March 25-26, 2017: Evening in Granada, then off to Grazalema

After a late lunch and siesta, we walked down a steep hill to the center of Granada.  En route we came upon Washington Irving, who is revered here because of his writing Tales of the Alhambra, a highly romanticized history written when he lived here in the mid-1800's.  This work inspired the restoration of the then-trashed Alhambra (what Napoleon left undone, neglect finished), and Irving was subsequently named Ambassador to Spain.

 

We toured the cathedral, which is large but not nearly as impressive as the one in Toledo.  John seems to take pleasure in tapping fellow tourists on the shoulder and pointing to the "No Photos" sign as they prepare to take yet another picture.  They look (up) at John and put the camera/phone/selfie stick down.  At least until we're out of sight.  But, alas, one can only confront a limited number of the 1.4 billion selfie-snapping Chinese tourists visiting Spain this week.

We then took a wild minibus ride throughout the Moorish district, as recommended by our tour guide.  Our kamikaze driver forged through narrow streets packed with pedestrians and faced oncoming vehicles like a Jedi dodging Death Stars.  Great views (when we dared look).

We had a light dinner, then survived an equally fearless (of speed limits and stop signs) taxi driver getting back to our hotel.  Whew.

Sunday morning - deja vu all over again as Spain "springs forward" to daylight saving time.  Didn't we just do that two weeks ago???  Another hour lost.

So we slept in, had a late breakfast at the hotel, then checked out and set the GPS for the village of Grazalema, one of the "white hill towns" of southern Spain.  These are towns perched on hills (for defense) with whitewashed buildings (to reflect heat, perhaps?).  We had planned to stay in the larger and more famous town of Ronda, but, apparently, so did everyone else.  John had been here before and found a beautiful hotel outside of the village.  Our room looks across the canyon at the village.

 

There's a hiking trail from the hotel to the village - maybe tomorrow.

Another beautiful sunny day, until evening when we noticed some ominous clouds rolling over the hills.  As we ate dinner in the hotel dining room, we watched the rain move our way.  According to Intellicast, the rain should blow through tonight.