Queue up: Here Comes the Sun

I woke up this morning, on our 22nd anniversary, to a clothesline of socks strung between the sconces hanging on either side of our bed #stoptheinsanity. Nothing says romance and love, like the first thing you see when you open your eyes is freshly washed socks.

Also of note, I wore sunscreen today. Yes, it was sunny, but very cold, so again, I had on every layer I brought. At least it was all clean so I could dirty an entire load of wash all at once. That’s what I call efficiency.

We began early this morning with a walk through the Albaicin Quarter. It’s a historic quarter directly across from the Alhambra, Granada’s big tourist site. As we continued to walk up and up on cobblestone streets (and they really were made of a hodge podge of different sized rounded rocks) we finally reached a crest and knew we had arrived when we found a patio full of people taking pictures. We were directly across from the Alhambra with snow capped mountains in the background. We didn’t have the right equipment to do the scene justice (and possibly we were at the wrong angle….and just maybe 10:00 AM on a sunny morning, wasn’t the right time of day either…and….).

Unfortunately, we had to walk down the hill we just climbed up to cross the river and walk back up the hill to the Alhambra, but it was worth every step. The Alhambra is a Moorish palace that was mostly preserved throughout the Christian conquest. The intricate carvings, moldings, tile work and details were almost too much to take in on one visit. I always feel warmth in my heart when a victorious faction can see the beauty in what was created before them and choose to preserve it rather than level it to the ground. Our guide, Paulina, said it took 3-4 years to build a room in the palace, compared to the 300-400 years it took to build a Christian church, mostly because Moorish kings wanted to enjoy their new palace.

One side note, it is mind-boggling to me that people could create a complex building layout and intricate wall decorations centuries ago but modern humanity can’t clearly create a logical layout for a public restroom. You enter on the ground floor, men go down one flight, women go up two flights. Unfortunately, after using the restroom, I went down three flights and walked into the men’s bathroom. A guy, who didn’t speak my language, was trying to stop me and was laughing uncomfortably in the process until I realized my mistake. Then I had to trudge up another flight of stairs against a stream of men all coming down the stairs and smiling because they knew what I must of done. One thing about being my age, is its not like I haven’t done that before, and I can think of a much more embarrassing time – like when I walked in on our company’s CEO, but that’s a story over an adult beverage.

Ok, back to today. I’ll finish my description of the Alhambra with a set of photos and then move on to my cultural topic of the day….tapas.

There is a tapas culture in Spain….who knew. Let me begin with a baseline. It’s not like tapas in the US which is a series of small plates you order and share for dinner. Here, when you order a drink it comes with a small plate of food. You order another drink you get a different plate of food etc. It’s important to have a tapas strategy when you sit down for an adult beverage. You don’t want to order any food that automatically comes with your drink. So you first have to figure out how much you’re going to drink, order those, get the food, and then order something else to round out the meal. Now the complexity. Our guide Paulina got quite animated when we started talking about tapas. She was quite emphatic and very appalled at what some bars try to pass off as tapas “I’m sorry, but a plate of olives is not tapas!”. And then to make matters worse, some bars have stopped the whole practice altogether. So to recap: pick a bar that serves “legitimate” tapas, order your drinks before you order any additional food, don’t consume more alcohol than you can handle just to get another free (small) plate of food.

Ok, let’s move on to oranges. Sour orange trees are planted all over Andalucía. Mostly for shade, secondly for the fragrant smell of orange blossoms. The edibility of the oranges is up for debate. Paulina said never to eat them because they are full of pollutants filtered from the air through the plant, and they taste terrible. Jim convinced some people in our group to taste them (for the record, I let Peter do the honors). I read sour oranges are used for cosmetics and medicinal purposes and the bitter orange marmalade favored by B&B’s. Jim said his mother makes the best marmalade from these oranges. When I asked him about it further, he admitted he hates orange marmalade and doesn’t eat his mother’s concoction. Hmmmmmmm……..learn from this grasshopper. Never eat an Andalucian orange from a man touting its deliciousness in marmalade (PS: I also noticed Jim didn’t eat any of the orange he offered the group).

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