Our first stop was the Ayuntamiento, which is the city hall. The statue on top represented something, that I cannot quite remember. It is located in the Plaza del Carmen.
We then went to Corral del Carbon, (Coal Corral), which is the only monument left by the Arabs in Granada. It was originally used as an inn for merchants in transit, warehousing and wholesale market.
This is what the inside of the arch looks like when you look up.
The courtyard inside the entrance.
After we took a quick peek at the Corral del Carbon, we continued our tour to la Plaza Isabel La Catolica. There is a monument there with Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) asking Queen Isabel for money and the needs to travel to South America (the conquest) as well as ships and supplies. At night, this statue lights up and the water is flowing and is absolutely stunning.. still need to get a picture of that :)
We finally made it to the Capilla Real after all those stops. Personally, I thought the tour was dragging because we had stopped so many places so I was excited to finally get to our destination. When we got there, there we gypsies that were trying to hand out leave type things and read your palm. They only do this to ask for money at the end. One guy in our group didn't know to avoid them so he had his palm read and whens he asked for money, he just said he didn't have any. Usually they get really angry and practically force you to pay up. There was also a man begging for money and 2 men painted up in silver acting like statues.
Capilla Real is the Royal Chapel in Granada. Everything inside was plated in gold and they even had the caskets underground of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand II as well as their daughter, her husband and their oldest grandson. That was really cool to go into the ground and see the mausoleum. We were not allowed to take pictures, but I'm sure there are plenty online! There was also a museum that had many pictures and paintings, 2 from the very famous artist Sandro Botticelli. Also they had the robes that the king and queen wore and a crown or two. It was something amazing!
After we went inside the Capilla Real, and toured the museum that they had at the end, we walked around the outside of the Cathedral. The Cathedral is huge, huge, HUGE! It reminded me of a church on steriods. Like gigantic. No words can explain the massiveness of it. Its a must see if you're in Granada! No pictures were allowed to be taken, probably out of respect, but you can see the size of the exterior walls! All with stone. Crazy talented people
This is the one picture that I snapped inside of the double organ, before I got caught. :/ What a shame, its massive and stunning inside. Check Google!
Also in the cathedral, there was the Immaculate Conception statue. This statue is very rare and worth a lot of money because it is so old and is so commonly known. I did not recognize the name, but here is a picture of it, from Google, that shows the enormous amount of detail that was put into it. People from all over the world travel to Granada just to see this statue. It is about 2 feet tall, so it is not that big, but the impact it has on others is huge!
That is all for my Thursday. I am posting this a bit late because things have been so crazy busy here for me. Hope all is well in America! :)
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