jueves, 13 de junio

Thursday morning wake up came too soon.  We enjoyed a buffet style breakfast and finally had “normal” scrambled eggs and bacon!  To our surprise, the eggs resembled those of Longwood’s Dining Hall and the bacon was more like a rubbery piece of grease.  So we stuck with the good ole toast and butter and called it a day.  Our bus then picked the group up from our hotel to go to the Alhambra.  It was a short bus ride so we didn’t get much of a rest before our long day again. 

We met our lovely tour guide at the entrance and she was a hoot.  She spoke Andalucian Spanish, which is normal Spanish, but they leave the “s” off the ends of words.  So good morning in Spanish would be “Buenos dias” but in Analucia it sounds like “bueno dia.”  Can be quite confusing at times.  She gave out head sets that we put a piece in our ears so we could hear her talk as we went through the palace.  We started at the Generalife where the gardens were.  It was quite a sight to see, with beautiful views of the city below from all angles.  After the Generalife, we went to the main building.  This was where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel lived and where Columbus got the okay from Queen Isabel to sail the ocean blue.  Truly a goose bumps time when we were in that room.  Along the way there were groups of little kids from a school on a trip that were all dressed up as Arabs.  They were all so cute and held hands through the tour and so fun to watch the leaders keep all the little ones together.

Generalife gardens

Looking over the fields at the Generalife

Reflecting pool

Little kids dressed up

All the little kids together

At the Generalife with our ear pieces in

After our tour of the lands the lady finished up and Dr. Holliday continued.  At this point we were all hot and exhausted and wanted nothing else to do with tours.  But we all persevered and followed Dr. Holliday.  He took us to one building that had so many special features for battle.  The walls on the outside were slanted so no one could hide from arrows, the windows were long and skinny so arrows couldn’t be shot inside, and there were many twists and turns in the hallways so men on their horses couldn’t pass through easily.  We climbed the small twisting stairs to the top and the roof overlooked the entire area of Granada.  It was absolutely beautiful and neat to see the three flags flying high on the roof.

After our day of touring, we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.  A few of us found a small pizza place that was reasonably priced and cooled off there for a while before heading out to the shops.  After our little break we got back onto the lovely bus and began our trek to Cordoba.  After a few hours we made it there and had to lug all of our luggage to the hotel.  We had to maneuver around the town’s cobblestone streets and deal with the heat but surprisingly we all made it.  It was quite the work out and I don’t think I have ever been so excited to feel AC shortly after. 

Yummy pizza

We had about an hour from the time we checked in to get ready for our dinner.  Dinner was interesting as usual.  We were told we were having two plates and when we arrived there was a salad on the table.  The entire group was thrilled to see our second plate come out being spaghetti!  Good ole normal spaghetti.  I have never seen anyone scarf down food so fast than when the plates landed in front of each person.  To our surprise there was another plate and the salad didn’t really count as the first plate.  We were then served a “hamburger” with french fries.  Quite the interesting combo and not to mention the hamburger was not normal.  It was more of a turkey burger meets a bad chicken patty with extra breading and rubbery texture…far from a normal hamburger.  So we requested ketchup and doused the mystery meat in that and tried to stomach a few bites.  I ate maybe 3 bites and we all decided to stick to the french fries.  Our desert was amusing as well.  The lady at the restaurant ripped open a cardboard box of ice cream on a stick and literally dumped the box onto a serving platter and gave us the ice creams.  Not complaining because it was very good, it was just amusing to witness the process.

That night everyone returned to their rooms to shower and clean up.  A few of us ended up hanging out in our friend’s room for a little while before calling it a night.  The long tours and hot days really take a lot of you and we wanted to be smart and get our sleep for the next long day ahead.