Most of the churches had the original wood pews and kneelers intact... and the kneelers didn't have padding. After Mass, I swore padded kneelers were one of the greatest inventions ever. The picture below is of St. Mary Church of the Alhambra (Granada). It stands on the grounds of a mosque that was built in the Alhambra.
This is how narrow the streets were in Granada. Pedestrians share the streets with vehicles in some cases, so you can't just zoom along like on a highway. I took this picture right after I had to hop out of our car to ask a random couple walking if our vehicle would fit down this street. We made it!
En route to Gibraltar, while driving along the Costa del Sol, we stopped at a random public beach... to find cows grazing along with beach-goers. Gives a whole new meaning to free-range beef!
Exterior of the Seville Cathedral, also built on the site of a former mosque.
Right outside our hotel in Seville, the Capilla de Montserrat. Catholicism has such a (hard-won, oft-challenged) history in Europe, that you find things like this everywhere. I am so grateful we were able to schedule time to explore these cities and didn't simply stick to our Lonely Planet guidebook.
Interior of the Madrid Cathedral, a wreckovation victim. It has been stripped of much of its statues, decorations etc and the stained glass windows are very modern and new. Sad.
1 comment:
It's even worse to see European wreckovations.. I mean our American churches are maybe a hundred years old, but when a 1,000 year old church gets plundered, it's got a little more of a stomach punch effect.
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