Day 32. Wednesday 9 April.

The day had 2 parts: the first part was intended to be a morning saving energy. But a mistake by T with the date for a flamenco show booking, which clashed with our Alhambra tour, saw us tramping to the theatre, hoping to speak to a real person and correct the error.

The actual theatre address on Google maps was wrong, and at first being unaware of this, we confidently headed off to some obscure destination. Dear Doris’ directions subsequently had us way off the mark, so what should have been a wee morning stroll ahead of a big afternoon, was NOT. Eventually inputted the correct address rather than relying on Google and/or Apple Maps and got to the theatre – to find it shut! If there is any silver lining it is that we now know how to get there: a very nice reply to an email begging for a rebooking has us saving our dancing legs for tomorrow night (10 April). However by this stage, within a couple of hours of our big tour, legs and feet were seriously complaining.

Part 2, the afternoon excursion to Alhambra saved the day. Military planning had the pre-paid parking done, driving route had been sorted the day before and plenty of time factored in for the unforeseen.  The first unforeseen was before we started our drive: the car park cameras don’t recognise our French number plate and won’t open the boom! And now we know why as this is our second such incident. Some tense phone connections in Spanish with instructions to press a number etc, which were meaningless if you didn’t speak Spanish – and when an operator was asked if someone spoke English, it was ‘please wait’ and then a disconnection. A friendly local spoke on our behalf and our host Miguel sent a QR code, so one of those worked and we got out.

We still had time up our sleeves and D (now a real Spanish driver) got us to the pre-paid parking at Alhambra in good order even after a wrong turn that took us well off the direct route, and then two cyclists on phones, steering one-handed, on a narrow road, so we were unable to overtake safely: by then the Cool Spanish driver was a bit more than warm. When we got to the boom gate once again the cameras didn’t recognize the number plate, so we reversed out looking for the (non-existent) entry that would work. At that point D realised we would just need to take a ticket and pay again, so returned and took our ticket. No more online booking – lesson learned!

However, with cool-dude status quickly returned, we found our guide at the correct meeting point (the fabulous Veronika, who complimented us for punctuality. We were a group of 6 (two quick-humoured Germans who said they were delighted to meet Real Aussies and two Americans (she was Chilean) from Arizona where summer temps are even higher than in Granada. 

From the outset, Veronika was charming, efficient, engaging and all-round marvellous as she handled questions (we presume information about history etc were accurate) and with super-skilled time management (maybe she’d been military in a previous life). She is Russian, and dealing with a mortgage in a village nearby, commuting to ‘the best office in the world’ and her favourite city…we felt we’d struck gold. She brought the Alhambra alive with tales of intrigue and conspiracy, cultural routines within the palaces and gardens, simplifying the waves of conquest and re-conquest. The three hours of steps and rooms, pathways, courtyards, fountains, views….(the legs, feet & hips!!!!) Restoration and preservation of the Alhambra gem is a marvel. Photography, particularly with an old iPhone was not easy due to the scale of the site and buildings, and of course the milling crowds who all jostled for the best pic. If D ever loses his cool in a public place it will be at one of the people who walk in front of a picture set up to get that position for themselves – or who spend an inordinate amount of time taking a pic while others wait. So far, he has contained himself.

Warm thanks to Veronika, some well-deserved extra currency delivered and we were back to the car for the next departure adventure, seamless this time with D just presenting the ticket for scanning, paying again and we headed home. Access to car parking there also seamless using the QR code. Thursday WILL be quieter.