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April 26, 2017
Granada - Dia Diecinueve (Martes)
It has cooled down a bit and we've even had a few extremely mild sprinkles in the later afternoon. Charles left the house somewhere around 5:30 a.m. to stand in a huge line for Alhambra tickets. They sell 100 tickets each morning for those who have not bought them months ahead. Charles was number 102. And, he had about 200 people waiting in line behind him. Unfortunately, we did not get tickets for the castle. But. we hopped a taxi around 10:00 and headed up to tour the gardens and the grounds of the Palacio de Generalife, the country estate and summer palace for the sultan. The gardens were beautiful with Moorish arches and pools of water. The flowers were in bloom and everything was lush and green. Charles often walks through the Alhambra and found that the whole countryside has sprinklers so that it is green even in the high heat of the summer months.
We then stopped at a little hotel on the Alhambra grounds and near the Generalife called the Hotel America. The restaurant was in an enclosed and charmingly decorated patio. I had gazpacho and a roasted asparagus plate and Charles had meat croquettes and some French fries. We walked back along the pathways to catch another taxi to take us up to the Plaza St. Nicholas at the top of the Albaicin where we picked up Nico from school and walked home.
It's a pretty harrowing drive through the narrow streets for the drivers. There is barely enough room for a small bus or auto so people who are walking have to flatten themselves against the whitewashed walls of buildings or find a little niche to stand in when the vehicle passes. Sometimes autos have stopped for some reason so no one can get by. I'm impressed by how patient everyone is when that happens. Everyone seems to take it in stride until things get moving again. Most of the streets we walk are not big enough for vehicles, and the vehicles that do manage to come into the Albaicin are small.
Charles went out to the store for a roasted chicken for dinner and Nico and I ended the day watching an episode of Planet Earth on my computer screen. It was a lovely day.
Posted by Marilyn at April 26, 2017 6:14 AM