DAY 195

Sunday 22 January 2012

So, you like ham?

The day was full of unexpected “emotional currents” to quote Dian’s sister, Monica. While we don’t have a real desire to print all of that for everyone’s consumption, we do want to be true to ourselves and report not only the good stuff. Dian woke everyone up by farting. Not really. No, really, she did. Okay now Dian has told you her worst secret. We’ll see who else in the Happy Trails Gang will share THEIR worst secrets and you can bet they have a few.

More street art, this time featuring Urkel

Bird, Juan, Dian, Charles

We didn’t start as early as we had hoped in order to see a free children’s Mozart concert at the Manuel de Falla Auditorium partly because a mean bus driver sped up to leave us in his dust. Okay, we weren’t quite at the bus stop but hey…

One of Nicole's favorite pieces of street art to date

Upon arrival in downtown Granada we started seeing band members in their marching band uniforms. Many were warming up but Nicole and Dian agreed that they were already HOT (see photo for verification). We hurried along to where Charles had found our site on the map and GPS but it was not there but was finally got pointed out to us on a hill about a 20 minute walk away (according to a concierge.) We visited the beautiful church and courtyard of San Matias and after a prayer for guidance, Juan from Chile showed up.

Scoff if you will but we considered him, a fellow traveler to be a godsend since he was not only friendly but willing to help us get to our destination using the GPS on his phone. We eventually got to the auditorium just after the show ended. Walking inside we saw how beautiful the place was and only cried a little.

Marching band members

Juan’s philosophy is to get lost on purpose and we adopted his idea with a vengeance. (The only part we needed to eliminate were the frustrated glares and insinuating comments). We ended up having a quarter of a kilo baklava treat that was devoured while listening to a FANTASTIC band with a charismatic leader who really had the gift of music (as they all did.)

The snowy Sierra Nevadas were in the background as we listened to a flamenco band and other street musicians near Saint Nicolas Church. Then we walked to the Flamenco headquarters in the caves of the Sacromente district which ran above the river Darro just below the Alhambra.

The flamenco group

Finally we headed to our bus stop and were home for soup and showers by 6 PM.