We have survived the first few days in Spain! We don't know enough Spanish to do anything complicated, but we have been able to take the bus, tour town, and buy some lunch. We met Cliff and Karen for dinner on Tuesday and went to a place on the plaza on which their apartment is located. So they knew all the people and we were able to have a great dinner. It was great for everyone to have a break and speak English with natives. Cliff's Spanish teacher joined us, as she is trying to improve her English and we had fun comparing phrases and colloquialisms.
Wednesday morning we slept in a little and then went out to get something to eat and see the Cathedral, one of the main sights in town. We bought some pastries from a bakery, sat in the square to people watch and eat them, and wandered around to look at the shops. There were 2 yarns stores near the square and we looked in both of them, but I did not see anything interesting enough to attempt to buy. We toured the Cathedral, which was built where a previous mosque had been demolished in the conquering of the moors in the late 1400s. There are preparations underway for the big festival of Semana Santa, which begins Sunday. We would refer to it as holy week, the week before Easter. They were erecting some seating outside the cathedral and there will be parades in each neighborhood as well.
We still had some more Escher to see in Granada and that is located at the Parque de los Ciencias, to which we had to ride the bus. The Parque is a big science and exhibit center with both indoor and outdoor exhibits. They had more of Escher's prints, different films and scenes of his life and some really cool graphics. All this to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his influential trip to Spain. We were there quite a few hours.
We went back to the hotel to try to figure out some financial snafus we have been running into as usual. The American and European banking systems are not completely compatible and the ATMs, etc work differently and many times do not like our cards. Cliff and Karen were able to take us to an ATM that us the only one in town in which their card works, and after getting our bank on the phone while using it, we finally were able to get a little more dinero.
We went to dinner again with Cliff and Karen, which was much fun. First we climbed through the oldest neighborhood in Granada, in which there is an overlook to the Alhambra. It was worth navigating the twisty streets to see it. Here is where I will apologize that I am inept at adding the photos, and Dave promises to catch them up in the next day or so. We went to a close restaurant to enjoy the view and have some drinks. Then we went back down the hill to one of Cliff and Karen's regular restaurant - at which the food was as good as promised. We stayed there until after 11:00, which is pretty late by my time table, but not too late by Spanish time, and then headed back to the hotel.
Today we head for Seville, and are hoping to take the noon bus. The bus system is really great and the last bus we took was clean and comfortable. Hopefully this will continue.
As they say here - 'ta luego!!
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