Advertisement
Published: October 22nd 2019
Edit Blog Post
9 am we are off on a long bus ride to Granada on the foothills of Sierra Nevada in southern Spain’s Andalusia region. It is known for grand examples of medieval architecture such as the Alhambra due to the Moorish invasion.
There is no wildlife in Spain. David refers to wildlife as bulls, pigs and goats in the mountains. There are no deer, rabbits, foxes or anything like that. All there there is to see is olive groves and oilve groves and olive groves - mile after mile. Our rest stop is a spacious clean service centre that sells local oils so we have a chance to sample the smell and taste of different oils. This is a tourist stop so the prices are quite high and I think we’ll find quality oils at supermarkets in Granada much cheaper.
It is now 12 pm and we are climbing up into the Sierra Nevada foothills where it will be cooler temperatures. Arrival at our hotel at 1:00 and leave on a walking orientation at 1:30. This is another medieval city centre where streets are no more than lanes and alleys with twists and turns meant to confuse invaders and tourists.
At 2 pm we are abandoned by David at the base of the hill below Le Alhambra fortress. We are on our own to explore, pillage and burn! First order of business is to find a taverna for a beer and something to eat. We stop at a shabby little outdoor patio and wonder if we should really eat here? So we order 4 beers to quench the parch and lo and behold we get free tapas. It is a little petri dish of a chick peas, pork bits swimming in a chili type liquid - it is delicious!! And just enough to quell the hunger. Continuing up the cobblestone hill we began to smell something sweet and tempting - it’s a little shop making candy brittles and covered nuts and lots of other tidbits. The best part were the free samples - dessert! LOL
The cobblestones are original from the Moorish invasion in 1100’s. When roadwork is done, they are lifted and replaced exactly the same way. There are neighbourhods that have been declared world heritage by UNESCO. In one area is a water reservoir built by the Muslims in the 1100’s that has been restored and preserved
perfectly. The Muslims invented a system of water wheels to lift the dammed water from the river up to the top of the hill and also to supply Alhambra fortress. The water still flows from the reservoir and it clean and fresh.
We have worked our way back down through the streets and meandered through the tiny little alleyways of the Moroccan market. Time to stop and rest our feet at an outdoor beer patio, sitting with my back to the sun. How luxurious is life?? We must head back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner at 7:30 and leave at 8:30 for the Gypsy flamenco dance. This is held up on the mountain in a small cave. Attendance is limited and the area is a rectangular shape with chairs down each side which holds about 75 people. Although we had seen a Flamenco dance already this performance was different. All dances and musicians are Gypsies. These are people who originally came from India many centuries ago and mingled with the people and cultures of Spain. Their dance is every bit as flamboyant, passionate and sensual as the Spanish flamenco but it is different. Their costumes
are not as Spanish but more Gypsy oriented and the dance has a flavour of Hungarian in it. At the end of their performance, the dancers came back and encouraged visitors to get up and dance with them. The other half of the room was Japanese and many of them were good sports to get up and dance, as well as a few from our group. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped and walked through a neighbourhood for about 30 minutes to get pictures of Alhambra on the mountain lit up at night with the city lights twinkling down in the lower valley.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.399s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.073s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb