Granada
Granada December 30 - January 3, 2013
Part 2 of my travel journal.
As the bus pulled into Granada, we could tell that this was going to be a different experience from Toledo. Riding the bus, we came in through a grittier part of town, and then took a taxi through a bustling commercial district full of people to Plaza Nueva, at the base of the Alhambra, where we were to meet the people who would take us to our Carmen, the apartment we’d booked in the Albaicyn, the old Moorish quarter of Granada. (I see it spelled around here as Albaicyn, Albaicín, Albaycín, all of which have the same Spanish pronunciation with the accent on the last syllable.) Unlike Toledo, where the historic hill town is separated by a river and cliffs from the newer parts of the city, in Granada the historic older buildings of the Christian era and the modern commercial district are intermingled and the old Moorish buildings of the Albaicyn rise within a block of the main street. The downtown commercial area of Granada at the base of the Alhambra is an attractive bustling area with lots of small shops catering to tourists in the old market area around the cathedral. The Albaicyn is built up the side of a hill. Although there are roads that cars can traverse, many of the “streets” are steps and there are many properties that can only be reached by foot. Our lodging was one of them.
Once you get close to the area, the Alhambra dominates the skyline. It is huge. It sits on a high hill atop the town and is lit at night. It was pretty much always in view, except when we were deep in the building-canyons of the Albaicyn. Most of our visit encompassed holidays when many shops and attractions were closed, so we did not get the full impact. The main streets in the historic Christian section seemed to be just as full of Granadans as tourists, while tourists seemed to predominate over in the Albaicyn. Again, many of the tourists were Spanish speakers. There were a lot of Moroccan restaurants and souvenir shops, and the Moorish/Moroccan connection is clearly a big part of what Granada is selling. I did see a few more women wearing hijab than in Toledo and more dark-haired people who might have been North Africans, and there were African street vendors selling knock-off hand bags. But the streets overall still seemed less diverse than many big cities. Per Carolos, the man who conducted us to our apartment,the population of Granada proper is about 200,000 and the surrounding metro area is about 500,000. About the size of Madison. The airport is about Madison-sized, too. Carlos also complained that people were not very interested in coming to Granada. Transportation connections may play a role in this!
Because there were four of us, we rented a “Carmen,” an apartment in an old Moorish house in the Albaicyn with views of the Alhambra. This was cheaper than two hotel rooms and let us fix simple meals in the apartment. It was a lovely, newly-refurbished, well-equipped two bedroom apartment and we were very happy there. The only actual problem was an invasion of ants that went after anything sweet left lying around, including the sugar in the cupboard and Christmas sweets that had been left as a gift for us, but the ants did no actual damage. We put the Christmas sweets and the sugar out on the balcony and all our food in the refrigerator. I used dish soap as an insecticide, pouring it on their trails.
Our arrival was somewhat anxiety-provoking, however. Beatriz, the host I’d been communicating with by email moved to London suddenly (after we were in Toledo) and passed us on to her father, who speaks no English, and her cousin Carlos, who speaks some English but is not normally involved in managing the residence. They met us at the edge of the Albaicyn in Plaza Nueva and we followed them on a 10 minute walk up cobblestone steps to the Carmen. The father (we never figured out what his name was) carefully demonstrated and explained with meaningful gestures and rapid Spanish the six (6!) different keys to the six different locks needed to get to and around the apartment: gate key (most important, always keep it locked), key to the iron gate at the building entrance, key to the door at the building entrance, key to the door of the apartment, key to the iron grate at our balcony and key to the gate to the stairs leading to the rooftop terrace. I had some serious worry when I first arrived, because I could not “find” the wifi on my phone and Carlos said he didn’t think there was wifi there, but we later found an unprotected network named Motorola (!) that worked; whether that was the network I thought we were supposed to have or we were cadging from a neighbor, I don’t know.
We knew from Beatriz that the grocery stores would be open only in the morning of December 31 and then close until January 3, the day we leave, so we had to make sure to find food first thing in the morning on December 31. She assured me by email that Carlos would be sure we knew where the grocery store was. But Carlos was very vague about where the neighborhood supermercado was. He gestured up a flight of stairs and said it was “up there.” We never did find it! Of course, as it was closed most of the time we were here, it could easily have been hidden from sight. Our experience elsewhere in historic areas in Europe is that the big grocery stores are hidden inside old facades with very subtle entrances that are easy to miss if you don’t know where to look, and closed stores are often covered by garage doors that make them even harder to identify.
Beatriz had left us with coffee, tea, bread, butter, jam, milk and Christmas sweets, but we thought we wanted some protein our diet. We decided we needed to get some provisions for our first breakfast and an evening meal if Robert and Anastassia were too tired to go out when they arrived. We found some minimarts and acquired some eggs, ham, cheese, wine, beer-the basics. After that we walked around just seeing the sights.
We got access to the apartment about 6pm. Robert and Anastassia were due in to the Granada airport at 9pm. (They’d spent Christmas in Bulgaria with her relatives.) We’d told them to just take a cab to the apartment because they were coming so late. We expected them to call when they hit Spain and bought a SIM card, so we could tell them the revised directions. Or call or email to tell us there’d be a travel glitch and they were stuck somewhere. But they never called. It got later than expected and we started wondering what was going on. They must not have a phone after all. I started worrying and realized that the gate to the courtyard was so far from the apartment that we would not be able to hear them if they knocked and would have no way to tell us they were there if they had no phone. So I investigated, found a call, intercom and buzzer system, tested and learned that the person inside could hear the person at the gate but not vice versa, and that the buzzer would not open the gate if it was locked, but would at least make a lot of noise. There were five buttons, one for each apartment, labeled by location (ours was alta derecha, upper right. Not useful. I got the idea of labeling the correct button and the gate with our name so they could be assured they had the right place.
Finally they showed up about 10:30, minus their suitcase. They’d had a trial. They’d gotten a SIM for their phone, but there was a problem and it had not been activated, so they could not call us. Their suitcase had not shown up and they’d had to file a baggage claim across a language barrier. They had the address and Beatriz’s phone number. The cab driver did not know how to get to the address and spoke no English. So he called Beatriz’s phone number (she was in London!) and got the information from her about how to get there. He got them as close as he could and gave them a map and instructions about how to walk the rest of the way. They made it!
After relaxing a bit from all the hassle, Robert lobbied for going out and looking around and getting some tapas. We found a close place and had a lovely time. The custom here in many bars is to include a tapa with the price of a drink. A tapa is a small plate of food. At the first bar we went to, the free tapa was a pork sandwich. Not huge, but could have been a lunch. We also ordered some other tapas, which were €2-4 each. In other bars, the free tapas might be anything on the tapas menu. Next day we talked to the airline about baggage delivery, trying to figure out how they were going to deliver the bag to an address their vehicle could not get to and worrying they’d try to deliver while we were in the Alhambra, figured out a backup plan (have them call Carlos), hustled about trying to find a market, went to the famous Antigua Market which we could find on the tourist map, realized that its stalls of meat and vegetables was not going to do it for us, and hit the minimarts again for more supplies. We had climbed up the narrow spiral staircase to the rooftop terrace and looking at the view just before getting ready to go to the Alhambra when the gate button called. It buzzed twice before we realized what it was. Hello? I called. “Anastassia?” a voice called back!! Aha! The bag! We made a lot of noise while climbing down several flights of stairs to get to the gate and retrieve the bag, just in time for Robert and Anastassia to be able to go to the Alhambra in clean clothes.
We’d decided to splurge on a professional guide for a private tour of the Alhambra and I think it was worth it, although at times I felt like she was an audio guide with no pause button. Marguerita conveyed so much information I found it hard to take it all in. I wish I’d had time to study up before the visit so I could take in more. My head started reeling in connecting all of the different pieces of history. At one point as she was explaining about all the people who had been beheaded in a particular room and the blood running everywhere, I’d lost track of what she’s said about where we were in the palace and had to ask. It was the king’s bedroom! But the detailing of the carvings on the walls was so beautiful and impressive as were the layouts of some of the pleasure gardens. John took a lot of pictures.
The Alhambra was not built at the height of Moorish power, but in its decline. The capital had originally been built farther north. The king retreated to Granada after defeats. The original palace and fortress was built on the hill of the Albaicyn in the 1100, across the river valley from the Alhambra. The palace and parts of the original wall can still be seen. The Alhambra was built in the 1300s as a symbol of resistance to the reconquista. According to Marguerita, the Moors left no records about how they furnished or used the Alhambra, so restoration has had to rely on Christian sources. Under the Moors, the Alhambra was a small city for about 1000 people, structured to be self-contained in times of siege. It contained many buildings that have fallen to ruins, farms, and a working gravity-based indoor plumbing system that provided water for both baths and indoor flush toilets. Floors were build at two levels with a space between that was used for heating. The heat from the bakery was used to warm the floors, so the bakeries were located near the residences. The site contains three distinct palaces, the Generalife highest on the hill, smaller and exquisite. The main and most ornate palace was the residence of the Moorish king up to the surrender. Toward the bottom of the Alhambra hill is the Christian palace that was never finished or occupied.
One thing she told us that I did not know is that the original settlers of Granada were Jews. She said that Granada was founded in the Roman era as part of the route to Portugal. Another thing I had not realized was that the Alhambra was abandoned and in ruins for several hundred years. Poor people who could afford nothing better were squatting in its rooms. It was rediscovered by bohemians and apparently Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra, written while he was staying in a cheap lodging in the ruins, was one of the inspirations for restoring the Alhambra and setting it up for tourists.
We were also freezing to death. I should have known better because the same happened with the cathedrals and churches in Toledo. It is winter, we are in mountainous areas far from the sea, it is in the 30s F overnight, barely making it into the 50s in the warm part of the warmest days. In the day in the sun you think you don’t need your warmest clothes because it is not so cold. But it is really, really cold inside those old stone buildings. I believe it is the same principle that makes the spaces cool in the heat of summer. There is all that stone that gets cold from the winter at night, and it never warms up in the day time. All the tour guides wear furs or other warm clothes.
In any event, the Alhambra was spectacular inside and I’d like to go through it again some time if I could.
We got out of the Alhambra at 4:30 pm New Year’s Eve. We had not had much for lunch. Almost everything was closed. Most Spanish restaurants are closed in the late afternoon and early evening; they are open about noon to 3 or 4 for midday meals (many Spanish eat their biggest meal then), close for three or four hours, then reopen for dinner about between 7 and 8; Spaniards do not eat their evening meal until at least 9pm. We had to settle for an overpriced mediocre meal at the only tourist-oriented restaurant that was open, but at least the room was warm. Looking back on it, it was a mistake to eschew the restaurant at the edge of the Alhambra.
With the physical exertion of getting to, from and around the Alhambra and all of the other running around for the past 24 hours, we were all tired. We went back to our place and slept for a few hours. When we were ready to go out again it was after 11, New Year’s Eve. Following instructions, we headed to the plaza where people gather. If we’d gotten there early enough, I think we may have been able to get free champagne and grapes. In the part of the crowd we were in, people had brought their own. As the bell tolls the 12 strokes of midnight, the custom is to eat 12 grapes, one at each toll, and then drink champagne. I heard no explanation of the meaning of the grapes. Then there were fireworks and lots of singing and yelling. Then we went looking for food. Most places were closed. The bars that were open were selling drinks but not food. We ended up at the fast-food kebap place.
Tuesday January 1 we had another three hour tour with the private guide. We went by all the churches in the Christian area and peeked our heads in the cathedral, but they were all closed to tourists because of the holiday. If we want to see them, we’d have to go back the next day, when hours would still be short. January 2 is also a holiday in Granada, celebrating the surrender of the Moors. So we spent most of our time walking around the Albaicyn, the Moorish quarter. This was really a lot of fun. The guide showed us all kinds of stuff that we would not have been able to spot on our own. I really enjoyed the opportunity learn more about local life. We discussed the recession which has, of course, hit Spain really hard. I thought there were a lot of tourists around, but she said no, business is really slow. This is normally a big tourist season for Spaniards and she said Spaniards love to spend a lot of money on vacations, but they are traveling and spending much less than usual. She complained about how Spaniards have long had to go to Germany to get work where they would do difficult dangerous jobs like mining. She was not a big fan of European integration, the euro, or German domination of the Spanish economy. She complained “they want to make us work until we are 80.”
January 2 Robert, Anastassia and I kind of hung out and took random walks. John was coming down with a cold and spent much of the day in bed. The only official tourisiting was visiting the Chapel which contains the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella. The renaissance altar piece has been refurbished and repainted and features some quite vivid and active statues from the lives and deaths of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. John the Evangelists is being boiled in a pot. John the Baptist’s beheading has his decapitated neck jutting forward with the tubes showing while his gory head is being held up by a soldier. With the fresh repainting (true to the original) it is almost cartoonish in appearance. I really have never seen anything like it. I found some pictures on the web but they really don’t do justice to it.
In the evening, Robert had scoped out an English bar that sells imported beer with free tapas and had positive ratings. I was pretty dubious about being in Spain and focusing on imported beer, but we went along. It was a good evening All the bar sold was drinks and tapas, no dinner menu. We arrived early when it was still empty but it was packed by the time we left. It was a tiny place and we kind of took over the small area with upholstered chairs around little cocktail tables. We had three rounds of beer and thus shared 12 tapas plus several larger ración (snack) size plates of some we particularly liked. The surprise was that the whole bill was €57 for the four of us. I was expecting much worse. I’m not sure a diet that is half beer is sitting all that well with me, but it was fun. On the way home we dropped into one of the many chocolate and churros places. We ordered four chocolates and four churros. Turns out an order of churros is several churros. We got a pile of churros that was bigger than a soccer ball. We ate them. They were puffy and a lot air. Still.
We would have been happy to spend a few more days in Granada. It was winter so we were chilly, not hot. I imagine summer could be unpleasant. There was a lot of see that we had not seen. I would have found it worthwhile to pay twice for the Alhambra. It was crowded but not crazy-crowded. People were friendly. The mixture of attractive tourist areas and regular city facilities was a nice balance.
Part 2 of my travel journal.
As the bus pulled into Granada, we could tell that this was going to be a different experience from Toledo. Riding the bus, we came in through a grittier part of town, and then took a taxi through a bustling commercial district full of people to Plaza Nueva, at the base of the Alhambra, where we were to meet the people who would take us to our Carmen, the apartment we’d booked in the Albaicyn, the old Moorish quarter of Granada. (I see it spelled around here as Albaicyn, Albaicín, Albaycín, all of which have the same Spanish pronunciation with the accent on the last syllable.) Unlike Toledo, where the historic hill town is separated by a river and cliffs from the newer parts of the city, in Granada the historic older buildings of the Christian era and the modern commercial district are intermingled and the old Moorish buildings of the Albaicyn rise within a block of the main street. The downtown commercial area of Granada at the base of the Alhambra is an attractive bustling area with lots of small shops catering to tourists in the old market area around the cathedral. The Albaicyn is built up the side of a hill. Although there are roads that cars can traverse, many of the “streets” are steps and there are many properties that can only be reached by foot. Our lodging was one of them.
Once you get close to the area, the Alhambra dominates the skyline. It is huge. It sits on a high hill atop the town and is lit at night. It was pretty much always in view, except when we were deep in the building-canyons of the Albaicyn. Most of our visit encompassed holidays when many shops and attractions were closed, so we did not get the full impact. The main streets in the historic Christian section seemed to be just as full of Granadans as tourists, while tourists seemed to predominate over in the Albaicyn. Again, many of the tourists were Spanish speakers. There were a lot of Moroccan restaurants and souvenir shops, and the Moorish/Moroccan connection is clearly a big part of what Granada is selling. I did see a few more women wearing hijab than in Toledo and more dark-haired people who might have been North Africans, and there were African street vendors selling knock-off hand bags. But the streets overall still seemed less diverse than many big cities. Per Carolos, the man who conducted us to our apartment,the population of Granada proper is about 200,000 and the surrounding metro area is about 500,000. About the size of Madison. The airport is about Madison-sized, too. Carlos also complained that people were not very interested in coming to Granada. Transportation connections may play a role in this!
Because there were four of us, we rented a “Carmen,” an apartment in an old Moorish house in the Albaicyn with views of the Alhambra. This was cheaper than two hotel rooms and let us fix simple meals in the apartment. It was a lovely, newly-refurbished, well-equipped two bedroom apartment and we were very happy there. The only actual problem was an invasion of ants that went after anything sweet left lying around, including the sugar in the cupboard and Christmas sweets that had been left as a gift for us, but the ants did no actual damage. We put the Christmas sweets and the sugar out on the balcony and all our food in the refrigerator. I used dish soap as an insecticide, pouring it on their trails.
Our arrival was somewhat anxiety-provoking, however. Beatriz, the host I’d been communicating with by email moved to London suddenly (after we were in Toledo) and passed us on to her father, who speaks no English, and her cousin Carlos, who speaks some English but is not normally involved in managing the residence. They met us at the edge of the Albaicyn in Plaza Nueva and we followed them on a 10 minute walk up cobblestone steps to the Carmen. The father (we never figured out what his name was) carefully demonstrated and explained with meaningful gestures and rapid Spanish the six (6!) different keys to the six different locks needed to get to and around the apartment: gate key (most important, always keep it locked), key to the iron gate at the building entrance, key to the door at the building entrance, key to the door of the apartment, key to the iron grate at our balcony and key to the gate to the stairs leading to the rooftop terrace. I had some serious worry when I first arrived, because I could not “find” the wifi on my phone and Carlos said he didn’t think there was wifi there, but we later found an unprotected network named Motorola (!) that worked; whether that was the network I thought we were supposed to have or we were cadging from a neighbor, I don’t know.
We knew from Beatriz that the grocery stores would be open only in the morning of December 31 and then close until January 3, the day we leave, so we had to make sure to find food first thing in the morning on December 31. She assured me by email that Carlos would be sure we knew where the grocery store was. But Carlos was very vague about where the neighborhood supermercado was. He gestured up a flight of stairs and said it was “up there.” We never did find it! Of course, as it was closed most of the time we were here, it could easily have been hidden from sight. Our experience elsewhere in historic areas in Europe is that the big grocery stores are hidden inside old facades with very subtle entrances that are easy to miss if you don’t know where to look, and closed stores are often covered by garage doors that make them even harder to identify.
Beatriz had left us with coffee, tea, bread, butter, jam, milk and Christmas sweets, but we thought we wanted some protein our diet. We decided we needed to get some provisions for our first breakfast and an evening meal if Robert and Anastassia were too tired to go out when they arrived. We found some minimarts and acquired some eggs, ham, cheese, wine, beer-the basics. After that we walked around just seeing the sights.
We got access to the apartment about 6pm. Robert and Anastassia were due in to the Granada airport at 9pm. (They’d spent Christmas in Bulgaria with her relatives.) We’d told them to just take a cab to the apartment because they were coming so late. We expected them to call when they hit Spain and bought a SIM card, so we could tell them the revised directions. Or call or email to tell us there’d be a travel glitch and they were stuck somewhere. But they never called. It got later than expected and we started wondering what was going on. They must not have a phone after all. I started worrying and realized that the gate to the courtyard was so far from the apartment that we would not be able to hear them if they knocked and would have no way to tell us they were there if they had no phone. So I investigated, found a call, intercom and buzzer system, tested and learned that the person inside could hear the person at the gate but not vice versa, and that the buzzer would not open the gate if it was locked, but would at least make a lot of noise. There were five buttons, one for each apartment, labeled by location (ours was alta derecha, upper right. Not useful. I got the idea of labeling the correct button and the gate with our name so they could be assured they had the right place.
Finally they showed up about 10:30, minus their suitcase. They’d had a trial. They’d gotten a SIM for their phone, but there was a problem and it had not been activated, so they could not call us. Their suitcase had not shown up and they’d had to file a baggage claim across a language barrier. They had the address and Beatriz’s phone number. The cab driver did not know how to get to the address and spoke no English. So he called Beatriz’s phone number (she was in London!) and got the information from her about how to get there. He got them as close as he could and gave them a map and instructions about how to walk the rest of the way. They made it!
After relaxing a bit from all the hassle, Robert lobbied for going out and looking around and getting some tapas. We found a close place and had a lovely time. The custom here in many bars is to include a tapa with the price of a drink. A tapa is a small plate of food. At the first bar we went to, the free tapa was a pork sandwich. Not huge, but could have been a lunch. We also ordered some other tapas, which were €2-4 each. In other bars, the free tapas might be anything on the tapas menu. Next day we talked to the airline about baggage delivery, trying to figure out how they were going to deliver the bag to an address their vehicle could not get to and worrying they’d try to deliver while we were in the Alhambra, figured out a backup plan (have them call Carlos), hustled about trying to find a market, went to the famous Antigua Market which we could find on the tourist map, realized that its stalls of meat and vegetables was not going to do it for us, and hit the minimarts again for more supplies. We had climbed up the narrow spiral staircase to the rooftop terrace and looking at the view just before getting ready to go to the Alhambra when the gate button called. It buzzed twice before we realized what it was. Hello? I called. “Anastassia?” a voice called back!! Aha! The bag! We made a lot of noise while climbing down several flights of stairs to get to the gate and retrieve the bag, just in time for Robert and Anastassia to be able to go to the Alhambra in clean clothes.
We’d decided to splurge on a professional guide for a private tour of the Alhambra and I think it was worth it, although at times I felt like she was an audio guide with no pause button. Marguerita conveyed so much information I found it hard to take it all in. I wish I’d had time to study up before the visit so I could take in more. My head started reeling in connecting all of the different pieces of history. At one point as she was explaining about all the people who had been beheaded in a particular room and the blood running everywhere, I’d lost track of what she’s said about where we were in the palace and had to ask. It was the king’s bedroom! But the detailing of the carvings on the walls was so beautiful and impressive as were the layouts of some of the pleasure gardens. John took a lot of pictures.
The Alhambra was not built at the height of Moorish power, but in its decline. The capital had originally been built farther north. The king retreated to Granada after defeats. The original palace and fortress was built on the hill of the Albaicyn in the 1100, across the river valley from the Alhambra. The palace and parts of the original wall can still be seen. The Alhambra was built in the 1300s as a symbol of resistance to the reconquista. According to Marguerita, the Moors left no records about how they furnished or used the Alhambra, so restoration has had to rely on Christian sources. Under the Moors, the Alhambra was a small city for about 1000 people, structured to be self-contained in times of siege. It contained many buildings that have fallen to ruins, farms, and a working gravity-based indoor plumbing system that provided water for both baths and indoor flush toilets. Floors were build at two levels with a space between that was used for heating. The heat from the bakery was used to warm the floors, so the bakeries were located near the residences. The site contains three distinct palaces, the Generalife highest on the hill, smaller and exquisite. The main and most ornate palace was the residence of the Moorish king up to the surrender. Toward the bottom of the Alhambra hill is the Christian palace that was never finished or occupied.
One thing she told us that I did not know is that the original settlers of Granada were Jews. She said that Granada was founded in the Roman era as part of the route to Portugal. Another thing I had not realized was that the Alhambra was abandoned and in ruins for several hundred years. Poor people who could afford nothing better were squatting in its rooms. It was rediscovered by bohemians and apparently Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra, written while he was staying in a cheap lodging in the ruins, was one of the inspirations for restoring the Alhambra and setting it up for tourists.
We were also freezing to death. I should have known better because the same happened with the cathedrals and churches in Toledo. It is winter, we are in mountainous areas far from the sea, it is in the 30s F overnight, barely making it into the 50s in the warm part of the warmest days. In the day in the sun you think you don’t need your warmest clothes because it is not so cold. But it is really, really cold inside those old stone buildings. I believe it is the same principle that makes the spaces cool in the heat of summer. There is all that stone that gets cold from the winter at night, and it never warms up in the day time. All the tour guides wear furs or other warm clothes.
In any event, the Alhambra was spectacular inside and I’d like to go through it again some time if I could.
We got out of the Alhambra at 4:30 pm New Year’s Eve. We had not had much for lunch. Almost everything was closed. Most Spanish restaurants are closed in the late afternoon and early evening; they are open about noon to 3 or 4 for midday meals (many Spanish eat their biggest meal then), close for three or four hours, then reopen for dinner about between 7 and 8; Spaniards do not eat their evening meal until at least 9pm. We had to settle for an overpriced mediocre meal at the only tourist-oriented restaurant that was open, but at least the room was warm. Looking back on it, it was a mistake to eschew the restaurant at the edge of the Alhambra.
With the physical exertion of getting to, from and around the Alhambra and all of the other running around for the past 24 hours, we were all tired. We went back to our place and slept for a few hours. When we were ready to go out again it was after 11, New Year’s Eve. Following instructions, we headed to the plaza where people gather. If we’d gotten there early enough, I think we may have been able to get free champagne and grapes. In the part of the crowd we were in, people had brought their own. As the bell tolls the 12 strokes of midnight, the custom is to eat 12 grapes, one at each toll, and then drink champagne. I heard no explanation of the meaning of the grapes. Then there were fireworks and lots of singing and yelling. Then we went looking for food. Most places were closed. The bars that were open were selling drinks but not food. We ended up at the fast-food kebap place.
Tuesday January 1 we had another three hour tour with the private guide. We went by all the churches in the Christian area and peeked our heads in the cathedral, but they were all closed to tourists because of the holiday. If we want to see them, we’d have to go back the next day, when hours would still be short. January 2 is also a holiday in Granada, celebrating the surrender of the Moors. So we spent most of our time walking around the Albaicyn, the Moorish quarter. This was really a lot of fun. The guide showed us all kinds of stuff that we would not have been able to spot on our own. I really enjoyed the opportunity learn more about local life. We discussed the recession which has, of course, hit Spain really hard. I thought there were a lot of tourists around, but she said no, business is really slow. This is normally a big tourist season for Spaniards and she said Spaniards love to spend a lot of money on vacations, but they are traveling and spending much less than usual. She complained about how Spaniards have long had to go to Germany to get work where they would do difficult dangerous jobs like mining. She was not a big fan of European integration, the euro, or German domination of the Spanish economy. She complained “they want to make us work until we are 80.”
January 2 Robert, Anastassia and I kind of hung out and took random walks. John was coming down with a cold and spent much of the day in bed. The only official tourisiting was visiting the Chapel which contains the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella. The renaissance altar piece has been refurbished and repainted and features some quite vivid and active statues from the lives and deaths of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. John the Evangelists is being boiled in a pot. John the Baptist’s beheading has his decapitated neck jutting forward with the tubes showing while his gory head is being held up by a soldier. With the fresh repainting (true to the original) it is almost cartoonish in appearance. I really have never seen anything like it. I found some pictures on the web but they really don’t do justice to it.
In the evening, Robert had scoped out an English bar that sells imported beer with free tapas and had positive ratings. I was pretty dubious about being in Spain and focusing on imported beer, but we went along. It was a good evening All the bar sold was drinks and tapas, no dinner menu. We arrived early when it was still empty but it was packed by the time we left. It was a tiny place and we kind of took over the small area with upholstered chairs around little cocktail tables. We had three rounds of beer and thus shared 12 tapas plus several larger ración (snack) size plates of some we particularly liked. The surprise was that the whole bill was €57 for the four of us. I was expecting much worse. I’m not sure a diet that is half beer is sitting all that well with me, but it was fun. On the way home we dropped into one of the many chocolate and churros places. We ordered four chocolates and four churros. Turns out an order of churros is several churros. We got a pile of churros that was bigger than a soccer ball. We ate them. They were puffy and a lot air. Still.
We would have been happy to spend a few more days in Granada. It was winter so we were chilly, not hot. I imagine summer could be unpleasant. There was a lot of see that we had not seen. I would have found it worthwhile to pay twice for the Alhambra. It was crowded but not crazy-crowded. People were friendly. The mixture of attractive tourist areas and regular city facilities was a nice balance.