Granda:The Final Days

On Thursday we totally kicked it at the apartment. I think all we did was visit our favorite little bar for café and tostada, and go to the store for lunch and snack stuff for the train ride on Saturday. The train ride will be eight hours on Saturday. We have to get up before the dawn to get ready to catch the train, haul our suitcases through early morning Granada, and catch the train. I love trains, but eight hours is a long time to sit.

Thursday night we went to another flamenco show. This one was in a cave in the Sacromonte. First we had dinner on the terrace with a sunset view of the Alhambra. Being the Terrace of a cave, getting to the terrace required squeezing up a small and very steep staircase. I do not think this would be a good idea for someone with vertigo. After we got seated our waiter plopped a bottle of wine on our table and began opening it. We had to explain that we don’t drink. Then came the offer of Sangria, they had already made up. No, gracias, we said. The lady said, “Can’t you have just a small amount to taste it.” I was reviewing the difficulty of explaining in Spanish that a fifty gallon drum would not be enough if I got started and decided to “just say no, gracias.”

The dinner was superb. I had gazpacho for starters, steak and potatoes and flam without alcohol for dessert. The flamenco show was great. They all have been so different. At the cave we had a singer and guitar player (they have all had a singer and guitar player,) a flautist, and four female dancers. We did not see any male dancers in Granada. I believe that is the school of flamenco that favors female dancers. The four dancers were all different. One was very dramatic and mean looking, one looked very much like a gypsy and was a small bit of a thing, one was merry and seemed to be having a very good time, and one older woman was the best pictorial of “WHATever” that either of us has ever seen. She looked like “been there done that, I’m over it” It was great. We loved her. We had dressed for dinner, so we took a cab back to our little apartment.

On Friday we spent the day wandering around the Alhambra one final time, packing and then went to the Arab Baths before dinner. I don’t know if they were authentic or not, but they had six “hot” pools and one cold pool, in a very dark stone and tile area. We were advised to alternate hot and cold. The hot was not hot as we know it in a jacuzzi, I would call it warm. The cold was definitely cold. We also had a nice massage and some yummy sweetened mint tea. By the time we left for dinner I was as relaxed as a limp noodle.