Granada Day #1

Ben and I were pretty excited to finally go to Granada. We have tried to book this trip two previous times but the main attraction, the Alhambra, was booked both times so we ended up canceling our trips. This time, we bought tickets to the Alhambra back in November so we would be sure to be able to go. When we found out Ben had to go back to San Francisco to get his visa we thought we would have to cancel our trip again! Ben said that maybe God just didn’t want to go to Granada. :) Ben ended up finding a cheap ticket to leave Saturday to the States so we were able to go to Granada. 

We left Madrid at 8am on Thursday. At one of our Thanksgivings that we had, we met some auxiliars from our friend Shaunna’s school. As we were waiting for the bus, we saw them at the station. Turns out they were going to Granada too! It is funny how you can live in a city of 6 million people, know probably 30 people out of that 6 million and still run into people that you know.

The bus ride down was fairly uneventful. We arrived in Granada around 1pm and caught a bus into town. For some reason we weren’t as prepared for this trip as we were when we went to Sevilla. I had the address for the pensión but I did not look up directions on how to get there. Ben kind of remembered from when he booked the hotel a month ago. He knew that the pensión was at the bottom of the hill from the Alhambra. So, we wandered around a bit and then finally saw a sign for a tourist office. We were having trouble finding it when I saw someone walk out of an official looking building with a map. We finally found the tourist office. We got a map and were able to find our pensión.

It was such a nice little place. The rooms were nice and a lot bigger than the last pensión we stayed at. It was in walking distance of everywhere we wanted to go and had a balcony with a great view.

After getting checked in, we walked down along the river while we were waiting for the cathedral to open up. It was a pretty walk and we were able to see some parts of the Alhambra too. As we were walking along, we saw some girl making a music video. That was kind of fun. Ben wasn’t too interested in it though. :) The cathedral was neat but definitely not as elaborate as some of the others we have seen. I was bummed because I had heard that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel were buried there but we couldn’t find them! As we walked out, I asked about it and we were told they were around the corner on the outside behind some door. I thought it was silly you couldn’t see them but we saw the door they are buried behind. 

After we left the cathedral, we stumbled upon a great market! There was lots of fun stuff inside them. A lot of the stalls sold tea and pashminas (I bought a really pretty one), parachute pants (I was tempted to buy some) and lots of other touristy souvenir stuff. As we came out the other side of the market, we decided we wanted to get tapas. Granada is known for having amazing tapas. Before I left, one of the teachers I work with told me that she got an entire steak for a tapa the last time she was in Granada! 

The first place we went to was just outside the cathedral. Our tapas were the Spanish tortilla and migras. I don’t know exactly what migras is but it was a crumbly bread type thing and it was really yummy! The old man that worked there was chatting with us and asked what we were doing in Granada. I explained that we were just visiting for the weekend. As we were paying he said something that I didn’t quite catch and we started to walk away. He shouted “Espera, espera!” (Wait, wait) He motioned us back and pulled out some tiny glasses and a bottle of something. He poured us some and handed it to us. He told us it was a popular drink in Granada and he was giving it to us to welcome us. It was so good! I asked what it was and it sounded like he said it was made from raisins. That sounded odd but it was good!

We moved onto our next tapas bar. This one wasn’t as good but you got 3 tapas with one drink. There was some yummy meat, some kind of potato thing, manchego cheese, which I love, and squid. I didn’t like the squid but Ben enjoyed it. After this place, we headed back to our pensión to rest a bit and look up some good places to go for more tapas. 

When we headed back out we found a big Christmas tree lit up and a market in one of the main plazas. We thought we found the drink that the old man gave us and we almost bought it. It didn’t look quite the same though so we decided to go back to the tapas bar and ask the him what it was. When we walked back in he smiled and said hola! I asked him if he could write the name down of the drink that we tried and he told us he would sell us a bottle. We definitely took him up on that!

We tried to go to a few of the places that Ben had looked up but we couldn’t find the first two. As we were walking along we found an advertisement for 1 liter of sangria and 4 tapas. That sounded good to us! We got some ham sandwiches and tuna sandwiches. The next place we went to is known for the their manzanilla. It is sherry made from apples. It actually tasted and smelled like apples! We got more manchego cheese and chorizo. This place was so busy they almost forgot to bring us our tapa! 

After this place we decided to go home and go to bed. We were tapa-ed out. 

Eating some jamon chips in our room.

There was a nice little sitting room downstairs. 

Our pensión.

A statue of Columbus asking Queen Isabel to finance his trip to the New World.

Down by the river:

You can see the Alhambra from the river: 

 
The music video: 

The choir books were huge, about three feet tall. 

The market that we found: 

I got bundled up for the second time we went out. It was cold!

Ben found some kitties to play with. Unfortunately, I don't think they wanted to play.

Here is the door where behind, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel are buried. 

 

This is the place known for their manzanilla. It was so busy!

Ben liked all the jamon they had hanging up.

The manzanilla came out of barrels they had stacked up.