Last full day in Granada:
We leave tomorrow evening at about 9 PM, but have to check out of the hotel at noon, so we'll probably do the majority of packing... tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on the plan for tomorrow. Carmen said last night (to paraphrase) "Okay, tomorrow we'll have breakfast at 9, then you're on your own until 6 PM, then we'll meet up for evening stroll and dinner." I decided to let Benito sleep in and have my own breakfast of leftovers, so Carmen and Rick went to breakfast downstairs while I hung out up here with Benito. He slept until about 9:30, which allowed him to have a full morning and not go down for nap until a reasonable naptime for us all. That's been the problem this whole time: he's used to ~10-11 hours of sleep a night; we've been allowing him about 9, so he falls asleep at noon and goes down for 2+ hours, out of sync with the rest of us.
Letting him sleep this morning was good. He asked for Bruno, and I told him "Bruno is having an adventure and isn't here right now." He started crying and said "but Mom, I really need Bruno!" I said "I know, honey, and I'm really sorry, but Dad and Grandma are looking for him and we'll try to find him." He rubbed his eyes and said "okay" and we watched some Thomas and had some breakfast together. Dad brought him up a croissant with chocolate inside, and he had a hard-boiled egg, and eventually we left the hotel.
I wanted to go to the next plaza over from us(Bib-Rambla) that had a churreria, because my God, we should! We did, there were churros with chocolate (for dipping, not pre-coated; fresh hot new pastry and delicious chocolate) and coffee for the adults and a glass of milk for Benito. He made friends with the tables close to us just by being his cute self, and catching people's eyes in the mirror before licking the freakin' thing. *sigh* Luckily, he also likes cleaning up, so I gave him a napkin and he did, followed by more licking, followed by me moving the chair back so he couldn't reach the mirror anymore. We went on our way, caught a cab, and went to the Park of the Sciences! This is a large area including many different buildings of science displays and the like. There are a few different planetarium spaces, a butterfly house, the biodome, their current exhibits, plus outdoor spaces that entertain as well. (The only downside, to me, was lack of good food choices, but that's me; there were many different food choices for people with no restrictions. Even their fish option had seafood in it, and also a tomato and pepper sauce: three strikes.) Benito loved a number of things about the place: he liked anything with buttons, anything that moved, and anything that let him move balls around. There was the giant cone, where you could make a ball roll towards the hold in the middle, and there was a big interwoven track thing where you turn knobs and spin wheels to move the balls up to different levels - that one was outside, and he enjoyed it after we finished eating on a terrace overlooking the big plaza in the middle of all the buildings. We walked through a few of the exhibits and spaces: the butterfly pavilion, a little labyrinth (that was only Rick and Benito while I waited outside of it with the stroller;) exhibits on the human body, robots, animals in motion, and we ended on The Attic, which was a space not about a particular science topic but a place to bring your littlest ones just to get to touch and explore things. This room was GREAT, and a huge bonus for us: it has another one of those tightly interwoven multiple tracks with all the gadgets to get the balls hither and yon, and it was inside, and it was only for little kids so it was scaled for Benito's size, and we were the only ones in there! (There were many school groups coming through today, from around grades 4-5 I'd say through high school.)
We were there from around 11, maybe, through 3:30. We got back to our hotel and had siesta, and met up again with Carmen and Marina (Rick's godmother) at 6:30. We hopped on a bus (Benito was so excited!) to go uphill a fair bit, so we could take a nice walk down again, but also to see the fantastic view of the Alhambra from the hill directly across from it. When we got to our viewing place, I said to Rick "Hey, this is the place I kept noticing from the Alhambra yesterday where I said it looked like people were sitting and not moving! This is it, and they are!" It was a plaza area, not a restaurant, and people were just hanging out, enjoying the scenery. We went next to the crowded spot, to a mosque with a garden area at its scenic overlook. We took some pictures, Benito played at the fountains for a moment (because of course it had 2 fountains), and we walked on. It was a pleasant stroll, with some nice plazas, steep narrow streets, and as we got a bit lower, shops selling a lot of the same things as each other: pants, skirts, leather bags, brilliantly decorated bowls or spoonrests or cups, glass lamps, hookah pipes, fridge magnets with tile patters or Granada landmarks, all that jazz. It was 8:25 by the time we ambled back into "our neighborhood" and realized Benito was probably getting a little wild because it was well time for us to have dinner and pack it in for the night! We agreed that shopping would happen tomorrow (because I swear I am going to try on some pants, find my size, and buy a pair) and we parted ways: the ladies went off to have tapas and drinks and chat, and my little family headed back to Bib-Rambla for dinner. Benito wanted noodles again, so we went to a Ristorante Pizzeria and got him exactly what he wanted! I had salmon ravioli with cream sauce, courgettes, garlic, and marinated salmon. I didn't realize the filling would be almost lox-like in taste, but it grew on me. I think it was smoked, but as a filling it didn't have the texture of lox so that was okay. The marinated strips on top were like the taste of pastrami, but salmon - again, unexpected, but it grew on me. I also had my second sangria of the trip: tasty, more red wine taste than the previous version, but I can understand better why people order this a lot. (Rick had a ravioli with lamb inside, and a cream sauce with garlic and ham, and said he loved it, and if I ate any of those foods I'd love it too. *grin*) Alas for my palate but not the rest of my body, we skipped dessert and went home after this (with a little bit of running around in the square as Benito ran off the dinner energy burst).
Carmen was back in her room when we were coming up to ours (she's two doors down from us) so she came out to say goodnight. She's kept our room for 1 more day, so that we don't have to pack up before running around for the day, and so we have a place to take siesta before leaving for the airport. She's a smart lady. Have I mentioned how great she is? Not for a couple of days? She's wonderful. Marina is also wonderful: she talks to me, grabs my arm to lead me over to show me things, looks at me as though I know exactly what she's saying. She's hilarious and treats Rick with a fantastic loving gruffness? I don't know how to describe it. She dishes out attitude and he eats it up. There is a lot of laughing. She's a great tourguide through this city.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we see the Cathedral (The; not "a", the Big One), do some shopping, and then get back on a plane to Barcelona. Friday we have tickets for Parc Guell, and Saturday we leave. }:-<
This entry was originally posted at http://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/682540.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Letting him sleep this morning was good. He asked for Bruno, and I told him "Bruno is having an adventure and isn't here right now." He started crying and said "but Mom, I really need Bruno!" I said "I know, honey, and I'm really sorry, but Dad and Grandma are looking for him and we'll try to find him." He rubbed his eyes and said "okay" and we watched some Thomas and had some breakfast together. Dad brought him up a croissant with chocolate inside, and he had a hard-boiled egg, and eventually we left the hotel.
I wanted to go to the next plaza over from us(Bib-Rambla) that had a churreria, because my God, we should! We did, there were churros with chocolate (for dipping, not pre-coated; fresh hot new pastry and delicious chocolate) and coffee for the adults and a glass of milk for Benito. He made friends with the tables close to us just by being his cute self, and catching people's eyes in the mirror before licking the freakin' thing. *sigh* Luckily, he also likes cleaning up, so I gave him a napkin and he did, followed by more licking, followed by me moving the chair back so he couldn't reach the mirror anymore. We went on our way, caught a cab, and went to the Park of the Sciences! This is a large area including many different buildings of science displays and the like. There are a few different planetarium spaces, a butterfly house, the biodome, their current exhibits, plus outdoor spaces that entertain as well. (The only downside, to me, was lack of good food choices, but that's me; there were many different food choices for people with no restrictions. Even their fish option had seafood in it, and also a tomato and pepper sauce: three strikes.) Benito loved a number of things about the place: he liked anything with buttons, anything that moved, and anything that let him move balls around. There was the giant cone, where you could make a ball roll towards the hold in the middle, and there was a big interwoven track thing where you turn knobs and spin wheels to move the balls up to different levels - that one was outside, and he enjoyed it after we finished eating on a terrace overlooking the big plaza in the middle of all the buildings. We walked through a few of the exhibits and spaces: the butterfly pavilion, a little labyrinth (that was only Rick and Benito while I waited outside of it with the stroller;) exhibits on the human body, robots, animals in motion, and we ended on The Attic, which was a space not about a particular science topic but a place to bring your littlest ones just to get to touch and explore things. This room was GREAT, and a huge bonus for us: it has another one of those tightly interwoven multiple tracks with all the gadgets to get the balls hither and yon, and it was inside, and it was only for little kids so it was scaled for Benito's size, and we were the only ones in there! (There were many school groups coming through today, from around grades 4-5 I'd say through high school.)
We were there from around 11, maybe, through 3:30. We got back to our hotel and had siesta, and met up again with Carmen and Marina (Rick's godmother) at 6:30. We hopped on a bus (Benito was so excited!) to go uphill a fair bit, so we could take a nice walk down again, but also to see the fantastic view of the Alhambra from the hill directly across from it. When we got to our viewing place, I said to Rick "Hey, this is the place I kept noticing from the Alhambra yesterday where I said it looked like people were sitting and not moving! This is it, and they are!" It was a plaza area, not a restaurant, and people were just hanging out, enjoying the scenery. We went next to the crowded spot, to a mosque with a garden area at its scenic overlook. We took some pictures, Benito played at the fountains for a moment (because of course it had 2 fountains), and we walked on. It was a pleasant stroll, with some nice plazas, steep narrow streets, and as we got a bit lower, shops selling a lot of the same things as each other: pants, skirts, leather bags, brilliantly decorated bowls or spoonrests or cups, glass lamps, hookah pipes, fridge magnets with tile patters or Granada landmarks, all that jazz. It was 8:25 by the time we ambled back into "our neighborhood" and realized Benito was probably getting a little wild because it was well time for us to have dinner and pack it in for the night! We agreed that shopping would happen tomorrow (because I swear I am going to try on some pants, find my size, and buy a pair) and we parted ways: the ladies went off to have tapas and drinks and chat, and my little family headed back to Bib-Rambla for dinner. Benito wanted noodles again, so we went to a Ristorante Pizzeria and got him exactly what he wanted! I had salmon ravioli with cream sauce, courgettes, garlic, and marinated salmon. I didn't realize the filling would be almost lox-like in taste, but it grew on me. I think it was smoked, but as a filling it didn't have the texture of lox so that was okay. The marinated strips on top were like the taste of pastrami, but salmon - again, unexpected, but it grew on me. I also had my second sangria of the trip: tasty, more red wine taste than the previous version, but I can understand better why people order this a lot. (Rick had a ravioli with lamb inside, and a cream sauce with garlic and ham, and said he loved it, and if I ate any of those foods I'd love it too. *grin*) Alas for my palate but not the rest of my body, we skipped dessert and went home after this (with a little bit of running around in the square as Benito ran off the dinner energy burst).
Carmen was back in her room when we were coming up to ours (she's two doors down from us) so she came out to say goodnight. She's kept our room for 1 more day, so that we don't have to pack up before running around for the day, and so we have a place to take siesta before leaving for the airport. She's a smart lady. Have I mentioned how great she is? Not for a couple of days? She's wonderful. Marina is also wonderful: she talks to me, grabs my arm to lead me over to show me things, looks at me as though I know exactly what she's saying. She's hilarious and treats Rick with a fantastic loving gruffness? I don't know how to describe it. She dishes out attitude and he eats it up. There is a lot of laughing. She's a great tourguide through this city.
Tomorrow (Thursday) we see the Cathedral (The; not "a", the Big One), do some shopping, and then get back on a plane to Barcelona. Friday we have tickets for Parc Guell, and Saturday we leave. }:-<
This entry was originally posted at http://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/682540.html. Please comment there using OpenID.