A Granada day today, starting with a very pleasant breakfast in the hotel dining room. Once victualled we headed back down the hill into the city again. The walk led us down through a beautifully cool park with trees, birds and,everywhere, the sound of running water. Down in the valley of the River Darro is the Christian city centere with its elegant colonial buildings. Heading away from the main thoroughfare, we soon found ourselves in narrow streets and squares around the cathedral where we had a cafe stop. I was taken with the many 'old gentlemen' dressed very elegantly and out for a morning promenade. Fortified with churros con chocolate we went into the cathedral. It is very spacious and very baroque with an abundance of white and gold - not to my taste, I am more for northern gothic.
After visiting the cathedral we began to make our way up the hill to the old muslim quarter of the Albaicin. Narrow streets climbed steeply up to the crowning point of the mirador looking out over the valley to the Alhambra with the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada beyond. An absolutely magnificent viewpoint requiring much photography. We enjoyed a beer with bread and olives overlooking the view before starting to wander down again. We found another mirador hoping for some lunch but the senora who spoke no English or refused to understand our Spanish was adamant that there was no food until later so we just had to have another beer.
I loved wandering down these alleys with multiple photographic opportunities, not least the fascinating wall art (graffiti) - at times incredibly artistic or beautiful calligraphy, amusing and very definitely political. There must be an MA in comparative wall art!!!
Eventually we found ourselves back at the plazas near the cathedral where we enjoyed paella in a street cafe. And a beer and vino tinto, of course. Once fuelled up and rested it was time to climb back up the hill to the hotel where I promptly fell into bed.
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