To Sing Frogs Chapter 42a

I am excited that I get to see my friends in Spain and that we get to bring Mike home.

 Sarah’s Journal for Spain

 

Chapter 42

 

Reunions

 

  Mike and Amy threw their arms around each other for a long embrace. Then it was my turn. The hug didn’t last long.

The older brother swept Sarah up and she tightly wrapped her arms around his neck for the first of her three reunifications. She was much taller than she had been two years prior. Her feet were slightly off the ground while her big brother held her. She was too big to sit on his arm like she had when Mike went away. Time steals all but memories. It was sad to see what two years had taken from the siblings.

The hotel was only ten minutes away from where we met Mike at the airport so we took his luggage and got him checked into his room. The Russians were supposed to arrive along with us the day before. They didn’t. There was a problem with Marina’s travel documents and she couldn’t leave the country until a day after the itinerary had planned. I kept getting text messages from Anya and it appeared they would arrive late that evening. The villa wasn’t available until Sunday. The Russians still hadn’t arrived and the Pozo family lived hours away. We had a day to kill.

It was either the Rock of Gibraltar or Alhambra. Mike insisted we spend it at the fourteenth century Moorish fortress. He promised us it would be more interesting than a rock.

After ninety minutes on a bus to Granada, we switched to a local line. We soon found ourselves waiting in one of many lines to purchase tickets to enter the historical site. After an hour, workers began to walk out to the crowd and announce that the limit of morning tickets had already been sold. They then added how many tickets were left for afternoon tours. People at the end of the lines left, knowing their chances of securing tickets for that day were hopeless. Every ten minutes a new announcement was made. As I estimated the number of people ahead of us in lines, I knew it was going to be close. The nearer we got to the ticket window the more close I realized it was going to be. We finally purchased four of the last ten tickets available for tours that day. Our scheduled time to enter the fortress was several hours away so we went for lunch at a local restaurant.

What Moors had referred to as a pearl set in emeralds no longer applied. The structures had not been whitewashed in centuries. Even so, the emerald colored plant life around the mountain city of Granada retained its beauty from former ages. The full name, Calat Alhambra literally meant “The Red Fortress.” During the time of its construction the name referred to the red dirt of the area. Since the abolishment of whitewashing, red now showed in some of the bare walls of the structures. Tall towers were crowned with battlements where defenders from centuries past could shoot arrows between breaks as they protected the site.

Hedges, bushes, roses of assorted colors, and other flowers covered the site with gardens that were as impressive as the structures themselves. The sounds of trickling water were never out of earshot. Builders from the thirteen hundreds piped in water from five miles away to fill aqueducts and water features. Fountains were numerous and whispered calming shas and skas. The use of vegetation and water accomplished the purpose of creating a simulation of paradise on earth. In such a dry climate, evaporation from the use of water in so many places worked as an ancient form of air conditioning. During the fourteenth century it would have been difficult to find a more tranquil place.

We walked down a pathway lined with a perfectly trimmed knee-high hedge. Four-foot tall bare stems topped by large bushes of red and pink roses highlighted it. The beauty struck me. Manmade stone towers along with larger trees and bushes filled the background. Breathtaking aesthetic marvels constantly occur by coincidence in nature. Not like this. Such a manicured and organized accomplishment doesn’t happen by chance. Design and intent were obvious. So was immeasurable effort. Alhambra and its setting were organized, created, and maintained with great care.

A simple snapshot would not show the extent of what I was viewing. I set my camera on the panoramic mode and stood back a short distance. Then I panned slowly from left to right while recording the digital image. The photo was beautiful though not perfect. Because of my proximity to the hedge and rose bushes, as I moved the camera from left to right the image was created with an illusion that the path arced ninety degrees between my right and left sides. In reality the path ran straight. Others would admire the picture I took. Without being there they would never see exactly what I saw, much as they tried to understand.

 

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