Granada!!

Saturday

                The three hour trip to Granada passed pleasantly inside the nice, warm bus. However, that was about the only thing warm that whole day. It would have been a lot more enjoyable if it had been about twenty to thirty degrees warmer. The temperature had a high of I think twenty-nine degrees when converted to Fahrenheit, so it was COLD. Not that I can’t handle cold weather or anything, but when I came to Spain I was counting on only a little period of cold weather and then warm weather, thus I didn’t really pack for cold weather. In Granada, right next to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it was much colder than Sevilla, and it was unpleasant having to be outside for hours on end. But enough about the weather.

                After we reached our hotel and unloaded our stuff for the night, we headed out to a plaza in order to split up for shopping and lunch. On our own, Paige and I wandered up and down some streets until we settled on this one little bar that had been recommended by our tour guides. In Granada all drinks come with a free tapa, (which is kind of like an appetizer, although some are heartier than others), and so Paige and I both got a Coca-Cola and received a tapa that consisted of bread, tomato, lettuce and some sort of meat. It wasn’t bad and it was free! I wish Sevilla had the same policy, but sadly it doesn’t. We then looked at some of the shops, which all seemed to have identical products that were definitely aimed at tourists. 

              This is one of the streets full of shops...and there were many more.

Back with the group from CLIC, we went to the Capilla Real, which is part of the Granada Cathedral, and is the Royal Chapel where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel are buried. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures there. It was really impressive and aside from seeing the monuments erected depicting the monarchs in death, there was a little passageway down to see the actual coffins of King Ferdinand, Queen Isabel and their son and his wife as well as their grandson who died when he was six or seven I believe.

 This was the best I could do with a picture of the poster on the window, since we weren't allowed to take photos inside.

The last thing we did as a group that night was trek up to a great viewing spot of the Alhambra, which was a little bit of a walk in the cold, but the view was worth it. However, due to the cold, Paige and I snapped some photos and left ahead of the group to find our own way back to the hotel. We were overall successful in that venture and made it back to the hotel without any problems. 

After warming up briefly, we went back out again in search of a church for Mass since we weren’t going to return until Sunday evening to Sevilla. We found a church called St. Dominic’s that was really huge and had some impressive and unique statues. We were about a half hour early so there was plenty of time to look around at all the statues. Some of the really notable ones included a set of Last Supper statues and the death of Mary with all the apostles surrounding her.

After Mass we went off in search of food because the one tapa from earlier that afternoon had not been overly filling. We couldn’t resist this one place that had all sorts of sweet treats so we both got yummy desserts and after finishing them decided that they hadn’t succeeded in filling us up. Then we found this little store that sold pizza baguettes, so we got those, which were quite satisfying, and returned to the hotel. I know the meal was a reversed a little, but it all worked out okay.

Back at the hotel, Paige and I had excitedly planned on both taking thirty minute hot showers since we wouldn’t have to be concerned with conserving the hot water. That dream dissipated when we discovered that the all the lights in our room including the bathroom, were dead, except for one lamp. We decided we could turn on the TV for light in the room, while we each showered with the lamp in the bathroom. That plan was shattered when we discovered that all of the outlets in both rooms were also not functioning, except for the one that the lamp was plugged into. So we gave up on the showering idea until there would be daylight, and settled on going to bed and watching Disney Channel in Spanish.

Sunday

Since I’d gone to bed at a relatively early hour on Saturday, it felt like I’d slept in to wake up at 8:30. Then after finally getting a fairly long shower, Paige and I went down to breakfast which was provided by the hotel. It was actually a good breakfast and I had among other things bacon and some amazing rolls, one of which had chocolate inside it. Super yummy. And as an added bonus I got to use pepper for the first time in three weeks!!!! I have missed pepper so much; food just isn’t the same without it. Anyhow, after breakfast we cleared out of the hotel to head off to the Alhambra, which is the top-visited sight in Spain.

Fortunately, the weather was a bit warmer than Saturday, so being outside for a long time wasn’t as painful. The Alhambra was AMAZING!!! I snapped pictures of anything and everything and it was incredible. We saw the gardens and this cool arena-type place that I think Javier (the guide) explained, but I was so distracted by photo-taking that I missed the majority of his explanation. That and it was in Spanish, which is always a bit of a challenge. Then we visited the palace area, which was impressive, however the views of the city and mountains were the best part. We climbed a tower to get an absolutely breath-taking view of Granada and the Sierra Nevada Mountains that was incredible!!!  Despite the cold, I could have spent hours up there just soaking it all in.

Back in the city itself, we were given a couple hours of free time to get lunch and do some more shopping before heading back to Sevilla. After going to a couple of places to enjoy the drink+tapa deal, we went browsing through the shops some more and ended with a visit to a place that had gelato and Italian in its name. If it had been a warmer day, I would have had some gelato, however it wasn’t warmer, so I settled for a cup of hot chocolate while Paige was daring and got the ice cream. Then it was back to the bus and Sevilla bound.

Once back at the apartment, I found a note from Concepción telling me she’d left food out for me in the kitchen as well as some birthday cake. She had hosted a party in the afternoon with all of her family to celebrate her sixtieth birthday which is Monday. The leftovers from the party that I had been provided with, including the cake, were delicious. I was really glad though, that she hadn’t offered me any of the shrimp that I had noticed sitting on a plate in the fridge. They still had their eyeballs and legs and the thought of putting any of that in my mouth was positively nauseating.

When Concepción returned later she showed me some of her presents which were all articles of clothing, which she was going to exchange because the dress and blouse were too big and the pants were too short. She also informed me that she’d forgotten to tell me to help myself to the shrimp and I quickly told her that it was fine because it wasn’t one of my favorite foods and I was thankful that the matter was settled. I was dismayed upon returning to my room to find that while I had been out Cala had snuck in and eaten my sandwich that had been all ready to go for Monday. I hope she doesn’t get sick because it had Nutella in it, but then again it was her fault because she shouldn’t have been in my room in the first place.

Well all in all it was a good weekend and although I would have preferred warmer weather for visiting Granada, I definitely was glad I went. One thing’s for sure, it was an unforgettable weekend.