Category Archives: travel

Guadix, Spain – Cave Houses and Cathedrals

Before heading back to Granada, we had one last stop in Guadix, Spain. There the landscape contrasted dramatically with what I had seen in Almunecar the day before. Around Guadix, it was much more of a desert climate and nearly half of the city’s population lived in cave houses, carved into hillsides.

There’s a cave house in Guadix that is open as a museum so that visitors can see what the insides of these dwelling look like. It was a warm day when I visited, but inside the cave house it was very cool and comfortable.

Projected, moving silhouettes on the walls help to tell the story of the people who live in these houses.

Back in the center of town, the contrasts continue with a beautiful, historic district that sits more typically above ground. Perhaps the highlight of this part of the city is the stunning, baroque-style Cathedral of the Incarnation.

Almuñécar, Spain, on the Tropical Coast

Almunecar, Spain, sits on the Mediteranean Sea, fringed with palm trees. At first glance, it seemed the kind of place I could have spent a lot of time. Happily. We’d had a busy day along the Tropical Coast, however, and we were running a bit late. Sunset was not far off when we arrived in town. I had mapped out a couple of promising looking spots on the beach to photograph the last light and I was rushing to get checked in to the Hotel Suite Albayzin del Mar. The hotel is a spectacularly mirrored palace with sprawling gardens. When I was given my room key, it came with an elevator number, a floor number and the room number. It seems that each elevator only served about four rooms per floor and there weren’t connecting hallways beyond that. When I arrived at my room, I realized the elevator was not the only thing special about this hotel.

The rooms — no, suites — were enormous. This is just the living room half of my main room with a full dining area to the right, out of frame. I opened one door, expecting to find the bathroom and realized it was a full kitchen, with an extension that served as a laundry room. Another door led to a hallway opening onto a bath and two bedrooms. All along the sea-side of the room was a balcony. I dropped by bags and rushed out to assess the situation regarding the remaining light.

Out on the balcony, the view to the old town was stunning, as were the pools, fountains and gardens of the hotel property.

Looking west, I could see that the sun was already dipping behind a hill, so my time with any remaining sunlight was very limited. I decided to ditch my plans to head for the beach, and I made an executive decision to make what photos I could from the balcony and other parts of the hotel property.

As it turned out, I didn’t feel overly limited in subject matter. I loved this view through the trees of the old church catching the last rays of the sun. That was made from a raised area above and behind the pool seen below.

The pools themselves were amazing. This one had a sunken bar in the middle and a grotto filled with twinkling lights.

I dashed around the property taking time-exposures on the tripod until the light failed and my battery was dead. It wasn’t the evening that I had expected, but it was a productive one and I had enjoyed myself immensely.

The next morning I was up before sunrise and caught some more beautiful views of the old city to the east of the hotel. Not long after, I was back in the van and headed to the next town.

Spain’s Tropical Coast

This may be difficult for some of you to read, but I’m not looking for sympathy. The truth is that my career path sometimes requires me to start the day with a rum tasting in the south of Spain and then spend the remainder of the morning on a sailboat in the Mediterranean before having a banquet of fresh seafood on the beach. It’s an uncomfortable truth. I could have been an accountant, but this job needed to be done and I felt I could handle it. I’m not complaining.

The blue Mediterranean off the coast near Motril, Spain.

Sailing past Salobreña, with its 10th-century Moorish castle rising up behind a beautiful beach where we were soon to have lunch overlooking the sea.

After lunch, it was a trek up the winding streets and steps of Salobreña’s old town to reverse our view and see the Mediterranean from the Moorish castle.

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Looking further west down the coast toward Almuñecar, our stop for the night and the subject of my next post.

The Alpujarra, Andalusia, Spain

Leaving Granada, Spain, and heading southeast, the roads twist and turn their way through the Sierra Nevada in a region called “the Alpujarra.” If you’ve read the book, “Driving Over Lemons,” by Chris Stewart (former Genesis drummer) it is set in this area. The view above is the town of Capileira, seen from the neighboring town of Pampaneira. Ruggedly beautiful, many of these small towns now embrace tourism through outdoor activities. Plenty of quaint restaurants and shops have sprung up in response.

I believe this was my first proper bowl of gazpacho, served to me in a restaurant located in the old blacksmith’s shop in Trevelez.

Backtracking toward the main highway that would lead us south to the Mediterranean, we stopped for the day in the spa town of Lanjaron, where I passed on the opportunity to get a full spa treatment in order to take advantage of a walking tour of the town led by a local guide. No regrets on that decision as the tour was one of those great small town experiences that included an impromptu tour of our guide’s own home and a surprise meeting with the local undertaker (thankfully just a casual meeting!). A few shots from my walk:

Flowers everywhere.

One blue house in Lanjaron. I don’t know why it — and it alone — was so blue, but I loved it.

A proud weaver invited us inside his shop to see how his loom worked.

The tour ended at our hotel for the night, the beautiful family-run Alcadima Hotel — which I would recommend to anyone planning to visit this area. I had a very comfortable room with a balcony and the grounds were beautifully landscaped. We were even treated to a private guitar performance after dinner while drinking a local lemonade made by the owner. An unforgettable evening.

Granada, Spain

I’ve been going on and on for the last three posts about the Alhambra, but there’s really much more to see in Granada, Spain. In this post, I’ll share a few other random images from various spots around the rest of the old town. Above is the Church of Santa Ana just off of the Plaza Nueva. Next is the Parador de Granada — and amazing place to stay with an unbeatable location right in the midst of the Alhambra:

I got to know this next street well. It’s the transition between the pedestrian path down from the Alhambra and the old town:

The dome of the Church of Santo Domingo:

The spire of the Church of Santa Maria de la Encarnacion of the Alhambra:

The studio of painter Max Moreau, now a museum:

And no trip to Granada would be complete without a night of flamenco. This photo was taken at El Templo del Flamenco:

Alhambra exteriors

After two visits inside the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, it was time to get some exterior views. The Alhambra has a stunning setting on a hillside above the city with the Sierra Nevada mountains rising behind. Surprisingly, the view is blocked from many of the narrow streets of the Albaicin district, which is situated just across the valley. There are, however, a few spectacular public viewpoints. One of the best — and busiest — is the Plaza of St Nicholas. You can see it in the following photo, taken from a balcony on the Alhambra:

The white tower is the Church of St Nicholas and the plaza can be seen in front of it — where all of the people are gathering. It seems to always be a busy spot, but especially around sunset as I found out on a second visit a few days later. The first time I arrived on the plaza it was nearly noon and it was still fairly bustling.

The sun was high and there were dense clouds on this day, so when we returned to Granada after a few days of exploring the Tropical Coast, I took advantage of a couple of free hours to re-visit the plaza to catch sunset. The crowds were much thicker but I managed to stake out a spot with my tripod, right along the wall and I captured this view of last light:

I’ll leave you with one more glimpse — the last that I had of the Alhambra as I made my way back down the narrow streets of the Albaicin on my way back to my hotel. I came to a small plaza with this view of the fortress palace just after the lights had come on and the sun was tinting the contrails pink. Not a bad way to say goodnight to an amazing piece of architecture, and history.

The Alhambra, Day 2

It’s always great to get a second chance to photograph a place. The first visit is about discovery and it’s sometimes overwhelming as you try and take everything in. The return visit is often more about details or things you just didn’t see the first time. Different light conditions and weather can also dramatically change how a place looks and feels.

My second day in Granada, Spain, began with a return visit to the Alhambra. This time the first stop was the Palace of Charles V — a building I had bypassed entirely on my first visit. The main space is circular and ringed by a colonnade. Around the periphery are smaller rooms like this one with the staircase (This is actually three photos stitched together in Photoshop):

It was hard to get the main courtyard all in-frame and to show it full circle. I went to my rarely used fisheye for this shot and actually like the distortion it creates. I had used this lens in a circular Art Deco church in Tulsa in April, and realized that the distortion is less confusing in round spaces. One of those little tidbits I’ll file away for future shoots. You never know when you’ll find yourself in a round room, right?

After the Palace of Charles V we followed much the same path on this visit as I had taken on Day 1. Here are just a few more shots of things I saw differently this second time around:

This next photo really shows the advantage of visiting at different times of day. I had photographed this room the afternoon before but the light was not coming through the stained glass as it did this following morning. The patches of colored light on the wall add an altogether different feel to the image and tells more of the story of what’s going on outside of the frame.

More Granada to come…

New book and other announcements

The latest book in my “Journals of a Travel Photographer” series is now available in the Blurb bookstore. Here’s a direct link, or you can visit the store page on my own website for links to this and other books in the series. The Spain book features images from an 8-day trip I made to the Extremadura region of Spain last year. It was my first trip to Spain and I immediately fell in love with the historic cities and Roman ruins found throughout the region. Check out the preview on the Blurb site for more. A Spanish-language version may be following soon.

The Extremadura book has actually been out for a couple of weeks, but I have been late in announcing it here on the blog due to a second trip I just made to Spain — this time to the province of Granada. I also plan on releasing a “Journal” book about this trip in a few months. Several blog posts will feature highlights over the coming days and weeks, as well. For a bit of a preview, however, you can check out my interview that was published in the Tamron e-newsletter last week:

The story features a few of the photos I made on the Granada trip using the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD lens. I have also recently received their SP 150-600MM F/5-6.3 Di VC USD for testing — stay tuned for some future posts featuring images from that lens.

So there’s plenty on the way in the coming weeks. I just wanted to make sure I got this plug in for the Extremadura book before inundating you all with images from my more recent Granada trip.

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Last week I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I spent a good deal of my time there marveling at the incredible art deco architecture. Here are a few shots from my five days there, in no particular order…

Trujillo, Spain

The last overnight during last November’s tour of the Extremadura region of Spain was in Trujillo — birthplace and home to Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of Peru. That’s his statue in the Plaza Major above. We arrived just as the sun was going down and hurried to squeeze in a walking tour of the town while the light held out. We wound our way up switch-back streets, on our way toward an old fortress that provided outstanding views as the sun set.

Above, the interior of the thirteenth-century church of Santa María la Mayor with its altarpiece by Fernando Gallego. The church was fairly dark when we entered, but our guide demonstrated a box on the wall where you could insert coins to get the interior lighting to come on for a few minutes. An energy-saving feature and fund-raiser all in one!

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The next morning I awoke early (thanks partially to a temporally-confused rooster outside my window) and took one last walk through the ancient streets before catching my ride back to Madrid.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts documenting my trip to the Extremadura region of Spain. Many of these images will soon appear in another book in my “Journals of a Travel Photographer” series (you can see other titles in the series here). I’ll post a link here as soon as it’s available but here is a sneak peek of the cover:

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Michael C. Snell photography blog

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