On our first full day in Granada we were met by our guide Eduardo who grabbed us a taxi for the brief ride up to the Alhambra, a stunning Moorish palace build on a hill above the city of Granada between 1238 and 1358. It is quite a large palace, surrounded by a wall with a river below the wall for further protection from attack. Above the Alhambra is a smaller (though still sizable) residence called the Generalife, where the sultan would go for some relax time. The Generalife features several beautiful water fountains that were originally powered solely by the force of gravity from reservoirs at a higher elevation. Today these water features are powered by electricity in order to provide a more consistent show for the Alhambra's many visitors.

The Generalife garden is very beautiful and peaceful. Hopefully these photos will convey that a bit:

When we finished touring the Generalife it was time for us to enter the Alhambra. It is very ornate while at the same time being a serene place. The main features are very intricately designed plaster walls combined with ceramic tiles in a variety of geometric patterns. Pictures will describe it better than words:

This is the entrance to the sultan's chambers:

This is the ceiling of the sultan's throne room:

This is the ceiling of a room in the sultan's palace.

Orange County residents might have seen a fountain at the Irvine Spectrum shopping center which looks quite a bit like this fountain below, which is the Fuente de los Leones. I've heard that Donald Bren visited the Alhambra and was inspired to use the Alhambra architecture and fountains as a design theme for Irvine Spectrum shopping center.

After we finished our tour of the Alhambra and Generalife we said goodbye to Eduardo got into the taxi to take us down the hill. Our taxi driver was quite a skilled driver and seemed to be intent on both speed and finding the most complicated route down that he could. We went through some streets that could barely fit a Prius. And just when we thought we might be getting close to our hotel we would take another series of turns. I frankly have no idea if he was trying to run up the bill or just taking us home the best way he could for that time of day but I was really glad when we finally caught sight of the plaza where our hotel is located. I complimented the driver as we exited the car and he seemed quite pleased with that.

After some afternoon down time we decided to head out for an evening walk and dinner. We happened upon a restaurant called Siberius that was serving mostly seafood (including sushi and sashimi made by a real Japanese sushi chef). We had a really great meal that everyone was quite happy with. Usually the tab for four people including drinks is between $90 and $150 USD depending on what you order. The Euro is worth about $1.15 at the moment so the price in USD is a bit more than what it appears to be in Euros. Drinks and desserts are about half of the normal restaurant price in Orange County, CA.