Granada: walking tour

Alarm at 8.30. I ate my spinach and four cheese pastry for breakfast and had a shower. I headed off at 10.15 to Plaza del Carmen to meet the walking tour. I paid my €10 – the guide spoke both English and Spanish, and I met two girls from Brisbane, who were the only other English speakers in the tour. It was a good tour – very religion-based, but I guess the history of the city is. We went into a hammam and through the Moorish bazaar and saw a very important building used for accommodation for traders. We talked about the Alhambra, and I found out that I would have to queue for hours to get a ticket. Night tickets were available though, which gave me hope. At the end I asked the girls where the best tapas was and they showed me the place to go. They also told me there was a great lookout up the road on which we finished the tour, called San Nicholas. I went back to the hotel and regrouped.

I headed out again at 2pm, and got my free Gazpacho from La Oliva in Calle Rosario, and had a chat to the nice man. I bought some chocolate too. I retraced my steps from that morning into the Moorish bazaar area (Albacin), which was very interesting, and I had intended to buy a few things, but nothing really appealed to me. I have too many shoes as it is. I then headed to the tourist office in Plaza Santa Ana and found the bus times, and checked that I really would have to queue at crack of dawn to get into the Alhambra. It was true, and the night tickets were only for the Nasrine Palaces.

I headed up the hill from Santa Ana in search of this San Nicholas, but ended up at the lookout from Sacromonte Museum. It was closed until 5pm. Damn siesta!! I waited for a while, then realised I could go and see Sacromonte proper and possibly get a better view. I walked for ages, but just found the Abadia (whatever that is) looking very shut. It was after 5pm, so I walked back down, booking a room at Pension Britz and seeing a guitar maker on the way. I texted Jules to see if he wanted another guitar. I then headed to Capilla Real. It was rather small, but beautiful, with an extremely high ceiling. You could walk down into the floor to see inside the crypt. There was a huge metal grille – so ornate! – and a wall of gold. I couldn’t take photos unfortunately. I saw a Botticelli which was quite exciting. Then to the cathedral. Oh my god it is absolutely amazing. It’s all white, and the scale is just unfathomable. The pillars seemed to go up forever. It reminded me of that dwarf city scene in Lord of the Rings (Khazad dum?) it was so enormous. There were two golden organs that I took naughty photos of for the two Petes (well everyone else was taking photos!). From there I headed to Carrera del Genil to buy some breakfast and then back to the hotel. I rested for a while, had a shower and went online.

I went back out at around 10pm, to Bodegas Casteñeda for tapas. I asked for dry white sherry, which was pretty stupid, echoed by the Australian next to me at the bar. I got something (Jerez?) which was dry, pale and quite good, for €1.80. The first tapas was one piece of cured meat, cheese, green olives and bread. On the recommendation of the Aussie, I then had some Pedro Ximenez, which was dark red, sweet and fruity. It was still very nice, and €2. The second tapas was a tasty potato salad, with more olives and bread. I tried to ask for Montecelli, but the guy shook his head and said something I didn’t understand. So I had another Pedro Ximenez, feeling decidedly tipsy by now. The last tapas was another salady thing with egg and tomatoes. Nice. I left just after 11, resisting the urge to have another in an attempt to get more to eat. I packed up and went to bed.