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Travels with Papillon

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	SPAIN
	Espagne

We entered Spain at the port of Tarifa where we were the first off the boat after a 40 minute rough ride across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Our touring took us to a number of town such as:

Ronda

where the 300 foot high chasm has been spanned for 350 years. This bridge (which we drove over unexpectedly) connects the old and new sections of town. A Roman settlement, it was heavily fortified by the Arab Moors who overran Spain in 711 AD and were finally expelled from the country in 1492.

Granada

Fabulous Granada. Home of the final Moorish Sultans and host to the Alhambra, that hilltop place that includes the Palace of Charles the 5th, the Alcazaba (the fortified castle) and the fabulous Palace of the Nasrids, home of some of the most exquisite Moorish architectural art in the world.

Cordoba

home of the world renowned Mezquita, the largest mosque in the world when built, and then converted to a Christian cathedral with a full sized Gothic-Renaissance church placed squarely in the middle of it.

Sevilla

And Sevilla the sublime. Gentile and refined, tasteful and romantic, a city that captured our hearts for a couple of days. And featuring the incomparable Reales Alcazares, Moorish and early Christian palaces.

Along with it's enchanting Moorish-Renaissance Bell Tower - the Giralda

But what really excited our imagination and interest was the dual art known as Moorish, and/or after the Christian conquest, a Moorish-Spanish style known as Mudejar. These styles utilize simple materials: tile, plaster and wood to create venues of simply superb elegance. And their creation of garden spaces where water has a subtle, but crucial, and central role, is simply captivating.

And for that reason we alter our blog format and present a collage of such styling's.