Your Man in Granada

"Hola!"
"Hola."
"Uno Kit Kat, Por Favor."
"Si....uno Euro."
"Bueno. Gracias."
"De nada."
(Proof positive that 2 years of High School and 4 quarters of college Spanish has finally paid off.....a major business transaction which I conducted....entirely in Spanish! I have contacted the State Department and I am now ready to be....."Your Man in Granada." Qualified to conduct any and all high level cash exchanges for goods and services....chocolate, coffee, cervesa and complex menu items like "paellas." I can even work my way around tricky menu problems. Don't want onions on the menu item? Point to the word "onion" on the menu...say, "No...no!" and gently touch your belly and grimace.

This was a day for getting our bearings and getting tickets for this and that. The main thing was to figure out how to get tickets to the Alhambra...the 14th Century Moor palace and buildings which are world reknowned. Seems that Ferdinand and Isabella kicked out the Moors (Muslims) about the same time they sent Columbus to the new world and kicked out the Jews who ended up in Greece. (I viewed their museum in Athens a few weeks back.)

Ferdinand and Isabella are beloved around here. There are statues to them. I was visiting a church yesterday and it was telling about how the Franciscans were kicked out of this city too, though not by Isabella. I noted that the Muslims are back, not sure if the Franciscans are back. Judging from the crowds of people in this city, I guess the king and queen didn't kick everybody out. I suppose you had to be a part of the "in" crowd, but if you were not...you were shown the exit.

Anyway, they may not have liked the Moors back in the 14th Century but they do now....the Alhambra is great for tourism. Buses, people all over the place. We had to go online the day before and reserve tickets (heck, even the Vatican lets you in without a ticket, just stand in line). We went online and every (EVERY!) ticket was taken for today for every hour....except the earliest...8:30 am. Ticket brokers buy them up for tour groups who pull up in huge buses. We have to walk to the local "Alhambra" bus stop or walk way up the hill. We have opted for a cab, but need to get out of the hotel at 7:30 or so...no wonder the tour groups left the 8:30 tickets alone. Super Bowl tickets are easier to come by.

I wanted to see the grand Cathedral here in the city. I had it on the map. We walked around the city center and saw signs but the shopping/business district had grown up around it. Down a side street we found some shops, spice and tea sellers and finally the big plaza in front of the Cathedral. And....some huge wrought iron gates locked. Hmmmm. They take this religion-stuff pretty seriously here in Granada....kicking people out because of their religion and then locking gates in front of working parishes. But, we have learned...keep walking around the place....and we did and found the ticket office and people selling all sorts of religious items (a sure sign that God is in this place) and finally the entrance.

Fantastic. Talk about huge columns and gold and symmetry. The light was just wonderful as it filtered through. They would not allow photos in he Sacristy and museum but there were no signs in the sanctuary and so we looked and saw some guy filming the place and others felt at ease to do the same. The individual chapels for the cathedral were among the most ornate I have seen. Lots of paintings too.

Back out on the street we found a place to eat and decided we needed to make train tickets out of Granada to Malaga, so we went to the train station and found that there is not train to Malaga. "Take the bus." said the Information guy. I showed him a map and asked him to point out where that was and he looked at the map and pointed way off the western side of the city map...sort of in the general direction of Portugal and said..."way out here." .....where there was nothing listed on the map. I began to wondered if Isabella and Ferdinand has kicked buses out of the city back in the 14th Century too.

Since I couldn't locate it and was only told take bus 33...we punted and hailed a cab who took us. The automatic ticket machine wouldn't work for us...the ticket seller sold us the wrong date which necessitated another 20 minutes in line but besides that....everything went smoothly.

I should tell you that this city is situated in the south of Spain. Sounds sunny and wonderful, right? It is too. It is a bustling city, digging a subway system and has shopping galore and wonderful attractions but right outside of the city are snow capped mountains. Yesterday we saw some folks carrying their snow skis along the street, heading for the trails.

The guide book said that there is a thriving night life in the old part of town. I mean, it is shopping and dining and the like. We headed up that way around the Cathedral in the evening.

We were somewhat familiar with the area but had no idea how energetic the place was. Street after street of shoppers and mainly people stolling down old city streets. See and be seen. Occasionally the streets were broken by plazas of even more people. (Picture Easton at Christmas time and triple the crowds and you'll see what it is like every evening in old town Granada. We're glad we came.)

Peace,  Bob