Day 1 in Granada — La Cartuja

On the enthusiastic recommendation of Pepe and Rafael, we visited "La Cartuja", the Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, which we had not seen before. For no particular reason, we decided to walk there from our apartment rather than take the bus, which took about an hour. In the way, we visited Rafael in his office in the Observatorio de Cartufa on the university campus, then proceeded to the monastery.

Seen from the outside, the monastery is not terribly remarkable, and even in the central courtyard it's nice yet unexceptional. However, the church within is incredibly ornate (which is saying a lot, relative to all other Catholic churches), featuring especially some extremely intricate mosaic work of inlaid wood, tiles, and marble. A few pictures will spare me a thousand words. 

Then we had lunch with Rafael and enjoyed views of the countryside, Granada, and the Sierra Nevada (not so "nevada" at this time of year) from the town of El Fargue.

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