Honeymoonin' in España

Madrid   Madrid Day 1: Acclimation and Rain    We made it! Our train from Malaga to Madrid was a breeze. The AVE is a high speed train with comfy seats and meals far superior to airplane food. Yeah yeah that may not say much to some of you but hey for us it was a delicious, already paid for, meal.  Arriving in Madrid you could feel the humidity of entering a city. We had been so luck in Malaga to be able to escape the heat in the Rataezyk abode. Stepping out of the train station onto the streets of Madrid was a city shock! I have never been a city kid but my time abroad has shown me some real dense, muggy, foreign city life. Before taking on Madrid, and finding our way to the hostel, let’s start with finding the bathroom. Yeah you had to pay..that’s right you had to pay a few euros just to enter the bathroom in the train station….I could hold it. And we are off! With Brandt as our lead trusty navigator, we traipsed through the city windin...

Mom and Dad Rataezyk were quite the tour guides. On Tuesday Jack braved the Spanish highways to Granada where we spent the day at the Alhambra. Alhambra is Arabic for the Red Castle. It was originally built in 899 but then was renovated and rebuilt by the king of Granada in the 11 th century. In the 1333 century it was converted to a royal palace. After Spain was conquered by Christianity the mosque was turned into a church. We enjoyed exploring the palace, among the Islamic carvings filling the interior of the palace. It is one of the last standing examples of ancient Islamic architecture. I learned that Islamic art uses many geometric shapes and repeated patters, as well as lines. But you will never see any form of life represented in their art. Barely any wall was left bare, if it wasn’t meticulously carved in either Islamic calligraphy or design, it was quilted with various vibrant colored tiles. A Saudi Neon prince among his Islamic Palace  ...