At home in Granada

We have been in Granada a week and we are sad to leave.  Lucky us to have found a very sweet apartment in the Old City--Albacyn.  This is the oldest part of Granada, predating the Alhambra. Cobbled streets, walled houses built around gardens, plazas with churches and cafes.

Our apartment is within a building that holds several apartments and looks out on a garden.  Our host lived here growing up but the family has clearly updated it for rental to travelers with a modern kitchen, washer, and all the mod cons we require.  Great internet which is such a relief after our long stay in Barbate without it. Yet we are looking out over a walled garden, shuttered windows keep out the morning cool, tile floors and walls make us think we might be medieval inhabitants.

Living room.  We appreciate the internet.

Our balcony looking into the garden. Grape vines in foreground.

We walk up half a block to a small city bus (small enough to get around in tiny streets) which connects us to the main city plaza, university, concert centers.

The C1 bus from Albacyn to Centro.  Costs 1.20 euro.  Runs every 8 minutes from 7 am to 11 pm.

One of our daily decisions is which lovely plaza to go for lunch.  Plaza Larga is a bit of a walk but has flamenco music all day in a tree-filled square.

Musicians getting ready to play.

A few African immigrants trying to get by by hawking. Seem to be from W. Africa, generally.

Old city walls from 12th C., entrance to Plaza Larga

Closer, only a block away is the plaza in front of San Miguel Bajo Church.  Not as many trees but six restaurants offer food and drink beginning at 11.  Today we even had a bit of music.  Guitar players are ubiquitous here.

A young wine from the Granada area.

Plaza San Miguel with church in background.

Our major tourist event was a tour of the Alhambra.  Stunning.  See Nancy's post about it. We did not know anything else before we got here and it is worth coming even if Granada did not turn out to be so wonderful.  We also wandered through the main Cathedral, built by Isabella after the conquest, as Spain became Spain with the final addition of this province.  It is a Renaissance style building--skipping the Gothic entirely.

Music is the other main event in Granada.  Our first introduction to flamenco--turns out we love it and look forward to more in Cordoba and Sevilla.  Our first visit was to La Casa del Arte Flamenco.  We were stunned and overwhelmed with the fine music and dancing.  The main female dancer was an older woman who had so much skill and spirit: Violetta Ruiz.  There was also a male dancer, singer and guitarist-all good.  We are hardly refined critics but all, and especially Violetta, were fantastic performers. Here is a You tube video of her with different supporting cast.

This year is the centenary of Miguel de Falla's famous opera and ballet, El Amor Brujo.  While we are here there is a Miguel de Falla festival and we were able to attend a performance of El Amor Brujo which he composed here but added ballet later in Paris.  It is based on a gypsy story and supposedly the music is based on flamenco.  We could not hear the flamenco but enjoyed the skill of the performers.  It seemed a bit dated to us--Arte Noveau from the early 20th C.  How surprising it was to us to find ourselves thinking that.

Tonight we pack for an early out tomorrow morning.  But will go out for one last flamenco concert a few blocks away.  We will visit the Sierra Nevada Ski Area on our way to Cordoba.  What a great life.

Sierra Nevada from near our house.

Text and photos by Julianne.

Except photo of Violetta Ruiz taken from her publicity shots.