Heading to Seville via Granada and Iznajar

Looking across the gardens back to the Partal Palace

"Granada will live again the glories of yesterday" remember that song. ???

Looking across to the Palaces

At 750m. Granada is certainly cooler than where we were at Alora. It sits on the foot of the Sierra Nevada which is  the highest mountain range in Espania & a ski resort with a summit of 3478m. This being an hour from the Mediterranean and an hour from ski fields, is well placed for the tourist of any persuasion, sporty, cultured, or indeed people just like us.
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Granada from Alcazaba watch tower

Granada has proved an interestingly beautiful city, mired in Moorish influence to this day, preserving its history to the delight of eastern and western tourists alike.
The big draw card here which we've mentioned before in relation to Spain is the Moorish occupation from 7th till the 14th  century. The Arabs left their mark in a complex of palaces and fortifications which though were modified  once the catholics wrested power back, still hold their Moorish architecture and decorations.  The Alhambra (which they started building late into the 13th century) is a complex of 4 palaces and sits in a commanding position over the expanding town below.

Beautiful designs and details of architecture

The Moors were an elegant defining civilisation with advanced ideas on architecture, construction, culture and art, in reality inspiring the Western countries out of their

Stunning views out of Palaces

Dark Ages, building truly stunning palaces with leisure, comfort, and aesthetics a priority, for those of the ruling classes that is, everyone else did the hard graft, but that is the story of conquerors through out history.
The old city is beguiling with its different sections, the original inhabitants the Jews then Christians followed by Arabs then once again the Christian domination.
It should be noted the the ruling Moors were very much "live and let live" allowing the Jews and Christians to carry on much the same as always after their take over, it

One of the many fountains
and courtyards in the palaces

was the crusaders and incoming christian rulers in the 14C that cut up rough on the population, expelling, converting, killing Arabs and Jews alike. Nasty people those Christians...... a recurring theme me thinks.......

There is a rich legacy of buildings from this era, palaces, mosques, Churches, convents, monasteries, fortifications, humble houses,and stunning villas. The story is huge with much being written, I have hardly started nor am I able to convey the breadth of it in these lines, but storeys worth reading if you have an interest. Again for us, we are enthralled with the epic

Impressive hallways

struggles,injustices and inequities visited from both sides over the centuries, right under our feet, not to mention the relative peaceful centuries in between when life for the ruling classes must have been quite sweet, all in these still standing buildings..

Nasrid Palace main courtyard

We spent 2 days in the town and as always the more you see the more you want to do but we moved anyways as we were due in Sevilla for a new HelpX position for the next two weeks. A clear cool Saturday morning saw us leaving Granada and made up the road to a large reservoir lake. We knew Andalucia to be the largest olive producing region in the world and at Alora thought we could see why ,but no, this area we were passing now was well tended olive groves as far as the eye could see, dotted with small service villages, very ordinary with an olive

Miles & miles of Olive plantations

processing factory at the centre.Very much akin to our diary factory villages dotted round NZ. These villages generally held little appeal, they were there for a reason, & that reason was not us and our tourist dollar.

We were heading to a camp that we  suspected would be closed and sure enough it was so we had a lunch on the side of the lake and spied across the water a tall church tower and a village on a rocky out crop. A quick consult of the map and we had another Pueblo Blanco in our sites , this time Iznajar (say "is nic ah").. It took about 30 mins to get there

Looking back to the town
of Iznajar

through hill to hill olives, arriving,  and  thru before we blinked.  Out the other side having missed the lot, we stopped got out and looked back to this stunning site.

Beautiful pots making a
colourful entrance into the square

We parked up at the first park, thinking we could stay quietly here for the night and headed into the village, up its narrow streets towards the ever present church and fortification which could only be of Arabic origins, possibly built over roman ruins.
The village was very tidy, original and not touristy at all. we spent 2 hours rambling to view points before making it back to our van and having worked

Looking out onto the reservoir
from the top palaza 

up a thirst went into a small nearby bar that proudly advertised they spoke English, but not only that, they were English and served a strong expat community. With the 6 nations Rugby playing, we were lured in. England were playing Scotland, so we sat with a paddy, a scotty, and pom,  had a lot of fun drinking and laughing and dancing,.... well no not dancing but a fun night was had followed by a delicious pub meal ie leek, choritzo sausage with blue cheese. Bloody beautiful.. Then back to the van for a quiet night in the public car park.

Amazing cemetery, such a
 different way they bury their
dead, but what a view!

Unusually we awoke to wind and rain, and after a quick shift to an outlook over  the lake for some breaky, the clouds parted and the sun came out once again. We then headed on to Sevilla to meet our new host and new home for the next two weeks ......

Iznajar at night