After leaving the hotel, we walked to the tram stop around the corner. We then rode the tram to the central station (2 strips on our strippenkaart - the way to pay here) and caught the train to Schiphol airport. Dave napped and Amy read her nook. We were a bit anxious about the next wave of culture shock. Even though Amy has 2 years of high school Spanish and one year at the college level, she is concerned they will speak very little English there. Dave knows more Spanish than Dutch, so he is not too concerned. We also have a little phrasebook and a Rick Steve's book. Once we get to Granada, we will also see Cliff and Karen, who are also on sabbatical. They have been in Granada for a few months and should be able to help us.
When Escher went to Spain in 1936, was he was worried about these things? Probably not, since he seemed to be an adventuresome guy. He had already been there in 1922 with several of his buddies. Escher took the train from Switzerland and then booked passage with the Adria company for a round-trip cruise from NE Italy to Spain with several ports of call. Rather than buying tickets for his trip, he was wrote the company and traded four copies each of twelve prints he would make along the way. Escher suggested the company could use these in advertising. He was pleasantly surprised when they accepted this offer. Dave is sure this is similar to how a professor feels when a travel grant is funded! In this arrangement, Escher was also able to secure passage (food, drink, and a berth) for he and his wife on the return trip.
1936 was a rough time in this part of the world. Escher had left Italy the previous year because of the rise of fascism. He narrowly escaped being arrested for spying while he was drawing in a Spanish port. This visit was in May of 1936, almost exactly 75 years ago. Had he waited two months, he would certainly have been unable to travel there because of the Spanish civil war that erupted in July of that year. It would be unlikely we would know anything of Escher if that had happened. If Anne Frank had been able to hide two more months, she would have likely lived to tell her hiding story in person. Time is a fickle companion.
A portion of Metamorphosis III, 1967-8We did not try again to see the Escher print metamorphosis III that hangs in lounge 4 at Schiphol airport. We were checking in at the opposite end of the terminal building. This work was made for the main post office in The Hague and recently moved to Schiphol. The designers contacted Escher about using a previously work, but he wanted to improve on the previous design. The design contains many transitions; Escher thought of this process of change like change over time in a movie. It is fun to quickly pan from one side to the other as you view this work.
One of Escher's first works after returning home from Spain was a metamorphosis work he completed in 1937. This idea of change was a theme that is seen in many of Escher's works. His mastery of creating regular divisions of the plane was used as a creative way of simultaneously illustrating something both orderly and infinite. The hoenycomb pattern of adjacent regular hexagons forms another type of symmerty pattern. It is characterized by a kaleidoscope point of order 6, a kaleidoscope point of order 3, and a kaleidoscope point of order 2. This is a seventh type of symmetry pattern possible in the plane, having orbifold notation *632. Dave leaves finding the kaleidoscope points as an exercise to the inquisitive reader. Escher seemed to avoid kaleidoscope points and mirror lines of reflection and tended to use gyration or rotation points of symmetry instead.
Veuling seems much better organized than sleazy-jet. We checked in without much delay. There were orderly lines and friendly staff. Security was no problem. The lines we not very long and we zipped through without much delay. Schiphol also has free wifi access, which we both used. Amy had her cell phone which has no phone service, but does allow here to use wifi. Dave used his laptop. The plane was scheduled to leave at 16:00 and arrive in Malaga at 18:55. We were early enough to grab a bite to eat before catching the flight. Amy is now exited that we are heading to Spain!
The flight to Malaga was uneventful, a good thing when flying! We had first class seats. On Vueling, all seats are identical except in the exit rows, which have more leg room. We were lucky and got exit row seats. Other than leaving about 30 minutes later than scheduled, we had a great flight.
We took our first bus of the day from the Malaga airport to he bus station downtown. We purchased our tickets and waited about 15 minutes for our bus to Granada. We got on the bus and left a few mintues later. Yes, it was a Mercedes bus. It had 2-1 seating, so it was very nice. It was about a 2 hour ride.
By the time we arrived in Granada, it was dark. The bus station is quie a distance to the hotel so we took a taxi. The driver spoke very few English words, but Amy was able to speak to him enough to get us to our hotel.
I am glad we took a taxi, because the hotel is down a long alley with several bends. I am not sure how we will find our way out of this maze! If you were counting, that was a tram, a train, a plane, 2 buses, and a taxi. Plus plenty of walking. Our hotel seems nice. Our bathroom has a bidet. We have no alarm clock and can't seem to get the TV to work. There is no wireless in the room, but we have a wired connection. It is good to be settled in for a few nights in Granada.
We are a little anxious about tomorrow. All advance Alhambra tickets have been sold out. Dave fell down a little on the planning there. Luckily we should be able to get tickets by getting up really early and standing in line. Sorry there are no pictures today, but most of what we saw was not very picturesque. Hopefully we will have more to report and show tomorrow.
remember: the bidet is not a drinking fountain.
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