Friday, June 2nd 2023.
Granada – Day 3 of 3
Today is or final day in Granada and we packed up our luggage early and headed down towards the train station with each of us carrying our two panniers. Rather than carrying our gear around we though we’d store it in a locked storage area near the train station and travel lightly.
The difficulty it took to find the address of the storage facility should have been our first clue of what our next “education tax” lesson was going to be, since there’s lots of opportunities when you travel to get educated.
For “only $8.00 Euro” you could rent a 2×2 cubicle to store your bag for the day. Wrong! After we put our four small bike bags into the locker we ended up paying $8.00 Euro per bag to store them for a few hours. Like so many other restaurants in Spain, it closes down from 1:00 to 4:00 since it’s a basic coffee shop with 30 unit plywood cabinet covered in a world map. Not a bad passive money making machine if I do say so myself. 30 x $56.88 Canadian per day = $1705.40 per day at maximum capacity. That should be more than enough to pay for that wall unit in a single day.
We found another storage unit further away from the train station that was $4.00 per day no matter how many bags you could stuff into it. Education tax so far today has been $56.88.
Time now to venture out and explore this place for the next several hours and then make our way back to the catch the train at 8:00 pm.
The Pomegranate is the official symbol of Granada since the English translation of Pomegranate is Granada.
It was just a matter of time until we would find either a statue of plaque of a Pomegranate.
To our surprise, ( read sarcasm ) there was yet another water feature in front of a very old building.
This one turned out to be the University of Granada that was originally started as a medical hospital, mental health institute, and now university back in 1511 by King Ferdinand V. We were allowed to freely look around the facility grounds after having our backpack X-rayed and our cutlery temporarily detained. I guess they don’t want us eating in the library.
It was interesting to learn how this space has been used over the years and to see some of the transitions and maintenance currently going on. Rarely have we seen any restoration or grounds maintenance being done in the gardens or buildings but clearly there’s a lot of people working behind the scenes to keep this all going.
Originally built to house the physically sick during the many pandemics that spread through Europe during the 16th century and beyond, it soon became an institute to help people dealing with mental illness as well, and was recently refitted into a university.
Outside the university we found Pomegranate trees and an old tree stump that’s been turned into a solo bee hive.
On our way yet again, we followed our paper map of “must see” areas around Granada while still keeping in mind our summit goal high upon the ancient walled city.
Along the way we found a poets garden within a fenced area just to the east of the Alhambra and decided to have a look. There were nearly 24 poets from over the years who had a fountain, poem, and brief write up overlooking each fountain. We worked our way to the top all the while hearing a distant speaker chiming ascending chord tones followed by an announcement in Spanish. While we continued on we met several people listening to music and singing along in Spanish to the song. They talked to us for a while and continued down the path towards the gates.
Once we reached the top of the garden we were above the tree line and nearly half way through the gardens and still hearing the chord tones and announcement. We deciphered the message listening for words we might understand. “Cerrado en cinco minutos” was all we needed to hear, since they were telling us that the gates would be locked at 2:00 until 4:00 and they were asking everyone to leave the garden for the past half hour. That’s when the flat out boogie down the gravel path in flip flops began. Crunch, Crunch, crunch, slide, spin, and sprint we were heading towards the gate hoping it’s still open since it was 1:56 now.
We made it to the huge metal gate and the doors were closed. We checked the lock and it was still open so we hightailed it out of there and heading up the mountain again towards our goal of getting to the white building on the top of the wall. Sure glad we didn’t have to climb over the rubble fence covered with rose bushes.
Off a narrow winding side road not too far from our initial path, we came upon a famed Andalusian musician’s home, garden/park and concert hall built into the cliff side, offering an incredible view of Granada from the concert hall outdoor reception area.
Musician Manuel de Falla y Matheu was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain’s most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century.
Upon leaving the late composers private music hall, flower garden, museum, and residence, we eventually made our way past the wall we were looking for originally and into a new area the government built for some of the people who were previously living in the caves.
However, every turn you take in this place offered you another view that you weren’t looking for so we’d have to stop and take a picture far too often.
When a property within the city is used as a vacation home, it’s referred to as a Carmen, and if you own a Carmen then it’s a sign of much wealth and powers. We passed several Carmen’s on today’s stroll and each of them labelled as such. Maria’s Carmen, Jose’s Carmen, Jesus Maria Martinez Fernandez’s Carmen and so on. In fact, our tour guide pointed out one Carmen across the valley from the Alhambra that sold for 15.e million Euro. The emir of Qatar, Tamin bin Hamad Al Zani owns a 6000 -meter Carmen that he’s never lived in since he bought it. The grounds keepers live there in their own private residence and enjoy the view instead.
As we passed over the fenced area we immediately found the sign for the new subdivision called Carmenes de San Miguel and it was a pretty upscale area complete with solar panelled homes with solar water heaters and an abundance of public green space.
Passing through the modern wall made of marble rock cut into slabs, we were finally getting near to our destination on the tallest part of the wall.
Alas! We’ve arrived at a point much higher than the highest point of the Alahambra and certainly with the best view of Granada.
After a nice lunch break and drink of water, we were off to see some of the cave homes just below the wall itself.
One cave dweller had a sign saying they were living sustainably on the land and their life was a a bit of a science, ecology, and cultural experiment that should be looked at an admired. Good on them! The irony in this picture is that they live in a literal hole in the ground whereas across the valley, people living the most opulent lifestyle were living beyond grand with little regards to anyone else but themselves.
We made our way down a staircase towards the ravine and river separating the Alahambra from Granada. The stairs were interestingly enough made of marble slabs. Why they’re out in this part of the city is anyone’s guess.
Along the way I discovered that my running shoe had the incredible ability to find dog crap anywhere on the landscape and adhere it to its treaded bottom for several miles in this popcorn dry and dusty landscape.
Nary a blade of grass or a puddle of water could be found to extricate one’s self from this foul high alpine hitchhiker, as we pushed on seeking a receptive errant shrub, or handy golf pitch to deal with said hitchhiker once and for all.
We passed by more cave houses along the way and the remnants of a dried up ancient cistern used by the Moors.
Still no water!
This Catholic Church is built alongside the original Mosque in a very plain style without ornate gargoyles, decorative features or stained glass windows. It’s a rarity to see the two building side by side since the Catholics have had a track record of knocking down the concurred peoples Mosques and building a bell tower in its place. They also kept the water cistern in tact that used by the Moors.
This is the church and lookout facing the Alahambra that Bill Clinton brought Hilary to and told her he always promised to bring her to this place to watch the most beautiful sunsets in the world. While it in fact, it sets behind a different building far off in the other direction.
When word of the presidential couples visit got out, it created a tourism boom which Granada needed at the time and the city paved the road up to the church and placed signage about the local history at the lookout.
Once the word of the president’s “extracurricular affairs” got out, the locals removed the sign highlighting thier visit with a sledge hammer. It was then again replaced with all the fanciful mayoral pomp and circumstance that goes with it, only to be removed again later by an angry crowd.
After replacing it for the third time and having it chiseled out of the landscape, the city of Granada cut their losses and no longer tries to put the sign back that highlights the Clinton’s visit.
The weather was starting to turn grey with Cumulus clouds building in the north. This could be the break I’ve been looking for. We cleverly ducked into a Tapas bar in the historic district around 3:30 and waited for the gift of rain to bless us with its cleansing powers. It didn’t come immediately so we did what every self respecting Canadian would do and ordered a Cervesa.
After nearly a month of travelling in Spain, our pace and delivery for receiving the free Tapas was honed to a sharp edge and we bided our time and never once looked at the menu. Amazingly enough, after 15 minutes, the Tapas arrived like a one armed drug dealer secretly dropping his stash on the table in an orchestrated drive by deal. You rarely see them coming and they’re fast, discreet and never make eye contact. With the second round of Cervesas now ordered, we await the next mystery Tapas drop off, and sure enough, it arrives from out of nowhere by another camarero as the empty Tazas were swept away. We ordered a third round of Cervesas and then the rain started to pour off the canopy outside of our open alley way bar, and both the Cervesas and Tapas arrived again. I remember the Cervesas but not the type of Tapas, but 100% sure they did arrive.
Now was my chance to Salsa dance this hitchhiker off the bottoms of my shoe once and for all and we splashed down the cobblestone walkways, alleys, stairs and even a green grass water park spreading the goodness of this afternoons hike to the caves throughout all of Granada. Judging from the amount of dogs and cats in this place, I’m pretty confident this is a universal occurrence in this city.
We headed towards the scene of this mornings robbery to get our bags and then off to the 8:00 PM train to Ronda to meet up with Roger and Carla at the next BnB.
The train arrived at its designated time and left exactly when it was suppose to. I love it when things go that way. We had several stops along the way and we’re headed to the door at Antequera when Fran asked another passenger if this was the correct stop we should transfer at, and she said it wasn’t. We were looking to transfer at Antequera Santa Ana which was further down the line. Good call Fran!
We arrived in Ronda at 10:00 PM and walked towards the casa where Roger and Carla arrived a few hours earlier right in the heart of the historic district. It was a beautiful place and the fifteen minute walk through town along lit statues and water fountains was magical with the nearly full moon above.
Buenas Noches