Alhambra Palace

Several days ago we went to the Alhambra Palace (literally meaning "the red one" because of all of the red sandstone in this area). The Alhambra Palace is located in Granada, Spain, and is a beautiful example of all of the intricate carvings often seen in Islamic architecture. Because Muslims believe that no one other than Allah can create man (or the image of man), their paintings and architecture often show huge displays of floral and geometric patterns (and then arabic text is often worked into these designs). 

Inside one of the central courtyards, looking back at three main archways.

Looking at the patterns incorporated above the archways.

Leland and Ruby inside the Palace.

Rita and Brad standing in front of one of the Palace's larger reflecting pools.

Charlie and Vail inside the palace.

Vail, Julia, and Leland inside the Palace.

Brad looking at the metallic patterns of the archway.

A large reflecting pool.

The Olympic Stadium and the National Art Museum of Catalunya

In the metro station before we left to go out for the day.

Outside the Barcelona Olympic stadium of '92. It still looked so clean and beautiful. It was so amazing to see!

Inside the stadium...

Outside the stadium with Juju and Charlie.

Looking out at the Mediterranean and across the seaport of Barcelona.

The Barcelona cityscape.

The National Art Museum of Catalunya. This beautiful art museum holds over 1,000 years-worth of artwork from Catalunya (a region that includes several cities, one of which is Barcelona).

Inside the museum.

Walking around Barcelona

Some fun graffiti that Vail liked.

The Arc de Triomphe of Barcelona

A beautiful street corner...

Basilica de la Sagrada Familia and more Antoni Gaudi architecture

The outside of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, designed by Antoni Gaudi. The basilica was started 128 years ago, and Gaudi spent the last 12 years of his life finishing the designs of the building so that it could be completed by the church in the years 2020-2040.

Inside la Sagrada!

The ceiling of la Sagrada!

Still under construction...

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

          

A performer outside la Sagrada.

An outer face of la Sagrada.

Another Gaudi building, but this one is on 'the corner of chaos'.

June 8th: La Rambla and Gaudi

We started out today by going to La Rambla boulevard, one of the most famous boulevards in the world. We saw street vendors, living statues, and beautiful architecture, and had lots of fun.

Cheers!

Great paella!

And then it was off to the Mercat de la Boqueria where there was so so much candy, meat, cheese, bread, and everything you could need.. and probably more than you needed (like the goat heads, hooves, and other strange things).

On the rooftop at Gaudi's palace.

The mistresses' chamber pot...

 

The gang outside Gaudi's palace.

And finally a view of the Mediterranean from our room as the sun begins to set around 9PM.