BLOG #7 MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 17TH (ONE WEEK IN SPAIN)
It was hard to pack up and leave such a wonderful little
hotel. One which had been on our s_ _ _ _ list when we had trouble finding it
on Saturday. But after a lite breakfast and coffees we decided to pack up. John
and Judy were off into the village to find walking sandels for John who thought
his tennis shoes showed too many coffee stains. Sunday’s meandering had locate
several shoe shops just around the corner from Banos de Villa Hotel.
Our drive is a short 79 Kilometers into Granada and Carload
#1 must go for 225K into Rhonda for their next stop. And so we split apart each
going our separate ways. Jane and I stopped for coffee on the outskirts of
Granada, actually we had a bitter kas refreshing drink and they offered a tapa
of blood sausage with a few fries. Next was our first diesel fill up where we
had found a Cepsa gas station charging 1.44 Euros per liter. We had already
clocked 726 K on the mileage and could only put 41.1 liters into the tank for a
59.90 euros.
Well Garmin provided the
most accurate directions to the front door of the Abadia Hotel in the back
streets of Granada however, we did not see the hotel sign and drove right past
our target and it took another 20 minutes to bend our way thru traffic to once
again make our way to the front door which we actually found the second time
around.
Our room is 401 and of course
the elevator goes only to the 3rd floor because we have the entire fourth floor
as our little haven with private balcony overlooking the cute courtyard and
levels below.
We headed out for a spot
of lunch and then towards the cathedral of Granada. Compared to Toledo this one
is fairly new having been started in the 16
th century and not
completed until the 1800’s. I am always in awe of the scope and grandeur of
these buildings. Families probably worked for generations on these structures.
Amazing,
incredible structures. Pillars
of the Earth by Ken Follet is a terrific book to read about these
religious
buildings. They would never be
built nowadays, there would be too much carping about cost over-runs, the work
not being finished in a timely manner etc.! La Sagadra Familia in Barcelona is
the only such work that I can think of and it is still a work in progress! Not
scheduled to be finished for a looong time and all build with donated money.
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| Granada Cathedral |
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| Granada Cathedral |
We went back to the hotel and had a lovely chat with Jose,
the manager, and we bought tickets for tomorrow to a dinner, Flamenco and
guided tour up in Sacromonte, which is the Gitano part of town----used to be
the old caves. Jose said that most of the caves are now touristy shops etc, but
he assured us that this is the real thing. More about that after the event.
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| Abadia Hotel courtyard Granada, Spain |
We went locally to an Argentinean steak house and had a
light dinner and headed back to the hotel. We must be getting old! We need easy
days and nights in between the crazy ones!
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