Granada - The Cathedral - Sept. 23rd

Our last day in Granada - The Cathedral - Monday - Sept. 23rd

Ed and I were eager to visit the Cathedral because 30 years ago we had done Christmas Eva midnight mass there.  The children and I remember how cold it was (coming from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia it was cold) and waiting outside for the church door to open.  We found a phone booth to stand in to wait, so the two kids and I piled into it to wait.

The cathedral is one of only two Renaissance churches in Spain, the other one is in Cordoba (which we had seen).  Granada's cathedral is the second largest in Spain after Sevilla's.  While it had started as a Gothic church, it was built using Renaissance elements, and then decorated in Baroque style.

The cathedral was more beautiful than I remember…we spent 90 minutes just walking through it and enjoying every minute of it.

That day for lunch Ed & I had stopped in a sidewalk cafe for a light lunch and then did a little window shopping.  The shop owner was very kind to hold up this beautiful Spanish hair comb - really a work of art.

Ed and I walked by this coffee/tapas cafe and just had to step in.  There were hundreds of hams handing from the ceiling and little white umbrellas (cups) hanging from the ends.  It took me a minute to figure out why the cups were there - to keep the ham juices from dripping on the heads of the customers….

It was very sad to think this was our last night in Granada and next to last night in Spain…. Ed and I had selected a restaurant that we hoped would provide us with a memorable celebration dinner.  

The first thing we noticed when the group arrived were the number of locals having a tapas…but not like any we had seen before.  This restaurant was know for their Churros con chocolate (more later on that)

 Table after table of locals eating Churros con chocolate at 6:30 when we arrived for our dinner.

 Jim had the lasagna - looked more like a bowl of melted cheese, but he liked it.

 Theresa had the veggie paella - she enjoyed it

 Ed opted for the seafood pasta

 I selected their veal chop with Roquefort sauce - heavens it was great!

The Grand Finale!

Our group just had to share one order of Churros con chocolate - this is like a long fried donut dipped in a very thick chocolate pudding….just a few calories….

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and hauled all our stuff to the parked cars in the garage next door.  Our parking bill for the two cars for three days was 120 Euros - almost $160!

Once the cars were loaded and everyone seated, we just had to find our way out of Granada to the highway north to Cordoba where we were dropping off the rental cars.  We had tried to plug in the train station in Cordoba but that failed but it was take the city center.  We were off and going well until we missed a turn then the GPS system got confused and decided to take us a different route which had us back tracking for 20 minutes.  A simple two hour drive took three.  On the outskirts of Cordoba, I lost Ed's car and I had to find my way with Sheila & Tony has my co-pilots.  We found the train station but missed the One-Way street to enter, so we went around the block once then twice.  Third time was the charm and knew how to get into the rental car return entrance!  But, just we were next to the train station, Ed pulls up behind us - where did he come from?  Both cars returned - and we get our train tickets to Madrid.

The train ride was less than two hours but we made a picnic out of it…we had potato chips, nuts, two types of olives, beer, wine and water…life is good for us.

Once we arrived in Madrid it was easy to catch a taxi in front of the train station.  I had arranged for a hotel near the airport for our departure the following morning.

Again, we ran into the problem of dinner and wanting to eat early at 7:00pm…by Spanish standards.  The hotel restaurant didn't even open until 8:30 or 9:00 so we settled on having bar food on their patio.  

 Theresa, Jim and Ed tried the hamburger..said it was more like a meatloaf sandwich.

 Tony & Sheila both did the chicken enchilada - more like a chicken salad wrap!

I did the grilled chicken that was very good and left the potatoes.

Well, where did the three weeks go?  Was it really time to leave Spain?  Did we do and see everything in the cities we visited?  The only thing I know is I learned a lot and fell in love with Spain all over again from 30 years ago!

Peggy

Granada - Part 2 The Alhambra - Sept. 21st

Part 2 - The Alhambra Tour

This is the last and greatest Moorish palace and one of Europe's top sights and attracts up to 8,000 visitors per day.  Nowhere else does the splendor of Moorish civilization shine so beautifully.

The Christian Reconquista moved south, taking Corboba (1237) and Sevilla (1248).  The Nazarids, one of many diverse ethnic groups of Spanish Muslims, held together the last Moorish kingdom, which they ruled from Granada until 1492.  

As we toured their grand palace, we had to keep in mind that Europe was in the Dark Ages, while we're seeing the Moorish magnificence blossomed - ornate stucco, plaster "stalactites", colors galore, scalloped windows framing Granada views, exuberant gardens and water, water everywhere.  Water - so rare and precious in mot of the Islamic world - was the purest symbol of life to the Moors.

After our all day tour of Granada with Maike, we all just needed a cold beer, glass of wine or Sangria and rest.  We must have walked over five miles.  It didn't take us long to realize that we were hungry after that light and fast lunch.  But, none of us wanted to wait until 8:00pm to eat so we just walked down to a square five minutes from the hotel.  

Jim had selected a Turkish wrapped sandwich - on the lines of a Gyro/Shwarma

Theresa selected the Turkish pizza we believe made with lamb/beef mixture

Since it was much to early for any Spaniard to eat dinner, we had to settle for a tapas menu.  We got either a pizza or sandwich and just happy to be seating down on a lovely terrace in perfect weather.

This place didn't have just what I wanted, so I waited until we were walking back to the hotel to have take out.  I had seen a shwarma place that I was eager to try so held out for that.  I ordered a chicken shwarma to go (ate it in the hotel room)…it was good and just lacked the slice of pickle to make it perfect.

A perfect day in Granada….the following day was our last day to tour the city.  We still had the Cathedral to visit….next Blog.

Peggy

Granada - Our Final Destination - Sept. 21st to 24th

Granada - Our Final Destination - Sunday - Sept. 21st

It's sad to think this is our final city we will see in Spain and that three weeks has flown by so quickly.  But, there is much to see and do in Granada before we say good-bye to Spain.

It was a short easy drive from Nerja up to Granda of only a couple of hours.  We didn't check out of the Parador until noon so it was an enjoyable slow morning for the group.  There was a small problem loading up the cars.  While Theresa and Jim were checking out, I pulled their suitcases down to the cars to be loaded.  I somehow added a suitcase near theirs to our car.  Yes, I stole a suitcase from poor soul that would end up doing without it for two days.  Tony didn't even pick up my mistake as he was putting the  suitcases in 'their spot'.  He had worked out where each suitcase fit in each car and had it down to a science.

Modern Granada sprawls to cover a large area with a population of 300,000 people but all the sights are within a 20 minute walk of Plaza Nueva.  It was an interesting drive into the city to get to our hotel.  Many of the streets allow only taxis and buses on them.  Our hotel was on one of those types of streets and we just drove right down it past the sign that said "Taxi and Bus Only".

The check-in to the Melia Granada was a slow process and only two men were handling the front desk.  Two of the three rooms were ready but Tony and Sheila had to wait 30 minutes while their room was being cleaned.  It was time for our next meal and do a little walking to see some of the city near our hotel.  I don't have any pictures of that afternoon or our meal…so it must of not been memorable or so good that I got busy eating and not taking any pictures.

The next morning, Sunday, we had a full day tour with Meike.  She met us in our hotel lobby and walked us down to a taxi stand to ride up to San Nicolas Viewpoint.  This spot offered us a breathtaking visa of the Alhambra and Albayzin across the hill and of the large area that Granada covers.

We walked around the area of San Nicolas and it's charming narrow streets.

How could you not fall in love with a city with so many beautiful colorful balconies loaded with ceramic pots!

Our next sight was back in the Old Town, the Royal Chapel..a lavish 16th century Gothic chapel with the tombs of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand, "The Catholic Monarchs" and they were all about the Reconquista.  Their marriage united the Aragon and Castile kingdoms, allowing acceleration of the Christian and Spanish push to the south.  I was not allowed to take any pictures inside the chapel.

From the Royal Chapel, we walked through Alcaiceria.  This was originally a Moorish silk market with 200 shops filled with precious salt, silver, spices, and silk.  It had armed gates and its own guards.  Silk was huge in Moorish times, and silk-worm friendly mulberry trees flourished in the countryside.  It was such an important product that the sultans controlled and guarded it by constructing this fine, fortified market.  After the Reconquista, the Christians realized this market was good for business and didn't mess with it.  Later, the more zealous Philip II had it shut down.  A terrible fire in 1850 destroyed what was left.  Today's Alcaiceria was rebuilt in the 1800's as a tourist souk (marketplace).

Today Alcaiceria is still tiny shopping lanes filled with tacky tourist shops.

We continued our guided tour to Plaza Isabel La Catolica - Granada's two grand boulevards, Gran Via and Calle Reyes Catolicos, meet a block off Plaza Nueva at Plaza Isabel La Catolica.  Above the fountain, a beautiful statue show Columbus unfurling a long contract with Isabel.  It lists the terms of Columbus' voyage.  

Isabel was driven by her desire to spread Catholicism.  Columbus was driven by his desire for money.  As a reward for adding territory to Spain's Catholic empire, Isabel promised Columbus the ranks of Admiral of the Oceans and Governor of the New World.  To sweeten the pie, she tossed in 1/8 of all the riches he brought home.  Isabel died thinking that Columbus had found India or China.  Columbus died poor and disillusioned.

The entry tickets for the Alhambra Palace and grounds I had made reservations six weeks in advance on their web site and we had an entry time of 2:00pm.  So, we took a taxi to the top of the hill.

Lunch was fast and we had a very limited selection of restaurants.  Maike and I had to walk over to the ticket pick-up window for our entry tickets and then she had to pick up her guide pass for our tour.

The group had selected an outdoor cafe with bar tables.  They had sandwiches and drinks while we picked up the tickets.  I was able to get a few bites eaten before we had to report for our entry time.  You can NOT show up late for your entry time or you will not be allowed to enter.

Part 2 will be our tour of the Alhambra…..

Peggy