Mom was a gracious soul and let me sleep in today! Wow that felt good. We were tired. We had a nice relaxed morning in our lovely Airbnb apartment eating the last of the King’s cake, disappointed to not find a king nor a bean (usually found in the larger, more traditional King’s cakes. The one who gets the king has luck for the new year, the one who gets the bean pays for the cake).
We packed up our stuff and headed out to the train station. Today we went to Granada. We had trouble with the kiosks again, but luckily there were people working on this holiday. In fact, there were lots of people working today, plus they weren’t bitchy. We were definitely not in France.
We had some time to spare so we sat at a cafe for a second breakfast- coffee, orange juice, and toastada con tomate aceite. We were at a pretty low-quality place, but this was still super yummy. I want America to switch from avocado toast to this. It was ground/mushed up tomato with olive oil and salt sprinkled on top of toast. Much more sustainable than avacados, at least at our latitudes.
I can’t wait to go home and make that for myself. So simple and fresh and yummy. I’m glad mom knew to try it.
The time finally came to go through security (France has so much to learn from Spanish trains) and check-in, and we boarded our train which had been delayed by 10min. Not too bad. Luckily this train was direct to Granada so it was an easy trip, about 1.5h. I think mom enjoyed the window seat, but the kids around us could not sit still for the trip. There were a lot of people traveling today, which surprised me since it was a holiday. Lots of big luggage from Spaniards. I guess people spend a week or two at family’s houses and then have to go back before work tomorrow.
We got to Granada and hopped on a bus. They have a team here, I can’t quite see where exactly it goes, but they cover as much of the track as they can in grass. I love that. I haven’t seen that much here yet. They also used the roadway very well- one (tight) lane each way for cars, one bigger lane each way for buses and taxis, a large median park for people to enjoy, and large sidewalks. And everyone lived. Please America.
We curved through the streets to find out Airbnb; unfortunately it was less impressive than our last one, but it would have been hard to beat. There seems so be a sewage challenge at least in this area, but the smells weren’t too bad. After struggling a bit with the key box (our host was very kind to stop his holiday activities to help us), we got into the apartment and dropped our stuff.
Fernando, the host, was very kind to show us some nice things to see around town for the time that we had, and so we began his route. We first stopped at a restaurant he recommended, and it was great, didn’t show up oh google maps though, maybe that’s how it is so good. We got French fries with Iberian ham and two sunny side up eggs on top. Oh my it was awesome. That’s a perfect Mary meal. We got this with wine, which (at least here in Granada) gets you a free tapa. We got a spicy-ish rice with lamb and shrimp. It was good, but the fries were better :)
We then headed out to the historically Arabic part of town, famous for its windy streets that tourists lose themselves in. We decided to do this as soon as possible to be in daylight. We marched up to a lookout plaza which was very nice, but even in January was flooded with tourists. We wandered around a bit more, and eventually ended up in a tea cafe recommend by Fernando. This was great! An awesome way to end a physically-intensive wander.
Mom got Moroccan mint tea, and I got Jasmin tea, and we got a baklava to share. The patio offered incredible views of Alhambra- it was perfect. I really enjoyed that.
Afterwards we wandered some more, checking out a church and some shops nearby. Here we bought the most gifts, along with tickets for a flamenco show right next door. The show was definitely for tourists, but I enjoyed it. The guitarist was so talented and was very enjoyable and impressive to listen to, and the dancers were very talented with the tricky rhythms. I thought it was a cool thing to see. Afterwards, mom and I strolled through the last bit of town we had time for, checking out the cathedral and walking along some popular shopping/bar streets. We ended up in an area Fernando recommended for dinner- aka drinks and free tapas. This place was great, the sandwich tapas were not my favorite, but the wine was good and then we got a local sherry (and learned a lot about sherry) along with a cream tart. This was very delicious, plus the atmosphere of the restaurant was very warm and hip, and mom and I enjoyed some nice conversation.
Realizing it was getting late, we paid and headed back for the apartment. I took a very fast shower due to a low capacity of hot water, but otherwise I was happy to be snuggled up in bed. Mom and I made some plans for tomorrow so we’re excited (she even more so than I) to check out Alhambra tomorrow!
2025-02-08