If you can only visit one place in Andalusia, visit Granada. Where as all of the cities we have seen in the south of Spain have been great, Granada seemed the most Andalusian(?) of them all. Not that Córdoba or Seville weren’t unique or authentic, but just that sense of history was easier to grasp here. Makes sense in a way, as this was the last of the Moorish strongholds to fall.
We started our trip in typical fashion: wandering around the streets to try and get a feel of the place. Since we didn’t get to see any flamenco in Seville, we wanted to scope ahead and reserve a spot somewhere in Granada. 
Two separate people had recommended to us to view flamenco at this bar carved out as a cave on the side of the mountain. We ended up not doing this (sorry Matt!) as it had a super expensive cover charge. We found a flyer for a different place that didn’t charge any admission as long as we ordered dinner. The flamenco probably wasn’t as “authentic”, but I don’t know if we could have told the difference. The walk up to the show was spectacular, as we came across several lookout points with great views. Showing up for dinner was a bit of a trip, as we had stumbled into two bachelorette parties that had also come for flamenco. Needless to say, the show was rowdy! We had a good time though as the crowd seemed into the performance and could actually clap in rhythm.
The next morning we headed out early to go see the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a pretty unique building as it is a fortress, palace, and gardens all rolled into one. The gardens are particularly beautiful as the complex has its own aqueduct system just for feeding all of the fountains and such. We started out early to try and beat the crowds, and nearly got in for free as we beat some security guards to their posts! In the end it didn’t make much of a difference as most of the palaces are metered with appointment schedules. The sights here were pretty amazing though, so check out the pictures… and Click Here to read the description and history.
We tried to head out to dinner that night but never quite made it. We started out at a bar to figure out where we were going to eat. Problem was that the bartended kept giving us free tapas to keep us around! Every time that I ordered a beer, a new plate showed up. In the end we had to turn down the free food because we were already full.
Check out the pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Granada
Here where Granada is on a map of Spain:
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It's pretty cool to follow the links to read up on something like the Alhambra, then to see pics of you and Ana there. And to think, I thought Alhambra was a brand of bottled water! Still no baby yet, by the way, Allison is apparently very shy (or stubborn, what do you think?). Jen and Rod just took Griffin home for the first time. Joe and Jen stopped by for dinner the other night and are doing well. Take care, talk to you two later.
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