In his book "Relativity. The Special and the General Theory", Einstein teaches about the principle of relativity.

Here is an extremely condensed summary of Einstein's book.
The principle of relativity has three facets or aspects:

1. The Principle of Relativity in its Restricted Sense
2. The Special Theory of Relativity
3. The General Theory of Relativity

Einstein favorite example is a traveler in a train and a bystander on the embankment.
The bystander on the embankment sees the train moving.
The traveler looking out the window sees the landscape moving.
Einstein concludes that motion is relative and as if he had to prove it to us, he adds the relativity of motion is self-evident.
That is the principle of relativity in its restricted sense (#1 above); yet Einstein redefines it in much more scientific terms.

Then Einstein writes that the principle of relativity is much more comprehensive than in its restricted sense.
The #2 and #3 items above, the Special and the General Theories are much more elaborated; they involve reference systems, simultaneity, speed of light, uniform motion, time, gravity and much more.
The fact of the matter is that the comprehensive principle (the whole of the 3 items above) relies on the "restricted principle".
Once through the special theory (item #2 above), and on his way for the general theory (item #3 above) he reminds us that, to start with, every motion must be considered only as a relative motion.

The mathematical theory is undeniable, yet the interpretation of it is not credible

The mathematical theory of relativity is faultless; with no exception, when challenged through physical experiments the theory matches reality.

Regardless of the theory's success, something is awry.
Let's be realistic!
Did you ever think, while riding a train that landscape and Earth as a whole, are both moving within the window frame?
The train is moving; the whole of earth underneath it is not moving as it appears; that puts in question Einstein's worded explanation, since the mathematics is rock solid.
Such worded description, which makes the motion of the train as elusive as the motion observed through the window, is preventing us from making sense of the real world.
That is not a comprehensible model of reality.

And there is more to confuse one's mind:

• Special relativity shows mathematically how relative speed or motion alters time and space.
  While difficult to imagine that is physically true; an atomic clock in a plane does not run at the same rate as an identical atomic clock on the ground.
  In other words motion or relative speed with respect to an observer is altering the course of time.
  Bluntly stated motion is controlling both time and space.
  
• In General relativity the opposite happens. Space-time curvature alters the motion of celestial bodies; it also triggers freefall on earth.
  Bluntly stated space-time is now controling motion.
• There are 2 problems:
  1. There is a fundamental contradiction between the 2 theories; in the Special Relativity motion controls space and time, in the General Relativity space-time instead controls motion. Who is in control? Is motion controlled by space-time or does motion control space and time?
  2. Then how can it be that time and space make 2 different entities in the Special Theory and that they are both metamorphosed into a single (and different) entity in the next?
• There is no answer to these questions; unless one states that space-time controls motion,and motion in turn controls both space and time; but then time, space and space-time must be considered as 3 independent entities, which is difficult to imagine.

Actually the fundamental questions are: what is relativity? what is reality?
The trick is to differentiate   observation of reality   from   reality

The whole of the mahematical theory relies on the observation of motion, which makes reference systems mandatory and speeds relative.
As such the observation of motion is definitely relative; the question becomes: is the reality of motion relative?
Even though observation is part of reality, it does not explain what is reality; observation is per definition empirical; it does not explain anything; and more specifically the relativity of motion (that is the observation of motion) does not explain what is reality of motion.
And the same can be said about science's mathematics; the beauty of mathematics is that it permits to unveil new mathematical laws, just as Einsteinn did; yet any newly discovered law has to be justified through physical experiments or through observation; mathematics in all cases end up just as empirical as observation.

Now, as shown above, it is clear that the conventional worded explanations, such as the ones used by Einstein in person, lead nowhere.
We need a worded explanation of these mathematical laws that makes sense.
In Oct 2013 I discovered fortuitously, rather than through a systematic search, the physical phenomenon that (in my opinion) is behind Einstein's equations of relativity.
I think that the physical phenomenon behind Einstein mathematical so called relativity theory is absolute, rather than relative.
And "absolute" in science means that the phenomenon occurs physically without the need of a reference system as well as without the need of an observer, both hallmarks of Einstein's mathematics.

The whole imbroglio cannot be untangled here in a few lines of text, and I devoted an entire web page to the subject.

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