April 7, 2013  - Day 6 – Happy Granada! – Much warmer and very sunny!

Got up early this morning and took a cab to the Atocha train station in Madrid for a 9:05 am trip to Granada.  After five and a half very uneventful hours traveling through what appeared to be olive orchards, we arrived at the Granada train station.  Our cab driver was a lively lady who told us that we would like Granada because it was a happy city.  A ten dollar cab ride later we were at our hotel.  A rather funny glitch in the system showed up when they showed us to a room on the second floor that wasn’t made up yet.  The Housekeeper called the front desk and subsequently took us to a room on the 4^th floor with twin beds.  We didn’t like that, so we ended up back on the second floor.  After that we went out walking through this Christian/Moorish city.  Ended up with a yummy salad and 4-cheese pizza at an outdoor café’, finally in the sun.  I believe Spring has arrived.  Strolled around with ice cream – great day for the ice cream parlors!

Then we had a hurdle to cross – collecting our tickets for the Alhambra.  Getting to and into the Alhambra may be the single biggest challenge that we face on this trip.  I went on line weeks ago to buy the tickets and thought I was getting one senior and one adult (those lousy four months until I’m an official senior do make a difference).   I managed to print out the tickets but then found out that the fine print states that senior discounts are only available for European residents.  So we will have to go to the ticket office tomorrow to get Bill’s ticket changed.  We only have a half hour window to enter the Alhambra – between 8:30 and 9 am - so we have been advised to take a bus and get in the ticket line by 7:30. 

We just awoke from our regulation afternoon naps and will probably go out for a small bite and maybe some more city walking.  A shout out to my nephew Ben and his fiancée Mandy and our nieces Michele and Marisa: we came upon a wild mid-day bachelorette party in the heart of the city.  A lovely group of ladies wearing lady bug outfits were escorting the bride-to-be to what looked like every strange man in the city – accompanied by laughing, clapping, and lots of singing.  Maybe it could be a pattern for a bachelorette hoop-de-do for our own bride-to-be.  Marisa and Michele, maybe you can work on that for Mandy.  Bill just opened the door to our balcony and the sounds of the city have poured in – guess we should think about exploring!  Talk to you soon!

Picture 1: Bachelorette Party in Granada;  Picture 2 - Spanish Countryside from the train on the way to Granada; Pictures 3 & 4 - Plaza Nueva - main square in Granada.