If Morocco and Spain had a baby: it would be Granada!

Hola amigos!
Just a quick update about our lovely day today. Granada is such a cute little place, and we haven't even ventured to the old part of the city yet! It has the same Spanish feel to everything, but then has this huge Arabic influence (which reminds me of India) so it comes out all mixed together. For example...we'll be walking down this beautiful boulevard with pretty victorianesque buildings like in the rest of Europe...then we'll turn a corner and BOOM! a big beautiful arabic entryway that leads into a sweet moorish courtyard that has hanging grapes! Amazing! Pictures to come:)

Today we went to the cathedral here and the royal chapel where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel are buried. It was beautiful! We just cant get enough of cathedrals. They are all so different and so intricately detailed and decorated...and shiney! Gold everywhere! love it! We learned a lot of nerdy (we love it) history of Ferdinand and Isabel...besides being the ones to send Columbus on his voyage, they also drove the Moors (Arab Islams) out of Spain (the last battle took place here! We will go to the last Moor stronghold tomorrow, the Alhambra. Today we saw the Spanish flags that were flown there the day of the defeat...they were from 1492. CRAZY.). Isabel was also an intense Catholic and provided a strong example for the country. And, they set up their children through marriage to unite the French AND Austrian (Hapsburgs) empires so Spain extended from eastern Europe...all the way to Bolivia. The sun never set on the Spanish empire for real! Although, I don't respect everything they did, it was so interesting to see why this country respects and loves them so much. We got to see the queens crown and sceptor...her art collection...AND the pretty chest that she supposedly filled with her jewels to give to Columbus to fund his voyage because she was out of cash because of the war. Yeah, thats right. LEGIT history we can tell our fun kids in our classrooms...except no photos again:( But we got some of the cathedral...just not the royal chapel. We got to see the ACTUAL coffins! They have these big pretty sculptures of them on top, and then you go below and look at their actual coffins. Totally creepy. The chapel and everything are like...lets see...500+ years old. This is what Im saying. SO cool!

After the cathedral and chapel we warmed up in a little cafe for lunch (best food we've had so far! Besides the mushroom tapas in Madrid of course) and then we wandered around shopping for the afternoon. Of course we had MORE luck follow us on this trip since we are here for the "soldes" AGAIN! Yeah, thats right. The entire country is ON SALE for a few weeks 2 times a year...I think they started yesterday or today. Last year we were in Paris for the soldes and got cute things at Zara and H&M...I already bought things at Zara and plan on H&Ming it one last time in Madrid before we come home. WE LOVE SHOPPING.

Dont worry, after shopping we took a 3 hour nap and were going to go out for tapas tonight...but are STILL tired.

Oh, and did I mention its FREEZING. Seriously freezing. Everyone said Granada was going to be soooo warm and nice, and its the coldest place we've been, hands down. FOR EXAMPLE: tomorrow the high is going to be a whopping 41 degrees and the low...27. Plus, it was raining all day which I swear made it colder. And the cathedrals are even colder inside. So I think I almost died of hypothermia today, and tomorrow we both plan on wearing like 5 layers for our day at the Alhambra.

We are SO excited for tomorrow! SO fun!

I promise lots of pictures tomorrow!

Love,
Esther (and sleeping Alyssa)