Saved by the Prayer Room - Granada

Today was a little annoying in that there were a few things still supposedly worth seeing on my small list for Granada.

While we had to pack that morning and prepare our bags to leave for Cordoba later that evening, once we did leave the apartment to head up to the Charterhouse, we seemed to faddle around enough, stopping to look at a religious monument in a park, stopping for a Japanese garden, stopping for biscuits, stopping again for coffee and churros that by the time we finally arrived at the Charterhouse it was closing for a two hour siesta.

The Cartuja (Charterhouse) we were supposed to have visited

As a result I have photos of the facade but not much more. Tegan and Andy had fun though pretending to ride the horse in the cobblestone mosaic or being the two headed bird.

Then, once we had walked back into town, (the Charterhouse being slightly out of town) it was decided that it was time to eat.
While they were still stuffing their face with the dessert component of their set menu (it supposedly being only a light lunch), I disappeared off.

Just around the corner was the Palacio de la Madraza which I wanted to see, not only because I’d heard great thing about, but also simply so the entire day wasn’t wasted. There is only a few rooms to see there, but it was well worth it.

The building was once Islamic and then taken over by the Christians, who for some inexplicable reason left one of the rooms.
This is the prayer room, located just off the entrance courtyard, but still superbly decorated with carved walls and ceilings which remain brightly coloured, unlike the rooms at the Alhambra.
It provided a beautiful glimpse of what the Alhambra would have once looked like.

Upstairs there remains an old carved and painted ceiling that though extremely beautiful was surprising in the fact that it did not appear to contain a single pomegranate, despite these  fruits appearing practically everywhere else in Granada.

Popped out of this delight just in time to meet up with the rest of the family to head back up to another Mirador we’d discovered just the night before, around the corner from our apartment before returning to the apartment to grab our belongings and head out to the train station from our connection to Cordoba.