Two, two, two days in one!
Yesterday was challenging, and was going to be a very short post at midnight, but I decided to sleep instead. It was our last day in Granada: the agenda was to pack, go see a cathedral and a tomb, go to a particular alley to shop, and have a final siesta in the hotel until about 6 PM, then go to the airport for our flight back to Barcelona at 8:55 PM arriving around 10 PM. We had our regularly scheduled breakfast, then spent until ~11 AM packing. By 11, we'd done all we could do and there was still an hour until Marina was meeting us at the hotel for the walkabout. I took Benito off to the Bib-Rambla to chase pigeons by the fountain to burn off energy, so he'd be biddable by the time we had a plan.
This might have been the best part of the day for me: we went out there, had a great time in the square, and then took a short walk up one side. I wish we'd done more of that type of wandering: I liked it up that short sidewalk to the next corner, where there were vendors of fresh veggies and also dried fruits; Benito enjoyed pushing his stroller up the ramp and then down the steps time after time. Then we walked up a little bit more, and there was an actual playground for Benito-sized people! There was another kid in there with his dad, so we chatted a little while the kids played. That lasted until we had to go back to the hotel. We got back just before noon, met up with Carmen and Rick, and Carmen went inside again to confirm that Marina was coming. She came back out and said "Okay, let's go."
I said "Are we meeting her somewhere?" Carmen said "Back at the hotel at 1." Aha! We walked over to the Alcaiceria to try and find me a pair of funky pants, only to discover a few things: the pants are in the "one size fits all" category, there is no fitting room anywhere, and even expanding the elastic waist and seeing if it seems to fit against me, seems like a bad fit. Oh, and some of these pants are actually made in Turkey or China, so it's not like they're authentically from the area. Hrm. Ah well; just based on not trying them on, I wasn't willing to buy them. A lot of the shops did have the exact same products, or slight variations on a theme, but we did pick up a few things and had fun looking. (I was amused to see Granada-decorated or labelled boomerangs, of all things! How Moorish!)
We also went looking for a new friend for Benito: Rick wanted to get him a stuffed bull, and I was just looking for an animal of roughly the same size and soft and squishy, could be a dog or cat or bull or something. Most of what we saw were the crazy big-eyed crazy colored things, which I vetoed; I can't stand those eyes. No way a stuffed animal with those eyes could be a good influence... er, I mean, a sane playmate... um... nevermind. Anyway, as we were looking in a few different tourist places and it was getting closer and closer to meet-up time, Benito was getting more antsy, and in the last place we went it was just me and Rick and Benito for 5 minutes and then Benito dropped a small snow-globe type item and it broke. }:-( Glitter water on the floor, and Rick's last nerve was shot, so the two of them went on and I got an employee's attention and brougt her over to the mess. She indicated 'oh, no problem, it's okay' and went and got another employee to help me buy my stuff. She didn't charge me for the item, either, so that was a relief (not that it was expensive, just that it wasn't a problem). I was done 2 minutes later and met up with everyone at the hotel; I told Rick they didn't charge us and that helped him relax as well. (We didn't get a new friend.)
We met up with Marina at 1 and took a short bus trip UP! We got off the bus and walked a bit further uphill; we were on the opposite hill from the Alhambra today, and I actually saw the plaza I'd seen from the Alhambra that seemed to have a constant group of people. I thought that perhaps it was a restaurant seating area, but it was actually a smallish sandy plaza with a wall upon which people would sit and talk and take pictures of the Alhambra. Go figure! We walked up there and first turned right, away from it, and went into the garden area of a mosque, which had an even BETTER view. Then we went through that sandy plaza and slowly meandered downward, back towards our familiar neighborhood. We walked through a very bohemian 3-tiered plaza, where it seemed the buskers and young grungy people hung out with their instruments and dogs and juggling and friends, and Benito got to touch a few more fountains. (She didn't know the name of this plaza, but I'll look it up when I deal with pictures. No, really.) It was truly lovely, I enjoyed it, and it continued the trend of me carrying Benito so we didn't have to deal with the uneven roads/sidewalks. The footing was tricky sometimes in Granada, either very uneven from rocks worn smooth but still deeply grooved, or smooth and slippery granite or marble or very even pavement. The point is: Benito has fallen a lot from just running around, and thankfully I have not.
We ended up having lunch at the same place we'd eaten once before: Nuevo Restaurante Hermanos Urquiza. It proved to be a difficult lunch, only because Benito was so active he barely sat to eat, and we actually used a high chair so he couldn't easily escape. I did end up going up the stairs with him this time, which I hadn't before, and saw where they did larger group seating, and were hiding some truly beautiful artwork. I had yet another fish I hadn't eaten before: red mullet. My plate came with 3 of them; they're not big fish, but my first course was a soup, so I only ate 2 of them, plus 1 of Carmen's fried cod pieces (3-bites big?). I tried a dessert Carmen suggested last time, leche frita (fried milk), and was not really keen on it so only had 2 bites, plus half the whipped cream - the rest of which went into my coffee cortado. By this point it was around 3, maybe 3:30, and we went back to our hotel to rest. I think that worked, but it's been a bit more than 24 hours since then and I honestly don't recall those two hours or so. *grin*
Geez, silly me: we knew that trying to get Benito to sleep in the crib wouldn't work, so we put him in the stroller and went to the Cathedral and he was asleep within 5 minutes of putting on his hat, reclining in his stroller, and having his jacket as a blanket. The architecture, detailed gold plating, huge organs, amazing giant books of musical notation, were impressive. Then we went to where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were entombed and went through that. Carmen was a great tour-guide throughout. We weren't allowed to take photographs in the tomb, and I took a picture of the picture telling me not to take pictures, because it was a camera the likes of which only afficionados or professionals use these days. We looked in a few more stores and had a refreshment (coffee/soda) on the way back to the hotel (still no Bruno replacement) and got back in time to wake up Benito and get our stuff outside to the nearby street and meet our taxi to the airport.
We were out of the hotel by 6, our taxi was prompt to pick us up, and we were at the airport by 6:30. Our flight didn't start checking in until 7, so we killed time with a snack: that is, Benito had half a chocolate chip muffin (this kid has been SPOILED with chocolate) and about 2/3 of a bag of chips, Rick had chips, and I had about 2 bites of muffin. We did our time waiting in the check-in line, then got through security with basically no fuss, and then, happily, there was a cute play area right in front of us for Benito. He was totally enthralled by nifty apparatus (interlocking gears, balls on interweaving tracks, a few other puzzles, a little slide) until we went to our gate as our plane was landing. We boarded our flight ~10 minutes later, and were in the air for only an hour before touching down again in Barcelona. Rick and I had bought salty snacks, so I was dehydrated from not drinking enough water, as well as salty snack, and airplane air, and not having actual dinner by 10 PM. We were 20 minutes early into Barcelona due to a tailwind, but we spent that time and more dealing with some damaged luggage. The end of that story: a report was filed, and in a week the airline will send us a new piece of luggage. Yes, we leave in less than 36 hours; it'll get sent to our home anyway. Our main bag will be okay getting home this time, but I don't know if Rick will want to retire it from air travel after that. Sheesh; another piece of luggage relegated to land travel only. Benito had ridiculous energy throughout the evening and made it to the airport hotel more spry than the adults; we got to our rooms, he watched 2 Thomas episodes, then we all went to bed... no, wait, we got room service first, had "dinner," then went to bed.
Today's post next, posting this one with yesterday's date stamp.
This entry was originally posted at http://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/682780.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
This might have been the best part of the day for me: we went out there, had a great time in the square, and then took a short walk up one side. I wish we'd done more of that type of wandering: I liked it up that short sidewalk to the next corner, where there were vendors of fresh veggies and also dried fruits; Benito enjoyed pushing his stroller up the ramp and then down the steps time after time. Then we walked up a little bit more, and there was an actual playground for Benito-sized people! There was another kid in there with his dad, so we chatted a little while the kids played. That lasted until we had to go back to the hotel. We got back just before noon, met up with Carmen and Rick, and Carmen went inside again to confirm that Marina was coming. She came back out and said "Okay, let's go."
I said "Are we meeting her somewhere?" Carmen said "Back at the hotel at 1." Aha! We walked over to the Alcaiceria to try and find me a pair of funky pants, only to discover a few things: the pants are in the "one size fits all" category, there is no fitting room anywhere, and even expanding the elastic waist and seeing if it seems to fit against me, seems like a bad fit. Oh, and some of these pants are actually made in Turkey or China, so it's not like they're authentically from the area. Hrm. Ah well; just based on not trying them on, I wasn't willing to buy them. A lot of the shops did have the exact same products, or slight variations on a theme, but we did pick up a few things and had fun looking. (I was amused to see Granada-decorated or labelled boomerangs, of all things! How Moorish!)
We also went looking for a new friend for Benito: Rick wanted to get him a stuffed bull, and I was just looking for an animal of roughly the same size and soft and squishy, could be a dog or cat or bull or something. Most of what we saw were the crazy big-eyed crazy colored things, which I vetoed; I can't stand those eyes. No way a stuffed animal with those eyes could be a good influence... er, I mean, a sane playmate... um... nevermind. Anyway, as we were looking in a few different tourist places and it was getting closer and closer to meet-up time, Benito was getting more antsy, and in the last place we went it was just me and Rick and Benito for 5 minutes and then Benito dropped a small snow-globe type item and it broke. }:-( Glitter water on the floor, and Rick's last nerve was shot, so the two of them went on and I got an employee's attention and brougt her over to the mess. She indicated 'oh, no problem, it's okay' and went and got another employee to help me buy my stuff. She didn't charge me for the item, either, so that was a relief (not that it was expensive, just that it wasn't a problem). I was done 2 minutes later and met up with everyone at the hotel; I told Rick they didn't charge us and that helped him relax as well. (We didn't get a new friend.)
We met up with Marina at 1 and took a short bus trip UP! We got off the bus and walked a bit further uphill; we were on the opposite hill from the Alhambra today, and I actually saw the plaza I'd seen from the Alhambra that seemed to have a constant group of people. I thought that perhaps it was a restaurant seating area, but it was actually a smallish sandy plaza with a wall upon which people would sit and talk and take pictures of the Alhambra. Go figure! We walked up there and first turned right, away from it, and went into the garden area of a mosque, which had an even BETTER view. Then we went through that sandy plaza and slowly meandered downward, back towards our familiar neighborhood. We walked through a very bohemian 3-tiered plaza, where it seemed the buskers and young grungy people hung out with their instruments and dogs and juggling and friends, and Benito got to touch a few more fountains. (She didn't know the name of this plaza, but I'll look it up when I deal with pictures. No, really.) It was truly lovely, I enjoyed it, and it continued the trend of me carrying Benito so we didn't have to deal with the uneven roads/sidewalks. The footing was tricky sometimes in Granada, either very uneven from rocks worn smooth but still deeply grooved, or smooth and slippery granite or marble or very even pavement. The point is: Benito has fallen a lot from just running around, and thankfully I have not.
We ended up having lunch at the same place we'd eaten once before: Nuevo Restaurante Hermanos Urquiza. It proved to be a difficult lunch, only because Benito was so active he barely sat to eat, and we actually used a high chair so he couldn't easily escape. I did end up going up the stairs with him this time, which I hadn't before, and saw where they did larger group seating, and were hiding some truly beautiful artwork. I had yet another fish I hadn't eaten before: red mullet. My plate came with 3 of them; they're not big fish, but my first course was a soup, so I only ate 2 of them, plus 1 of Carmen's fried cod pieces (3-bites big?). I tried a dessert Carmen suggested last time, leche frita (fried milk), and was not really keen on it so only had 2 bites, plus half the whipped cream - the rest of which went into my coffee cortado. By this point it was around 3, maybe 3:30, and we went back to our hotel to rest. I think that worked, but it's been a bit more than 24 hours since then and I honestly don't recall those two hours or so. *grin*
Geez, silly me: we knew that trying to get Benito to sleep in the crib wouldn't work, so we put him in the stroller and went to the Cathedral and he was asleep within 5 minutes of putting on his hat, reclining in his stroller, and having his jacket as a blanket. The architecture, detailed gold plating, huge organs, amazing giant books of musical notation, were impressive. Then we went to where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were entombed and went through that. Carmen was a great tour-guide throughout. We weren't allowed to take photographs in the tomb, and I took a picture of the picture telling me not to take pictures, because it was a camera the likes of which only afficionados or professionals use these days. We looked in a few more stores and had a refreshment (coffee/soda) on the way back to the hotel (still no Bruno replacement) and got back in time to wake up Benito and get our stuff outside to the nearby street and meet our taxi to the airport.
We were out of the hotel by 6, our taxi was prompt to pick us up, and we were at the airport by 6:30. Our flight didn't start checking in until 7, so we killed time with a snack: that is, Benito had half a chocolate chip muffin (this kid has been SPOILED with chocolate) and about 2/3 of a bag of chips, Rick had chips, and I had about 2 bites of muffin. We did our time waiting in the check-in line, then got through security with basically no fuss, and then, happily, there was a cute play area right in front of us for Benito. He was totally enthralled by nifty apparatus (interlocking gears, balls on interweaving tracks, a few other puzzles, a little slide) until we went to our gate as our plane was landing. We boarded our flight ~10 minutes later, and were in the air for only an hour before touching down again in Barcelona. Rick and I had bought salty snacks, so I was dehydrated from not drinking enough water, as well as salty snack, and airplane air, and not having actual dinner by 10 PM. We were 20 minutes early into Barcelona due to a tailwind, but we spent that time and more dealing with some damaged luggage. The end of that story: a report was filed, and in a week the airline will send us a new piece of luggage. Yes, we leave in less than 36 hours; it'll get sent to our home anyway. Our main bag will be okay getting home this time, but I don't know if Rick will want to retire it from air travel after that. Sheesh; another piece of luggage relegated to land travel only. Benito had ridiculous energy throughout the evening and made it to the airport hotel more spry than the adults; we got to our rooms, he watched 2 Thomas episodes, then we all went to bed... no, wait, we got room service first, had "dinner," then went to bed.
Today's post next, posting this one with yesterday's date stamp.
This entry was originally posted at http://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/682780.html. Please comment there using OpenID.