Granada. Pomegranate. Hand grenade. What do they all have in common? Well, it’s all mixed up! Granada’s Arabic name was originally Garnata, meaning “hill of strangers.” It was corrupted into Granada, which is the Spanish word for pomegranate. In turn, grenade came from Old French, pomme granate, pomegranate. They are all related..sort of. Granada’s heraldic imagery uses the pomegranate as a symbol of the city, and in the Alhambra, for example, quite a few pomegranate trees are planted and are producing fruit.
Today we have photos from several days of walking around. There are many churches, towers, domes, and magnificent buildings. The narrow shopping street is part of the old city market fashioned after a Middle Eastern souk, the Alcaiceria. Following it is the Granada Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Incarnation. Inside are buried Columbus’ patrons, Isabella and Ferdinand, but no photos are allowed of the interior. Too bad! It is filled with gold leaf and a gorgeous dome.
The city’s ancient Arabic quarter is called the Albaicin, which is where the photo of all the tea and spices for sale was taken (notice the Cannabis Infusion!). Two days in a row, we ate at a terrific Moroccan restaurant, Palacio Andalusia Almona. We had harira soup, hummus, Arabic salad, Moroccan carrots, beans, eggplant, and tomatoes, tajines with plums and chicken, and couscous with dates, almonds, and plums. It was all fabulous. Lions are everywhere in the city and in the Alhambra, as you can see in the fountain photo. They are symbolic of past ruling monarchs. The arch is what remains of the Puerta Elvira, the Gate of Elvira. It was once the main gate into Granada, but Napoleon destroyed the gate and adjacent fort, leaving just this arch.
The pretty translucent polygonal-sided lamp is one of the street lights found all along the Gran Via, the main boulevard in the city. Very unusual, in that it looks so Art Deco (for a hanging street lantern!), yet so lovely. We end with a symbol on a building, a globe adorned with the letters BHA. But what we loved was the two faces of dismay on the globe bearers on each side. We don’t know if was all too much for them, or if something is ready to attack! We only attacked with our camera, so it wasn’t so bad.
