a military station under Franco.  Examining historic photos of the church through aerials, I initially was confused why it was called St. Pedro and not Sant Pere as it is called now.  Franco's regime was the answer, as everything was in Spanish at the time.   Another interesting item at this museum were Roman milestones.  I am in the land of metric which makes things really easy.  Ever wonder where "miles" came from?  It didn't occur to me until I was reading the interpretive signs which are in Catalyunan, Spanish and English--and our measurements for once agreed in the language.  "Miles" come from Roman measurements where 1000 double paces = 1 mille, which is about a mile.  These markers were stones that contained honorary inscriptions with the names and titles of the emperors or magistrates under whom the mandated road was built and their distance in miles to the next city.  These particular ones were found along Via Augusta, the Roman road through Gerunda (the Roman name for Girona).

Today was a sketch day for me.  I have written a lot and taken plenty of photos to chronicle the trip.  Drawing, however, is a different way to understand place as you reduce the drawing to what you deem the most important parts.  It was a good way to "see" Girona and take a deep breath of quiet.

Some quick observations:
1.  People actually smoke when they ride mopeds.
2.  Spain has imported some questionable American culture.  At lunch today I witnessed people smoking Marlboros and Lucky Strikes, drinking Fanta and Coke, while we listened to Air Supply.

Day 34_Sevilla to Girona

We thoroughly enjoyed the three Andalusian jewels of Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla; however, it is time to start heading north for fun and some more business.  I am in Girona (north of Barcelona) for two reasons:  to catch my Ryan Air flight from Spain to Sweden +  my landscape architect buddy said it was beautiful and worth the trip.  Leaving my apartment in Sevilla I was having regrets that I hadn't found a quicker way to Sweden, without two days of additional hotels while I await the flight.  However, now that I am settled in a beautiful modern hotel in the old section of town, the downtime will be good.  It's hard to stop working cold turkey like this as I have been at full bore for so many months now.

Visiting Barcelona a couple of weeks ago, I didn't fully realize how much more French it feels here, than the very Spanish feel of Andalusia.  Take the food.  For some reason I thought Spain would have spicy food.  Andalusia had Middle Eastern influences with cumin, curry, and cinnamon in its meats and vegetables.  If you have had Indian food, you would recognize the Andalusian menu (except that there would be ham on everything).  Girona, on the other hand, has crepe shops and I had onion soup for lunch.  The Moorish influence on architecture that was critical to understanding Andalusia, is not present here.  There is no tilework or river stone paving.  Regardless of the weather, tables and chairs are pulled outside of restaurants and people sit there more than inside.

Since I had not had my typical hours of walking, I headed out to explore Girona.  I passed through the former Jewish section of the city (9th - 15th century) and stopped into the Museum of Jewish History in Girona.  It was very interesting and made the neighborhood around it spatially make sense.  Unlike the Moorish filigree of southern Spain, here the rock walls and architecture are much more plain.  I climbed to the towers on the historic city walls and saw panoramic views of the city below.  You can see the red tiles roofs, the river, the large park (biggest in Catalyuna), the ubiquitous cathedral spire and mountains beyond.  Walking back to the hotel, I walked through the University of Girona campus and felt at home with all the college kids, their backpacks, sitting everywhere, drinking coffee.

I flew Ryan Air this morning and I guess I shouldn't be shocked based on their reputation, but the entire flight was a commercial.  After my choice of expensive menu items, I could buy lottery tickets, then telephone cards and assorted other stuff.  It just kept coming.  I have never seen anything like it.  Flight attendants were busy in sales for most of the flight.

Day 33_Sevilla final day

Office hours were held in the gardens at the Alcazar from 11 - 2pm.  This was our last class day and I individually reviewed each student's work, from their independent studies to sketch and design exercises over the past month.  At 2pm it was finally my turn to see this Royal Palace which began in the 10th century, had an addition in the 14th century, and a final one in the 16th century (you can see bits of two in this image).  The palace is still used by the Spanish royal family, but we couldn't tour those rooms.  Of the upstairs tour of furnished apartments one intrigue for me were the large paintings of the three wet nurses for the royal children circa 1700.  None of the three women was Spanish, but apparently they had great milk.  There have been periods of Spanish history with mutual religious respect between Muslims and Christians.  That said, Sevilla's Alcazar represents a Moorish design by a Christian king and has many design similarities to the Alhambra both in the architecture and landscape architecture.  Philip "The Cruel" did the most work on this building and even had Quran quotes added to the walls of his bedroom.

The gardens are older than the Alhambra with 14th century courtyards surrounding the palace.  Laid out on strict grids, these beautiful and lush gardens typically contain a water feature.  Small houses for shade become focal points in the garden.  My bench was in the shade of filtered tree canopies and was a very comfortable 70 degrees, despite daytime highs of around 100 degrees.  As I have said before, the Moors knew how to design for the heat.

We had multiple dinners, as the students are like me, and like to eat as we make our way across the city.  Starting at the river at 6pm, we had tapas and cold beer and watched people kayak the Guadalquiver River.  From there we moved to another rowdier place and had more tapas, beer and sangria.  Chantal's parents joined us and their addition to our tight group was refreshing--like someone new coming to the party.  One more stop for the evening was to watch flamenco at a small, locals place.  I did not realize the emotional level of this music and dance form.  Starting the show, the melancholy voice of the singer was accompanied solely by guitar.  When his soulful voice came to a place of crescendo, the dancer rose and danced with his singing, finding physical resolution of the music.  It was a fitting end to the evening.  Hugs around and safe journeys to all before we headed home.

Day 32_Sevilla bike ride

We are all sunburned with the local daytime temp of 93 degrees.  Today we rented bikes to better explore the city.  I wanted to see the development of the riverfront as well  as Maria Luisa Park.  Trying to do anything with 13 people takes at least an hour, i.e., renting bikes, having lunch...whatever it is.  We had two more guests in our party as one of the student's parents have arrived in Spain.  Everyone will be traveling for an independent week starting Thursday before they meet my co-conspirator Prof. Bev Bass in Amsterdam next week.  The first 30 minutes of our ride we were together and saw the elegant Calatrava bridge (Puente del Alamillo) which I had wanted to see. Santiago Calatrava is an architect, but he designs terrific bridges.  Some of the students are interested in transportation design so we attempted to stay in bike lanes traveling through the city.  Unfortunately, half the group didn't wait for the caboose crowd who missed traffic lights and we quickly became two groups  (I waited for the caboose crowd).

My half spent the next five hours easily traversing the city.  We saw both old and new neighborhoods and stopped for lunch in a tiny corner plaza, ordering a couple of dishes (each) from the menu and lots of liquids.  I will miss such dishes translated as "pork with ham" (?).  Hmm...don't know how vegetarians, Muslims or Jewish people eat here as ALL food has some sort of ham in it.  Pig is the national food and must have its own food group designation here.

Plaza de Espana is under restoration, but is definitely still worth the trip.  Designed for the 1929 international fair which celebrated Spanish design (Barcelona's Mies van der Rohe was for the same event), this U-shaped structure highlights individual Spanish cities and is considered "world fair architecture."  I thought it was beautiful with Moorish tiles and a sort of minaret cap to the  end buildings.

My paper on Balboa Park includes a discussion about how the design of Maria Luisa Park (1911) was appropriated by the Olmsted Brothers for its landscape "feeling"as well as representing Mediterranean design (in their opinion) for California circa 1912.  Like the gardens in Barcelona, this park represents another fabulous example of Mediterranean park design.  Turf is little used except where people want to spread out or kick a ball, with the remainder of the park lush in trees, understory plants and vines.  Fountains are everywhere.  This was definitely the coolest (both design and temperature-wise) place we visited. 

A couple of other observations:  marble floors and trash.  Not only does my apartment have only marble floors (and no carpet) but so do two of the student apartments I saw yesterday.  The marble is very cooling on hot days and we all pad around barefoot to bring our body temperatures down.  The other interesting thing is how many people litter here.  Not big things, like a bag of trash, but little pieces of paper are constantly thrown on the ground.  At the same time, I have never seen no many people cleaning--from sweeping streets immediately after trash is dropped to mopping the marble floors found everywhere.  Perhaps if others are always picking up after you, it becomes habit to throw your trash on the ground.

Day 31_Sevilla

Like most cathedrals in Spain, the main cathedral in Sevilla lies atop a former mosque.  The Reconquista of 1238 changed Andulasia from Islam to Catholic; however, the city of Sevilla continued to use the mosque basically as it was for another 200 years.  In 1401 the mosque was razed except for the bell tower, in which the minaret was remodeled into a Christian bell tower, and the cloister which was the former patio of orange trees (which was kept intact).  (Remember the same design at the Mezquita which was a place of ablution where people of Islamic faith would wash their face, hands and feet prior to entering the mosque.)  The way to tell which building was first is based on materials:  the mosque and bell tower were constructed of brick, while the cathedral was constructed of stone.

Sevilla's cathedral is the third largest in Europe, with St. Peter's (Vatican in Rome) and St. Paul's (London) running 1st and 2nd.  However, it does have the largest high altarpiece (65' tall) carved out of walnut and chestnut with gold leaf and dust covering the whole thing.  (I had read a while back that when Mexico lost the Mexican-American War in 1848, they were doubly bummed when California struck gold in 1849 as the Spanish had been looking for gold in the New World since the 1500s.)  It is hard to photograph how large this building actually is--most of my pictures thus far seem like they were taken with a strained neck (as they were) because you cannot get back far enough to show how large so many of the buildings are in context.  I have a fondness for cathedral ceilings as they are particularly ornate.  (I am not sure when people were supposed to look at the ceiling.  In mass at the Mezquita, I took surreptitious glances at the ornate wood carvings of the choir, but was afraid one of the 17+ priests would think I was not paying attention to the service ((in a language I didn't understand...))  Definitely visit this Cathedral, as there is an amazing view from the bell tower of the entire city of Sevilla.  You will see numbers on the wall as you climb.  Know that you have arrived when you hit the 34 1/2 floor.  (In the days of the mosque, men on horseback rode to the top of the bell tower 5 times a day to ring the bell to come to prayer.  I believe that the horse deal was part of the architectural design package when recommended to the city.  Once is long, but five?  Five times a day requires a horse...)

We further explored the former Juderia, which is the Jewish section of the old town, which has not been Jewish since the 1300s.  The beginning prejudice against the Jews in Spain began in Sevilla around 1391 with pograms.  These acts of terrorism against a peaceful people spread through Spain from here.  Walking through the old town now, the plazas are dedicated to Mary and saints.  However, the design is Moorish with Casa Herrera (1920s)  in Santa Barbara  being a great prototype for the type of design in this place.

Day 30_Cordoba to Sevilla

It is an easy and cheap two hour bus ride from Cordoba to Sevilla.  From what I had read, Sevilla represents the idealic Spanish city.  Like Cordoba, it is very hot (85 - 90 degrees) and its only April--God love it in July and August.  The architecture is elegant, there are many shady parks, and the city wraps itself around the Guadalquiver River, the same river that Cordoba turned its back on.  Restaurants line the river with wide walking paths and built in benches with a fabulous view.  Walking around at sunset time of 9:00pm, people strolled slowly everywhere.  It kind of felt like Paso Robles in the summer as it had cooled to about 75 degrees.

Today was the last day of Feria, which is a springtime festival in Sevilla.  Women were dressed in traditional flamenco type dresses with large flowers behind their ears.  Hundreds of private, tented parties were held in the fairgrounds, but I didn't know anyone to get into any.  To end the festival, there was a bullfight tonight.  I watched it live on TV, in both horror and amazement.  The event feels part dance, part bravado.  All the bullfighters were dressed in beautiful gold braided suits.  One of the helpers rode a horse who was protected by a bamboo-like skirt.  The horse was blindfolded.  This helper use a long lance to stab the bull.  The other helpers were on the ground, held yellow and pink satin capes and used shorter, green ribboned knives to stab the bull.  These guys would run and hop over the wooden walls like rodeo clowns when the bull chased them.  When the bull had been stabbed enough, the matador returned with a red cape.  He had removed his hat and was sweating profusely probably through a combination of heavy clothes, a warm night and nerves.  After much sweeping of the cape in front of the bull, he would turn his back on its horns and the audience would clap for his bravery.  I had to cover my eyes at the end as it was not entertaining to watch the bull die.  This experience confirmed that I will not be attending a live show.

Day 29_last day in Cordoba

Every other American here has a copy of Rick Steves: Spain under their arm.  Rick Steves and I don't always agree as I don't think he cares about landscapes.  Based on his poor recommendation, I did not take the students to the Alcazar, or Christian Royal Palace (c.1236), yesterday.  I would agree with him that the building was not very informative, despite its incredible history.  No map or floor plan was provided so it was impossible to know what you were looking at:  where was the tower for the Inquisition?  Where were the Royal rooms?...Since it is Saturday it is a free day for class, but a couple of students joined their trusty leader to see a few more interesting places.  The Royal gardens at the Alcazar are beautiful and reminiscent in design of the Generalife.  They have formal, clipped evergreens, infilled with flowers, with gravity-based water features throughout.  We took a ton of photos and I kicked myself for not bringing the rest of the group.

We also visited a 10th Century synagogue in the Juderia section of town.  This sinagoga is only one of three built prior to the Inquisition (1492) that is still standing.  I especially wanted to see it to see how different religions share design.  In many ways this synagogue is like the Mezquita with its extravagant stone carved walls, except that rather than Quran quotes, it has Hebrew quotes from the Torah.  My conclusions are that in Cordoba, Muslim, Christian and Jewish places of worship readily borrow design from each other.

I also wanted to see where everyone lives in Cordoba and left the dense, tight streets of the historic core to venture outside the walls to the modern city.  Modern Spain has long, fast traffic streets, wide sidewalks, with long linear parks between traffic lanes and a mix of Roman ruins thrown in for good measure.  For me the Roman ruins are fascinating, but it must be a drag if you are trying to develop your property and happen upon a precious Roman temple...and now own a cultural resource for your country.  The long linear parks are well used and include the only grass I have seen.  I still can't decide if you can have a successful park without grass.  The weather has been hottest here as we are inland--around 85 - 90 degrees.  The trees and grass are cooling.  I walked along typical residential streets, peeking into the interior courtyards.  Most homes had a lush interior patio with its Moorish influence--another shade place.

In France, people constantly walked against the lights and jaywalked safely.  In Spain I witnessed my busdriver gun it when he saw an elderly woman start crossing the road.  When the lights turn green for pedestrians here, everyone stays put and is afraid to cross!  Never have seen anything like it!  Clearly pedestrians do not have the right of way.  Wonder whether it is wise to rent bikes again in Sevilla...

Day 28_Cordoba: the Mezquita

I am not cheap, I just like great cultural experiences.  I read that if you get to the Mezquita for mass, you can enter for free and bypass the 8 EUR entrance fee.  I didn't require any of the students to join me at that time--only those who wanted to come early and perhaps attend a Spanish mass.  At 8:30am, there were only about 20 people in the former mosque, now cathedral, so we had the world site to ourselves.

A few notes about the Mezquita, in case you don't know....Cordoba was at the height of Islamic culture from 756 - 1236.  The mosque began construction in 786 over the top of a razed Visigoth 6th Century church.  Eight hundred and fifty columns support the building, double arched for extra bracing, with all in a maroon candy stripe:  some painted, some built of brick.  The posts vary in marble, granite and alabaster, all recycled from ancient Roman ruins and conquered Visigoth churches. (This variation, however, does not detract from an cohesive overall design.)  When Cordoba was conquered by King Saint Ferdinand III in 1236, the city changed from Muslim to Catholic.  A smallish cathedral was inserted into the center of the mosque in the 16th century and though totally incongruent with the mosque, reveals an interesting mix of cultural design.

We attended mass in the choir of the Cathedral.  I have been to hundreds of masses so it is interesting to know the English version of what they are saying, but know nothing about what they are saying since it is in Spanish.  One of the students who attended said that most of the homily and readings were about the Resurrection--which makes sense since it is close to Easter and Pentecost.  This service was extremely traditional with 17 priests (don't know why), many in purple robes with Spanish lace undercoats.  The entire mass was sung, not spoken.

Outside of the cathedral, yet still within this stadium size compound, is the Patio de los Naranjos:  Patio of the Orange Trees.  Originally this place was where the Muslim attendees would do a ritual washing in the fountain prior to entering the mosque.  The orange trees in this area line up with the existing interior posts to form a symbolically extended place of worship.

The afternoon was spent relaxing for me:  the students were sent on a scavenger hunt for design details in the Juderia or medieval Jewish neighborhood of Cordoba.  I again went out for tapas.  We re-met three hours later to review their drawings and discussed what they had seen.

Day 27_Granada to Cordoba

We finally had an easy travel day in a major city move.  The quiet 12 EUR, two hour bus ride from Granada revealed a landscape that must include the world's market on olives.  There were literally MILLIONS of acres of olives, in a grid, over mountains, down valleys, as far as you could see in every direction.  Apparently the trees are not picky about soils as we saw them growing in all conditions.  Happily for this climate, they need no additional water once established.  We often receive a small bowl of olives free of charge at restaurants.  Now I know why.

After settling in to the hostal, I went to a nearby restaurant and had some local ethic fare.  Tapas are small appetizer size meals.  I had two.  Albondigas mozarabes is meatballs in an almond and cinnamon sauce.  There was also a chickpea, carrots and sausage stew.  Both were a mix of Spain and Arabic-influenced dishes.  For breakfast I had had a typical Spanish dish:  toasted bread with pureed fresh tomato and prosciutto.  About 95% of all dishes in Spain seem to contain some sort of pork....they love pig here.

Spanish citizens use about 1/3 of the energy of a typical American.  That's good; however, what that means is that all lights are on sensors and you are often in the dark, including commercial spaces.  My current hostal requires me to find my doorway in a dark hallway, grasping for a dimly lit outlet to unlock the door.  To turn on the electricity in my room, I insert the room key into a wall outlet.  (You never lose your room key.)  When I leave, it's a bit tricky to pull closed the center doorknob and lock the door in a dark hallway.

A couple of other interesting notes.  French and Spanish women wear their wedding rings on the right hand.  I originally thought many people were divorced until I realized they all had their rings on the other hand.  Who decided this tradition anyway?  Also, lotto fever is nuts here.  There are booths of lottery tickets lining streets, at the bus and train stations, even people walking into restaurants in case you want to "win big."  Unfortunately I will never win, as I never play.

Day 26_last day in Granada

With our travel problems, we decided to meet at the bus station and secure seats to Cordoba in the morning.  Hopefully there will be no bus strikes tomorrow, as we seem to choose the wrong transportation method each time.  A visit later to the Royal Chapel finally put the family tree together for me.  Ferdinand and Isabel we all know from Christopher Columbus.  However, their marriage unified most of modern Spain with how much land each brought to the marriage.  The southern kingdom of Andalusia remained Moorish until Ferdinand and his troops conquered the leaders of Granada--thus the country became Catholic.  They had a son named Philip I (Philip the Fair as apparently he was hot) and he married Joan (later called Joan the Mad).  Apparently she had jealously issues because of his looks and after he died, kept his corpse in her room for two years, kissing it each day.  They had a son named Charles V, who inherited an enormous kingdom from Holland to Bulgaria.  Charles moved the court to Granada.  His son Philip II moved the court to Madrid and ended up losing most of Spain's riches and power.  The leadership's intent on a Catholic kingdom overseen by one ruler was their surmise.  The coffins of Ferdinand, Isabel, Philip I and Joan are in the Royal Chapel in plain black boxes--which is a bit creepy--as they are really there....

One thing I have yet to get used to in Spain is siesta time, also called my errand time (1:30pm - 6pm) when everything closes.  I hiked 30 minutes uphill today to see a mosque, whose archives present the Muslim perspective of Granada.  Arriving at 2:30pm, the door closed for siesta.  Nice hike I figured, so I headed for my tea house in town to get onto the internet.  Arriving there, it was siestaing, too.  I don't like running errands after 6pm everyday.

Another interesting thing in Spain is the location of their doorknobs.  Kind of reminds me of Alice in Wonderland--fairytale-like, I guess.

Day 25_Alhambra

I have not read the book, but the Alhambra must be on the list of Things to do before you die.  We arrived at 1pm, left at 8:30pm, returned for a night time visit at 10:00pm, and still did not see everything.  I've studied the Alhambra from historic photos and maps as it served as inspiration for the Olmsted Brothers' (landscape architecture firm) original design for Balboa Park in San Diego.  Maps and historic photos however never were spatially clear to me.  The 13 hectare site (about 32 acres) was a small city of 2,000 people at its height.  Originally a Moorish city, when Andalusia was conquered by the Christians, it became the seat of the Royal Court of Spain under Charles V.  Charles continued to build onto the site with his palace.

When I return to California, I have decided to study Moorish water engineering as they really mastered how to carefully use water in the Mediterranean.  They also perfected human scale design in a truly modernist way--especially for the 12th and 13th centuries.  The stone designs are elaborately detailed, but the monochromatic color simplifies the architecture.  Charles V's palace, on the other hand, seems overly heavy and out of scale compared to the rest of the site with its Italian influence.

The gardens or Generalife are also inspirational for design when I get home.  My photos cannot show how beautiful this place really is....but I will include some.  The audioguide included snippets of Washington Irving narrating his book.  Though it was late when we got home--midnight or so--I picked up the book again and kept reading as it was addicting to hear his eloquent discussion of a place I had seen that day.

Day 24_Granada

I got up early this morning to return the rental car to Avis at the train station.  If you want to get around in Granada, do not take out the car.  It took over an hour to get to the reasonably nearby train station as roads were blocked by parents dropping off their kids at school; road construction; one ways the way you want to go; no left turns for 10 blocks to go the right way; streets that end in a dead end....Walking is the easiest mode of travel.  You also get to see things at a slower pace.

We visited the old section of Granada this morning, taking a walking tour from Corral del Carbon, where merchants used to bring their camels to rest, get water and spend the night.  The paving is from the 14th century as is the Moorish filigree around doorways.  Weaving through plazas and narrow streets we stopped at the Cathedral.  By the way, the paving everywhere is intricate stonework.  They must have had a lot of laborers!   This huge and beautiful church was built on top of a former mosque.  When Christians overtook Granada after 700 years of Moorish rule, they purposely obliterated many of the former religious sites.  Interestingly, this church emphasizes Mary over Christ in statuary and words.  As a small gesture, Mary was more palatable to the Muslim converts as she is revered in the Quran.

We climbed out of the lower part of the city and had lunch under a wisteria strewn pergola, with views of the Alhambra.  Cercis canadensis (Redbud) seems to the prominent urban tree in both Barcelona and Granada with its brilliant pink bloom.  We passed the Moorish baths from the 11th century and ventured into Sacromante, the area of town where the gypsies live.  Some even live in caves with a lovely door on the front...  Their neighborhood is all white (must be in the CC & Rs) and is reminiscent of Greece.  This people group prefers to call themselves 'Roma' as gypsy has a bad connotation.  (Two students did have their fortunes told on the way to the Cathedral just as the tourist book said would happen.)

The top of San Nicolas Viewpoint (Mirador de San Nicolas) provided the panoramic views (and the best in the city) of the Alhambra.  You can see snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background.