Discovering the Beauty and History of Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain

On August 27, 2025August 27, 2025 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Spain5 Comments

We really enjoyed traveling around Southern Spain and one of the highlights of our trip was staying a couple of days in Granada and visiting the Alhambra fortress and palace. Before traveling to Spain, we weren’t aware of how much of influence the Moors had on the region. The Alhambra is a magnificent example of Moorish architecture and the colorful details are amazing. It is one of those rare locations where every corner that you walk around brings you a new and fascinating sight to see.

In the late 15th century Ferdinand and Isabella used the Alhambra as their royal court. During that period, there were some changes to reflect the Renaissance tastes of the time. What is amazing is that they found the original beauty of the Islamic palace so beautiful that they didn’t destroy most of the existing structures, but just augmented it. The gardens that were added are still absolutely breathtaking and you could literally spend the entire day just walking around them.

One of the most interesting features of the Alhambra is its use of water and the unique delivery system. Water is brought from an aqueduct and then runs down, even along the stairs, to feed the various fountains and ponds on the palace and fortress grounds. We enjoyed all of the fountains, but the Court of the Lions, with its fountain surrounded by stone lions is one of the most interesting.

Water Coming Down One of the Chutes of the Aqueducts in Alhambra

You will definitely need a full day to see everything that the Alhambra has to view. There is the palace itself with its stunning mosaic walls and the fortress walls with the spectacular views of Granada. No matter what time of year that you visit the Alhambra, you will want to purchase your tickets weeks in advance or you won’t be able to get them. In order to maximize our time in the Alhambra, we ate lunch at the Hotel America that is actually located on the grounds of the Alhambra. The food and atmosphere was amazing and was well worth the somewhat higher prices.

Looking Up at the Outside of the Alhambra

No visit to Granada would be complete without a visit to the Alhambra. Washington Irving made this palace and fortress famous in his book Tales of the Alhambra and it is definitely deserving of the notoriety. The history of the Alhambra is so fascinating that we definitely recommend getting a book on it as there are so many interesting facts to learn about the wonderful place. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is definitely worthy of the honor.

IMGP4043 — View of One of the Towers at Alhambra

The Ancient Ruins of Ephesus on the West Coast of Turkey is Truly a Magical Location

On August 15, 2024August 15, 2024 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn TurkeyLeave a comment

The first ancient site that we visited during our trip to Turkey and Bulgaria was to historic site of Ephesus. We traveled up the coast from Kusadasi to Ephesus where we walked the trail amongst the various archeological remains. Originally built by the Greeks in the 10th century BC, it is a site that has been a destination of historical significance throughout the ages. After being built by the Greeks, it was later occupied by many different empires over time, including the Roman Empire during the 129 BC through 395 AD.

There are many different items of interest as you walk the path that takes you through the heart of Ephesus. Some of the most interesting are the Library of Celsus, the Temple of Hadrian, the stone carving of Nike, as well as the amphitheater. Ephesus is one of the most fully excavated and restored sites that we visited during our time in Turkey. It is also one of the most popular places for tourists to visit as it is a short distance from the port city of Kusadasi where the cruise ships stop, so expect large crowds at the site. We were somewhat lucky as the day of our visit there was only a single cruise ship in the harbor on the day that we went to Ephesus.

We have been to many different historic sites throughout our travels, such as Luxor in Egypt, Athens in Greece, as well as Rome in Italy and Ephesus was certainly of equal interest as any of those places. We would definitely recommend visiting Ephesus during any trip to the western coast of Turkey or even as part of a day trip out of Istanbul, but there are several other wonderful sites to visit as well. Most tours of Ephesus will also include visiting the House of Virgin Mary, which is also very interesting and of historic and religous significance as well.

Enjoying the Food of Lisbon, Portugal

On June 20, 2024June 20, 2024 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn PortugalLeave a comment

During our week-long trip to Lisbon, we definitely ate quite a lot of wonderful food. Portugal is known for their seafood and especially for sardines and anchovies, but there is certainly much more to the cuisine of the country. One of the famous treats that is a must have in Lisbon is the Pastel de Nata, which is a delicious custard tart. Another well-known dish is Arroz de Pato or Portuguese Duck Rice that we definitely made sure to eat during our trip.

Not everything that we ate was fancy, but we didn’t have a single meal that disappointed us. It would be difficult to choose our favorite dish because they were all unique and wonderful in their own way. We tried our best to mix up the food that we tried so that we weren’t always eating just seafood, although we really enjoyed having so many fresh options with the ocean so close to the city.

There a several cities that we’ve visited that we would consider to be food destinations and Lisbon is certainly among them. In addition to all of the food, we also had several interesting drinks, including Ginga, which is a sour cherry liqueur that is quite delicious. We also had several local beers as well as wonderful wines. The food and drinks were so good that we are definitely looking forward to returning someday to try even more local delicacies.