Newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane (New York Sun, New York World, and New York Journal), in his instructional talk to the Syracuse Advertising Men’s Club in March of 1911, advised “Use a picture.  It’s worth a thousand words.”  Taking that adage at face value, we have been able to eliminate at least 275,000 words in the blog, til now.  In this post, we provide an assortment of replications — visual “tapas”, so to speak — to stimulate your appetite to take a trip to Granada.

{Contest, optional:   Please calculate the number of words “saved” in this post.  Then send your answer via post card to win an equivalent number of words to use at your own discretion.}

Here is a picture of J. having mastered el trompo (a wooden top).

And here is a picture of J. waiting for a ride to un partido (a soccer game).

This is a picture of a telephone booth at the border between the Albayzin and Sacromonte.  (We never saw a single person using it, except to stand under its metal bower as the rain poured down.)
And this is a picture of a flamenco performance we attended at Tablao Flamenco La Alborea in the Albayzin.

Here you will see photographs of graffiti on Granadian city walls,

Dramatic.

Assertive.

Colorful.

and next you will witness sights from Parque de las Ciencias (the Science center).

These photographs depict our wanderings  in Carmen de los Mártires (once a holding place for captive Christians during the time of the Nasrid dynasty).

Entrance to Carmen de los Mártires.

Quiet and peaceful.

Stones of the past.

A child of the future.

We took many photographs of our neighborhood and home.  Six of them are included here:

Placeta de Almez, a place to play fútbol up the lane from our house.

The patio was situated above the cobbled lane.

And you could look down on the pedestrians below.

Eventually, all the fish died. There was not enough oxygen.

We had room to eat on the patio.

The Alhambra was a silent friend who was always around in a good way.

These are random images of random phenomena.

We have also included representations of actual people.

Grandparents and others in front of an olive press (Valle de Lécrin). .

Young and old at a ropes course (Serrallo Plaza).

Around town we could frequently espy images of arches, that in form, ran counter to words in a line.  For example:

“It was Islam that first introduced the arch as a popular element in Europe.” (From: The Arch as an Architectural Symbol – Evolution and Technology” by Ashish Nangia)

Arch in the shape of a cistern.

Cypress trees in the shape of an arch.

Children near fountain with arch form molded in bas relief.

Puerta de Las Granadas (16th cent.), leading to Cuesta de Gomerez.

Boy on arch-shaped object covering aljibe.

Who said: “Does architecture take on the forms of shapes found in our organic environment?”

Pictures and depictions of animals have been included to demonstrate the daily integration of human and non-human existence.

A shepherd, a dog, a donkey, some sheep and a cellphone on the road to El Fargue.

A lost animal.

Two found horses.

Horse shoe turned into image of animal.

Another lost animal.

Phylum: Chordata; Class: Mammalia; Order: Primates; Family: Hominidae; Genus: Homo; Species: H. Sapiens.

Many words are needed to describe Fiesta de Las Cruces, a holiday rooted in the search by the Byzantine Empress Helena for the cross on which Jesus died. With these pictures, we hope to eliminate thousands and thousands of words, not to speak of the letters of which they’re composed.  (50 words)

In the following pictures you see evidence of la convivencia — a concept that we helped manifest in contemporary Granada, 523 years after Muslims and Jews were expelled from Spain.

In the Albayzin, in Granada, and in many other parts of Spain, children are loved, cherished and left to their own devices.  Occasionally, adults will step in to drive them places, check for head lice, and offer hugs and kisses.  Words cannot adequately describe this bond, hence, we offer these images in their stead.

A sister and brother rambling hand in hand on the streets of the Alhambra.

A loving, maternal embrace.

Children looking yonder (San Miguel Alto).

School chums on an overnight outing.

A child has climbed a tree.

Children with neighborhood feline.

Happy children.

A mother and child explore the Albayzin.

A photographer and mother contemplates the wind, while thinking of her children.

About town, we grew accustomed to sights that continued to surprise us, even as they grew familiar and dependable.  Without words to describe these images, we offer photographs instead. 

Controlled fires in la vega de Granada in autumn..

The C2 bus as it made its way by the tienda Hay de Todo.

Abandoned buildings.

The Alhambra.

Mirador San Nicolás. (From below.)

A bolsa from our local tienda.

Our favorite heladería.

The Albayzin from across the Rio Darro.