D020201

Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip

Granada After Alhambra

February 1, 2002

Dear Friends and Families,

The Alhambra is a tough act to follow but there is more to Granada than just one exhausting day of palace -wandering. Every place in Europe has an important church, a market, narrow streets, special dining, and, for us, time for catching up with phone calls, email, and this website.

First, the important church. In Granada there are two connected parts: the Cathedral and the Royal Chapel. The Cathedral is huge, the second largest cathedral in Spain. Unlike most other Spanish churches we're seen, the massive interior stone walls were given a brilliant white coating of lime. The effect is to make the space seem even larger and grander. A massive tabernacle canopy made from silver brought from Spain's American colonies dominates the center of the old altar. This was again in bright contrast with the normal gold and painted altar backdrops seen elsewhere.

The Cathedral organ was in fact a pair of organs with all kinds of pipes and horns. We would love to hear the music from such an instrument, but apparently they are only played a few times each year. (I wonder if they would consider battle-of-the-organs with these two. New Age or Rock. It would be great. Probably not, this is a conservative country).

Next door to the Cathedral is the Royal Chapel. This "chapel" is itself a good-sized church but the centerpiece here are the early 16th Century tombs of Queen Isabel, King Ferdinand, and their daughter and son-in-law. The sculpted Carrara marble figures are most lifelike and almost seem like real bodies. However, the real bodies are in a crypt below the tombs, each in it's own simple casket. We walked away from this whole macabre scene with a sense of having touched history. Because of that, I'd vote this Cathedral-Chapel pair the best European church so far.

Alhambra and the Cathedral-Chapel were about our limit for history. The rest of our five-day stay was simple necessities, wandering, and chores. For dining, there were many places to choose from, but we were still having difficulty with the Spanish eating hours. I don't think we ever had a properly timed evening meal. It's just too hard for us to start dinner at 8:30 or 9:00. On one of our walks, we passed a lovely-looking restaurant and checked their hours. Clearly stated they were: "Morning, 1:00 to 4:00pm; Afternoon, 8:00 to midnight".

Two eating experiences do stand out. The first was a breakfast next door at the "churroria". Their specialty is a "churro", which is an oil-fried stick of dough about an inch around and six inches long, more or less. It's like a donut that's been straightened out. Each stick of this fried delicacy is then dunked in a cup of hot chocolate pudding. (Picture #5) A breakfast of sweetened coffee-with-milk and a double helping of churros gives a great sugar-caffeine rush to start the day.

Our other memorable meal was self-serve on the top-floor patio of our hotel. We'd gone to the market for healthy fruits and vegetables, along with a selection of cheese, salami, bread and wine. We ate sitting in the sun, looking up at Alhambra or around at active but peaceful Bib-Rambla Square and the facing homes. We picked one "for our next life".

Whenever we were too full, which was often, we took a walk. More than once we climbed up the narrow streets of the Albaicin district. The winding streets and steep climb gave us a clue to the White Hill Towns of Andalusia, our next goals. Another story.

Take care and eat well, no matter what time it is.

John and Marianne

Previous Diary

Next Diary

Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip

Created 23 February, 2002

This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.