Sorry for the delay on the blog lately I have been busy traveling and with homework. Last weekend I went to a small town called Ronda for the day with some friends. Ronda is situated up in the mountains and is absolutely breathtaking. There is a huge bridge that connects the old and new portions of the city and is over three hundred years old. We visited the Museum of Peinado, a friend of Picasso that studied with him. Nearly all of his work is there and he used styles of cubism, realism, and impressionism. The weather was great and it has finally stopped raining here, which has been great. 70s and better has been great and the people here are coming out of hiding. This past weekend I headed to Granada with my school. We toured the Cathedral there, which is renaissance style and influenced by Greek and Roman architecture. The exhibit in the building connected to the Cathedral has old garments from Ferdinand and Isabella more than 300 years old. After the Cathedral we headed to Capilla Real which has two large sarcophaguses. They are enormous and in size and pure marble. The detail is immaculate and photos were not allowed but I highly recommend taking a look at some of the photos online. Underneath them were the crypts of Ferdinand and Isabella, it was very cool to be in the presence of the bodies of some of the most powerful people in the history of the world. Afterwards some friends and I walked up one of the hills that the city is situated on and were able to see the sun set on the city and the Alhambra, a Moorish and Christian fortress from the 10th century. Friday night we headed out on the city and one of the cool aspects of Granada is that it still follows the old tradition of Tapas. For every beer you order you get some sort of a tapa. We had a few rounds of beers and got battered fried shrimp, fried eggplants with a brown sugar honey sauce, Calamari, and buttered and salted little clams. Saturday we had a tour of the Alhambra, which is without doubt, one of the coolest things I have seen in Spain. It was a stronghold of the Muslim occupation of Spain and a military fortress. There are multiple palaces and gardens inside and only one half remains because Napoleons invasion destroyed the other half. There is a story that a Spanish soldier cut the fuse to the bombs in the part that remains otherwise the whole of it would have been destroyed. After the Alhambra I headed to the science museum in Granda and was very impressed by the physics, human body, and Darwin exhibits. Lately in Sevilla the preparations for Semana Santa (holy week) has begun. During holy week hundreds of year old statues positioned on alter that are carried through the city by upwards of 40 men. They begin at their respective churches and one from every church, there are many in Sevilla, are carried to the Cathedral on respective days for a blessing and then return that night to their church. It is the largest celebration of its type in the world and the altars are breathtaking. I suggest watching a video on youtube to get an idea of the magnitude and reverence during the festival. Next week I am heading to Paris for 5 days and then Pamplona to meet my aunt Gloria’s side of the family. I will post the pictures from the last two weeks on facebook and will put the links up here so you can all view them. If you have any questions be sure to let me know.
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