PLAZA BIB-RAMBLA GRANADA

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TUESDAY 2ND JULY
A thunderstorm had crossed the city late in the afternoon. It hadn't lasted long. It was more like a sun shower. The sky had been building up with very black clouds since lunch time and it finally broke about half past six. I was walking back up the hill from the department store and had just bought a pistachio gelato, which I ate while sitting in a door way to keep out of the rain. Once the rain had stopped, a wild wind briefly swept through the streets, lining the pavements with leaves from the trees.
The Spanish love the afternoons. They walk the streets and sit in plazas until it is time to go home for dinner. They eat dinner around 10pm. Most restaurants do not begin to serve dinner until after 8pm.
The Plaza Bib-Rambla is very popular. On this particular Tuesday night there were boys playing football, using the closed doors of two kiosks as their goal posts. Nobody minded - they just walked around their game. Some people briefly joined in as they moved across the playing area.
A boy and his older sister were playing chasing. I'd seen a similar incident in Ronda where a boy was playing a game where his 2 younger sisters had to try to run past him to the other side of the plaza. I seem to remember playing this at primary school. It is a common sight to see siblings playing together. The family unit is still very strong here.
Two sisters, dressed identically, were playing in the leaves that had fallen during the storm. This is another common practice. I've noticed not only twins, but particularly girls of different ages in a family, dressed the same.
A young girl practising to roller skate. She was being watched by her mother and the dog, who were both sitting on a stone bench next to me.
Two girls, and later the younger girl with her father, were playing with balloons filled with a little water so that they didn't blow away.
A brother was teaching his younger sister to ride a bike.
A man was carrying a sign, while walking the dog.
Some music had drawn me from one end of the plaza to the other, where I found an incredible wooden merry-go-round, powered by a man pedalling a bike. This brought back memories of 'Spicks and Specks'.
There is a fountain in the centre of the plaza, with a stature of Neptune at its peak. The base of the stature are very gruesome gargoyles.
An older woman shared the bench I was sitting on for a while. We had a great chat - she did not speak any English and my Spanish is limited to nouns to do mostly with food and drink! We talked about the need to keep your bag safely close to you, my travelling all the way from Australia and where I had been in Spain, my granddaughter, the children playing in the square, that in Australia we don't spend time in square like this one, and that she had rested enough to make her way up the hill to home! That's what I think we talked about. Maybe she had a totally different conversation!

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