So we finally made it to granada and the alhambra! The weekend itself went like this: first we found that there were not just open hostals like most people thought in the off season and ended up paying a fortune to a travel agency on thursday night. then we left on friday, forgot the alhambra tickets we had bought on wednesday, took the train and connected in our beloved sevilla. we had an hour to kill so we SO definitely hopped on a bus and busted our butts over to our beloved starbucks and made it back with time to spare. Then we connected up to granada (3.5hours more)got off and went into the city to find our four star hotel... yeah ... four stars huh??(definite dissapointment)we ended up taking our own made up tour of the city trying to find the hotel toting bags and all because the hotel is evidently relatively new and so has no signs to point you in the right direction and is not so well known to the locals who all sent us in differnt directions every time we stopped to ask. finally when we found the place after our three hour tour of granada, we set back out at 12 am to find FOOD!!!we found a really cool greek place and ate well and cheap, then it was off to bed. we got up really early to get to the alhambra in order to buy new tickets (this time we took a taxi just to be sure to get there) and found that we didnt have to pay again which was nice, technology isgreat sometimes, they looked us up and onward we went! we went in and loved it! It was an amazing weekend. April can tell you much more about the history, as she took notes and knows more to begin with, she also plans on giving a history lesson on her site whenever she gets a chance to update it again. We took a thousand and ten pictures, which in no way do this place justice. The alhambra consists of incredible palaces and gardens and baths with intricate details and artistic touches that have lasted many lifetimes, they were incredible to begin with, but to stand the test of time as they have, is beyond words to me. The Alhambra is the last muslim stronghold that stood in the western world. It has been changed, added to, ruined in places, restored in others, but is truely an incredible site. There is a book about it you may have heard of, the book that april is currently engrossed in, it is called Tales of the Alhambra, by Washington Irving and is all about his stays in the alhambra many years (ago when you could still stay there of coarse). we spent seven hours in there and then went to the hotel to rest, we'd been on our feet all day long. when we awoke from our naps we went down to check the internet for any local starbucks sites, unfortunately we were quite disappointed to find that there were none in the 50 mile radius. So we walked across to the corte ingles...only to go to the wallmart section, looked around (finding it much larger than the one in cadiz), and bought ourselves some things to make dinner in our room, we stayed up watching comedy hour and the news of the olympics on the only english channel we've encountered since our arrival... CNN, then slept in til it was time to catch our 1140 train to sevilla. Upon arriving in sevilla we found we had several trains left to chose from for our return to el puerto and so took our trip over to the cathedral that we had missed the inner tour of last weekend. we arrived there in plenty of time to find that sunday entries were free and audiotours cost only 3 euros, so off we went, like professional backpackers, knocking off people left and right in church! j/k, but we did have to be careful... the church truely is enormus and enchanting, though i still must say i'm glad i go to a church were they dont burry the dead in the middle of the church... well i guess they dont really burry them they just kinda set the tombs on display with the rest of the art... dont get me wrong, i know its about respect and the tombs themselves are very intricate pieces of art but i am just glad to claim saddleback, a tombless church. anyway, there were lots of little cathedrals, we saw the tomb of christopher columbus, who actually had to be dug up and moved here when a treaty was made i beleive they said like 36 years after his death, so weird, but there his remains lie, suspended overhead in the cathedral by fourmen made of bronze carrying the tomb itself which represnts his discoveries i believe. (you can tell i was paying close attn to details) i was just too impressed with the beauty of it, we got to see the treasury room which hold some of the old crowns etc. really used in the day and they were real, as april says ... like really really real... as in all those diamonds were REAL... yeah there were a lot of them she was jealous i think. then we did the most exciting part of all, we climbed the 34 stories up to the top of the hiralda, the famous bell tower in sevilla that is within the church. luckily they weren't all stairs, only the last level, i heard that it was because they used to ride a horse up the slaints in the past... lucky!! we had to brave it on foot!!! it was way crowded up there but well worth the view, the pictures we got are not great, because of the saftey bars and angles, but it was amazing! we could see half the rest of the church from there, along with the palace accross the way and the entire rest of the city. ah.. incredible!! Then of coarse we turned in our audioguides and headed for the train station, not without stopping at starbucks along the way, april says its no longer going to be referred to as starbucks but america! or heaven on earth! then it was back to el puerto and that was that. one incredible weekend to remember for a lifetime for certain. i'm workin' on pics for ya! lots a love nella