Granada - Again!

There are times (a lot lately) when I really hate this app on the IPad - or maybe it's Europe - Spain in general- small towns on top of that. I wrote my whole Granada blog and was really happy with it, went to upload the photos and it suddenly crashed! Of course I hadn't saved the text because I haven't had to before. Learned my lesson did I!

So, in my previous blog, I talked about how much we really loved Granada. We came here specifically to experience Semana Santa (Holy Week) here. We were watching an Anthony Bourdain show about Granada and were totally entranced by what we saw.

So we had already experienced a procession in Barcelona but that did nothing to prepare us for Granada! During Holy Week, neighborhood groups (called hermandates or cofradias) parade from the in neighborhood churches to the cathedral and then back to their church. These floats depict various scenes from the Passion story.

This is taken from Rick Steve's travel book:

As the week approaches, the anticipation grows. Visitors pour into town, grandstands are erected along the parade routes, and TV stations monitor the weather report. The floats are so delicate that rain can force the procession to be called off - a crushing disappointment.

By mid- afternoon of any day during Holy Week, thousands line the streets. The parade begins. First comes the penitents carrying a big cross, candles and incense. The penitents perform their penance public ally but anonymously, their identities obscured by pointy hooded robes. These costumes have been worm for centuries. To be honest, they look like KKK robes except in other colors. It was a little disconcerting to see them for the first time. Then comes the float. The elaborate floats feature carved
wooden religious statues, some embellished with gold leaf or silver work. They can be adorned with fresh flowers (tons of them like the Rose Bowl parade), rows of candles and even jewelry on loan from members of the church. Each float is carried by 30 to 50 people who labor unseen (you might catch a glimpse of their shuffling feet). The bearers wear turban-like headbands to protect their head and necks from the crushing weight of the float (the floats can weigh as much as two tons). Two "shifts" of flora carriers rotate every 20 minutes. As a sign of their faith, some men carry the float until they collapse.

After the float comes the ladies dressed in their finest black dresses, black stockings, some with shoes, some barefoot, carrying their rosaries, wearing the traditional Spanish comb and mantilla on their heads. They are beautiful. Following the,ladies is the brass and drum bands. There are a lot of musicians in this town. Consider four to five floats a day, seven days that week and each float has it's own band of at least 40 members.

Earlier that day as we were walking about town, we noticed some kids carrying strange looking balls. They were round like balls but something looked strange. They were all different sizes and multi-colored. After seeing our first procession, we figured out what the balls were. As the penitents are processing down the streets, they angle their candles down to pour off the wax so the candle continues to burn. The kids catch the wax and form a small ball and the. Continue to build up the ball with more wax from each procession. They save the ball and bring it out each year for Semana Santa. One boy had a wax ball as big as a softball.

We also toured the Alhambra which is the last and greatest Moorish Palace. Construction began on it in 1238 and continued until 1391. In 1492, it was surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs. At that time, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon conducted extensive repairs, alterations and additions. In 1984, Alhambra was designated a World Heritage Site. To try to describe it just is not possible, you need to experience it in person. I will add photos of the various buildings and gardens in
Alhambra but know that they do not do justice. We started touring around 2:30 and left the palace at 8 p.m. It was awesome and overwhelming.

We spent some time in the Albayzin area of Granada. This is one of Spain's best old Moorish quarters  - very narrow, twisty, hilly, winding streets. Everything is whitewashed. You can easily get lost in the little alleys. In fact, that's the fun of Albayzin - getting lost and finding these great little plazas with bars and cafés and sitting down for a glass or two of wine and tapas.

Above Albyzin is Sacromonte, home to Granada's Roma (gypsy) community. While Albayzin is a sprawling zone on a hilltop, Sacromonte is much smaller and very steep. Most houses burrow into the wall of a cliff. Some also live in the many caves around here.

At the end of the Bourdain show, he went to a gypsy flamenco show in Sacromonte. The
gentleman/poet who sang for him was a very colorful character. He had long reddish/blonde hair pulled back into a long ponytail. He was dressed in a rather colorful suit and appeared quite eccentric. At the end of our week in Granada, the weather took a very nasty turn - rainy, windy and cold. Since we had a bus pass and wanted to get out of the rain, we took Bus 35 (circular route) to Sacromonte and then back into Granada city center. The bus made a stop near the Cave Museum of Sacromonte and a large group of folks got on. There was an older gentleman in the group that looked really familiar. After looking at him a fee times, I realized he was the gypsy singer from the show. Ernie asked him if he spoke English and he responded with a laugh and a no. One of the younger folks in his party spoke some English so Ernie explained that we had seen him on American TV. The young man smiled and said he was on the cooker man show. We told him that he was now a famous TV star! We all laughed and the man started to sing gypsy flamenco songs and serenaded us all the way into town. We got a private performance that we will never forget!

I will say that our week in Granada was over in a flash. We spent the rest of our time wandering, drinking, eating, meeting new friends, taking pictures, getting lost and falling even more in love with Granada and Spain.

As I said earlier, this blogging app and the IPad get a bit wonky at times. So I'm going to add photos and captions in groups in subsequent posts.

One thing I did forget to mention was the extensive Moroccan area in Granada. We found a new friend in Mostafa, the owner of Arrayanes Moroccan Restaurant. We found that we really enjoy the Moroccan food and tea and Mostafa was a total delight. He loved having new friends from Texas and even invited us into his neighboring bar and smoking lounge to meet his friends. We had a great conversation about the history and migration of the Berbers with his friends. Mostafa gave us his phone number and e-mail address and said if we run into any difficulties while in Spain, Morocco or Istanbul, to call him for help. He's quite a colorful gentleman!

So check my next postings for all the photos from our Granada visit.