We went to Carmen Mirador de Aixa last night....had pig-full of food and Rioja --- which became the family joke now as I cannot pronounce this wine correctly and when I tried, even the waiter laughed.....
We arrived a bit before 8:30pm. This is after walking around the same around for almost 2 hours earlier- as we completely took the wrong way up (though very scenic along the river....).
The food is rich, requires s lot of wine consumption just to digest..... The place is nice.... And the view.....
We woke up and early again....with very unhappy Karina who wanted to sleep in.... Today was our Alhambra day. We were up, done with breakfast by 8:00am (except I didn't want to eat...still full from last night.....), out the door with cameras, maps, etc.
We took the small local bus to Alhambra~about 15 min ride from the center of Granada. Once we arrived there, there was no line to convert our reservation to tickets. We had about 1 hour before our appointment time to get into Palace Nazaries. We strolled along tons of Chienese tourists....but with patience, had some photo ops with no humans in the frame..... This is Carlos V palace...and me, trying to blend as a gypsy? (it was a bit cold...)
Once we were in the Palace Nazaries, we could stay as along as wanted....... This is a view of Myrtle Courtyard from the viewpoint of irrigation system (on the ground....), water flowing to the Long Pool.
Lions Square was under restoration......
This is how the Palace normally looked like with other tourists...... "Where is Waldo??"
You patiently wait 10 min or so....you find about 5 seconds of time when see no other humans.......
View of Albayzin from the Palace was beautiful........
On our way out, we found this statue of Washington Irving that Granada built to honor his writings on Alhambra. There was a WordPerfect 5.1 users guide at this foot....I have not seen WP5.1 for the last 16 years......
We finished and back in town by 1:00pm - just in time to have a real tapas/bar time at Bodegad Cadganeda, which is only 1/2 block from our hotel. We knew they were closing at 4:00pm and will not be open at night. We went back to the hotel first to lighten our gear.... So while enjoying the bar, I didn't have my camera- it is all recorded on my iPhone....food, drinks, people, people singing.....and Karina drinking at the Bar.
Everything pretty much shuts down around 4:00pm on Christmas eve as people still do traditional family Christmas eve dinner - much like our Thansgiving. We are back in the hotel now....Karina and Chris are taking nap....I took a long hot bath to ease my sore lower back (cannot compare to the Arab Hammam....but better than nothing....). Walking 8~9 hours every day for the last 4 days is catching up the old body parts. I don't remember being this sore 3 years ago....(but then, that was Copenhagen and we ended up inside warm cafe soooo often....)
Tonight, we will walk around the quiet Granada....see if there are any Castillian speaking Chinese or Indian opening their doors to heathens...or better yet, real Arab shawarmas.....
Tomorrow, pick-up our car at the airport, off to Ronda, via South Coast!
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