We had no itinerary to speak of today. Our goals were to mail my postcards, visit the Cathedral, and figure out tomorrow's travel plans to Barcelona because the airport is not easy to get to. We had a good breakfast at the hotel and said goodbye to the Australians who were headed to Ronda by train.
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| Parade characters |
We set off down the hill to town and found, when we got to the main drag (Gran Via de Colon), that something was going on. The street was blocked off to traffic. There was a crowd of people, many of them sitting on chairs on the sidewalk. Giant balloons were being sold by vendors walking the street. (Who knew Spongebob Squarepants was a popular Granadan balloon figure?) We stopped into the tobacconist to buy stamps for the postcards and Neil asked what was happening. We were told that it was the week of the Granada city festival of Corpus Christi and that a procession / parade was about to start. We got onto the shady side of the street and waited, along with the ever growing throngs. The police who were patrolling the street had beautiful horses. When the parade came, it was surprisingly short, which was good! Big figures of Isabella and Ferdinand led the parade with a couple of Moors. There were six or seven local bands. There were a large group of costumed figures who hit members of the viewing audience over the head with sort of balloons that looked like they were supposed to represent something old fashioned. All of the figures had two fingers in the side of their mouth. Who knows why? The whole procession took 10-15 minutes. It was fun, curious, and very pleasant.
We then went to the Royal Chapel off of the Cathedral. The highlights of the Chapel were some very nice Dutch / Low Country 15th century paintings. The Chapel also housed the crypt of Isabella and Ferdinand along with Phillip the Handsome and Juana the Mad and their son. The coffins were under the memorial statuary. You walked down a flight of stairs under the statuary and four very simple and tiny coffins were displayed in an otherwise empty room. Very strange in comparison with everything else in the Chapel.
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| political cartoon at Plaza fair |
We left the Chapel and walked along the shops of the downtown area over to Plaza Bib Rambla. Many of the shops were only open in the morning (closed in the evening) during the festival week. There were many little girls (and some grown up ones) in full Flamenco regalia. The main streets were strung with elaborate overhead lights. We did not know if the lights were permanent or set up for the festival, but we decided to come back after dark and check them out. It was very hot. Very high up, about 30-40 feet, many streets were strung with canvas sheets which provided shade below. We had also seen these awnings strung over some of the streets in Seville. There was a fair set up in the Plaza Bib Rambla. The edge of the Plaza was dotted with placards displaying many political cartoons in some sort of competition. We could only partially figure out the puns and satirical entendres of the captions. We had lunch with cool drinks. The Cathedral was shut for the afternoon so we did some wandering around past the law school connected with the University before taking the bus back up the hill to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, I did a little laundry and took a nap. Neil had a little nap and then went down to talk to reception about getting checked out and arranging a taxi to the airport. Our plane for Barcelona is in the morning and we have to leave here early tomorrow.
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| Puppet Show |
We returned to town at about 6:30 pm. We toured the Cathedral and then walked back to Plaza Bib Rambla, where we had some ice cream and, along with an audience of young parents and their preschoolers (maybe a couple of hundred people), watched a puppet show. The puppet characters included a cat, a mouse, an octopus, rabbits, caterpillars, a chicken, a crocodile, a mean snake, and a mean wolf. (I think.) The action was very slapstick and the language aimed at the very young, very simple and very repetitive (and still, pretty much, beyond us!). There were nursery rhyme-type songs that all the children knew and sang along with gusto. All in all, a lot of fun.
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| The Lights at Night |
While we were waiting for it to get dark in order to see the lights, we walked up to Carrera del Darro and had a so-so dinner (foodwise) at one of the outdoor cafes in the Plaza de Los Tristes. We could look directly at the Alhambra from below from our dinner table tonight, instead of looking across at it from our previous dining spots. As with all of our late night dinners, we enjoyed it.
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| Dancers in Plaza Bib Rambla |
We walked back toward town through the Plaza Nueva. There were thousands of people out in the square! There were people celebrating everywhere - tourists and locals. We took in the lighted streets and found ourselves back at the lit Plaza Bib Rambla. The puppet show stage was now transformed into a stage for a troupe doing local dances. We watched a bit and headed up the hill to the hotel on foot.
My feet are not better, but I have a workable system to keep me going. Neil is using some Spanish and learning from his mistakes.
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