All up by 7, ate light breakfast and packed. Tim and Deana walked to the bank to re-supply and we were off by 8:15. Tim drove the first half with Blair shot gun and Leila and Deana watching the changing scenery from the back seat. Travelled around and through very arid mountains, groves of olive, orange and lemon as well as miles and miles of vineyards, and many stone (marble?) quarries and even cactus groves. Though the earth continued to look parched, it became more and more fertile as we travelled south and west. Trees looked greener and larger and we even had some rain – though not enough to wet the ground. Where the water came for any of the growth is a mystery. There were lush growths of yellow flowering bushes on the sides and median of a very modern highway as opposed to the pink, white, red and purple Bougainville further northeast.
We stopped for gas and discovered we needed diesel and didn’t even know it! Tim noticed there was a blue cap near the fuel cap and asked the very nice fuel attendant woman what that was for. It seems it is for a blue liquid that needs to be added to the diesel to reduce emissions and apparently if the blue liquid runs out the car just stops! (Nice to know) So we had to top off the blue liquid at a separate pump and then we changed drivers. Leila now driving with Deana shot gun as our navigator since we were headed into Granada which we knew would be a challenge.
Then the fun began once we entered Granada. The google maps and the maps that Deana had didn’t play nicely together and add that to the fact that every other road seemed to be a one way the wrong way and were narrow and old and full of people…well, it was hairy!!! There is a lane for buses and taxis and another lane for regular cars, but when you get to round-abouts it was a free for all! There were beeping cars every direction and we kept coming to a dead end or going around in circles. Finally a man on a scooter tried to rescue us and asked where we were going. We showed him the map and he told us to follow him. He actually didn’t know either so took us the wrong way several times and made us do U turns in the middle of traffic. We finally got to the hotel and offered 10 American dollars to our guide and he told us “no, no, need 10 more!” As he pocketed the 10 we gave him a 20 as we didn’t have change and he took it and left. What a con artist! We were grateful to finally be at the hotel but it was on a narrow stone street on a hill, so we parked on the side and entered the hotel rather shaken by the ordeal. The only issue left was to find the public parking that the hotel uses, which by all descriptions seemed to be very easy to get to – ha! Tim and Leila went off with a sketchy map and promptly drove in circles again. We got to know the area quite well! We finally found the parking in a garage 3 stories down. When we emerged from the parking garage we faced yet another challenge to find the hotel again. The map sure was pitiful, but quite by accident we stumbled into it. We got up to a very nice small room with air conditioning (three stories up this time) and promptly took off for some food as we were all starving.
 |
| Our car parked on the side of the street opposite our hotel. From here, Leila and Tim went on their quest for the elusive parking garage. |
. |
View from our hotel window.
It was still quite hot when we went outside. Blair and Deana took off looking for saffron and were directed to the cathedral, which they explored a little and found what they were looking for. Tim and Leila ventured back to the car to look for the lost 50 euros that vanished sometime in our travels and to pick up Tim’s sunglasses he forgot in the car.
Blair here…the saffron hunt was less than we had hoped for, as the tourist areas all had the same product—Deana got the attention (think raised eyebrows) of one salesgirl by declaring her wares not good enough…to be fair to D, we had already bought some, and were just looking for higher quality, and this was lesser if anything. Then we caught up with T&L and found a C1 bus to go up the hill to have dinner and watch the sun set over Granada and the Alhambra (which gets lighted at night). In our quest for the C1 bus, we stumbled into a middle aged couple from Toronto. The guy provided an unsolicited “eh”, which thrilled Tim. When asked where we were from, Tim mentioned Massachusetts, but that the family had a cottage on Georgian Bay. The guy was green with envy, but did counter by explaining that his father had a cottage on Lake Joseph.Dinner was good and our waiter found us amusing and vice versa. The sunset was awesome, and dancers performed in the square.
 |
| The Alhambra at night |
 |
| Flamenco dancing |
No comments:
Post a Comment