GRANADA: THE ALPUJARRA, THE ROYAL CHAPEL & THE CATHEDRAL

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After the visit to the Alhambra on Wednesday morning, Grace (from North Carolina) and I walked down into the city through the gardens and forest. We ate lunch in the Plaza Bib - Rambl...a and did some shopping for Grace's daughters. Once we had parted I realised that I really needed to decide about where I was going to move onto. I got my laptop from my hotel room and sat in the bar, 'surfing the net' for ideas on how i was going to get to the eastern (Mediterranean) coast from Granada by train. There only seemed to be 2 options - a 12 hour journey via Madrid or a night train (sleeper) that left Granada at 9:30pm and arrived in Valencia at 4:00am! Neither of these filled me with excitement. When i was paying my bill at the bar, I explained to the barmaid what I wanted to do - really to go to Cartagena. She suggested getting a train to Almeria and then a bus to Cartagena! An interesting option, which after I investigated, seemed ok. So I booked accommodation in Almeria and checked out the train timetable.
I spent Thursday morning on a coach tour of the Alpujarra (said Al-poo-kha-rra. Note that double r is rolled!) It was a big coach with only 7 passengers and a tour guide, Maria. This area runs down from the Sierra Nevada to the Mediterranean coast, with clusters of small white villages with flat earten roofs and terraced farmland. We walked through Lanjaron, a famous spa town, visiting various pretty courtyards, passing a woman selling vegetables from a stall made out of a wheel barrow, and fascinated by a newly constructed fountain depicting the various age groups in the village In one tiny alleyway/courtyard, we could here the clucking of a hen but we could not work out where it was coming from. Then we sighted, about half way up the wall a small 'window' with a rooster (or cockerel) inside. Unbelievable!.Capileira (the cap) is the highest village in this section of the Alpujarra and provided panoramic views of the surrounding mountains, topped with snow. Lastly we visited Pampaneira, where Maria took us into the workshop of a weaver and surprised us with the local 'laundry'. Our tour ended back in Granada about 3pm - not bad for a half day tour costing 33 euros.
Looking for a place for a bite to eat I bumped into David and Angela from the morning's tour and they kindly shared their tapas with me. Great hospitality from these people from South Australia! After lunch I thought I should visit the Royal Chapel and The Cathedral, as both were recommended by Carmen, the guide from the walking tour earlier in the week. The Royal Chapel is where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, their first grandson, Prince Michael, their son - in - law, Phillip, and their daughter, Joan, are buried in the crypt, with the mausoleum above. It is a simple design - one nave, four side chapels and short transcepts, but is very moving as the resting place of the 'Catholic Monarchs' as Ferdinand and Isabel were called. The cathedral is huge by comparison, but its outstanding feature is that the walls are whitewashed, which gives the cathedral an overall brilliance, quite different from many others.
My visit to Granada was dampened by an attempt by two teenage girls to snatch my bag. I had left the Cathedral and walked around the building to a shop in Plaza Bib-Rambla. I had noticed them walking closely behind me, but did not think anything of it. They were chatting and just seemed to be going in the same direction as me. As I entered the shop, I felt a tug on my bag, but still really did not realise what had happened. My bag was open but I thought that I'd left it like that when I left the Cathedral shop. I even gave myself a talking to about being so careless. Then I remembered the tug, and that the two girls had been very close behind me and yet had not entered the shop. They were actually still outside - looking in the window! I made my purchases and when I left the shop, they had moved on. I could be wrong about the whole affair, but my gut tells me I'm not!
Dinner on both Wednesday and Thursday nights was at a great little cafe/bar close to my hotel, called 'Buen Apetito'. Wednesday night I had lamb cutlets (6!) with chips and VEGETABLES - very exciting! Thursday night I had the daily menu (said men - oo!) - tomato salad, main course (can't remember exactly what it was but it was so delicious I asked for more bread to soak up the juices!) and dessert.

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