Moorish Farmhouse, Orgiva, Spain
Our "rest day" today so no classes and a chance for everyone to have a long day trip somewhere. Granada is the most popular choice this week, and that includes Linda and myself. We gave two of our guests a lift up there as well (if nothing else to experience the excitment of trying to park the Land Rover in the tiny spaces in car parks that Spain seems to have!)
We split up at the Plaza Bim Rhambla just by the cathedral and Linda and I were soon settled in a cafe eating a selection of the really light do'nuts (no really, they are a local delicacy called, I think, chuiso).
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One of the six do'nuts that we had as a "mid-morning snack". So light, so delicate . . . .
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From there, via an ice cream seller near the church of St Anna (!), we made our way through to the Albaycin (the Arab quarter) where we found the same cake shop we visited last year and which still sells pistaschio pastries which we love. But if this is beginning to sound just like a food excursion, I probably should point out that we then heading up through the Albaycin all the way up to Sacramonte, which is a walk of at least a couple of miles. Some great views of the amazing Alhambra Palace as we walked up the hill. I shot about 20 minutes of video footage, though as yet we haven't really viewed any of this and have no idea whether it is of suitable quality (we are aiming for a home movie, but not a poor one!)
Linda and the Alhambra Palace on the walk to Sacramonte
Lunch was at a small, but very popular, square just below Sacramonte. We just had a beer and some tapas, while a businessman on the table nearby had a huge seafood platter that was just amazing. Squid, octopus, prawns, huge fillets fo fish - this was very impressive. A flute player wandered round and was very good, getting one euro from us. This was all very pleasant I must say.
Some of the old city wall in the Albaycin with snow-covered mountains in the distance
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The facade of the church of Santa Anna
That afternoon we made our way to the Alhambra and discovered, much to our surprise, that it is actually possible to walk round quite a lot of the interior of the site for free. It is only the Nasrid Palaces, the Generalife (wonder how that is pronounced?) and some of the towers that require tickets to get in. For the Nasrid Palaces, this involves applying two weeks in advance or getting there by 8:00 when the ticket office has some for sale. We still haven't seen the inside of the Palaces (which are amazing from the pictures we have seen), but it was nice to go round some of the other bits. Particularly odd was the photo place that would give you an Arab costume and photograph you against a palace background for that authentic oriental look!
The entrance to the Nasrid Palaces at the Alhambra Palace - the most visited tourist site in Spain!
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More of the Alhambra Palace
More ice cream late afternoon and meeting up for the journey home. Nigel and Zoe had offered to do a barbeque this evening which was very good. We are not actually very good at barbequeing, so this was an excellent plan. Everyone seemed to have a good day out as well, so that seems to vindicate the plan of having this mid-week day free.
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