Muchacho Polaco

Granada was a fascinating city with much to see. I think we walked more here than anywhere else.

The main site was the Alambra, a castle up on a hill overlooking the city. We left our hotel at 7am to make the 1 hour hike (uphill and mostly in the dark!) to get to it. We arrived in time to watch the sunrise over the city.

The castle itself was pretty impressive. We spent hours touring through it.

Granada was not unlike Sevilla or Cordoba. We spent our days wandering through the city visiting various stores, eating very similar meals, and enjoying the wonderful weather. We found a place for paella one evening but weren’t too impressed with the food itself. The location was filled with interesting sights and sounds.

We spent hours one evening and a bar named after Kafka. They had great wine and it was a popular place.

The coffee here is mostly a joke. But there are a lot of tea options. We went to a tea store today here in Granada with thousands of options.

Great city. Cordoba was nice, but no comparison. We arrived by train.

Since our phone don’t work here, we downloaded maps of each city. That has some value. However, when typing in our hotel as destination, it insisted on taking us the route a car would take. Roighly two hours later of walking, we finally made it. We were exhausted.

Seville is an amazing city with a lot to see and do. We walked endless miles. We saw a palace with Moorish architecture. Pretty neat. There was a garden maze. It was easy to get lost.

One more day would have made things easier.

We made it to Cordoba without any problems. Arrived to Madrid and took local train to Atchoa station. From there we took a fast train south. It was comfortable. I slept nearly the whole way. We walked from the train station to our hotel. It should have only taken 15 minutes, but things get confusing. GPS is awful in the city. Our hotel is comfortable. We are alone on the 4th floor. There is a bar on this floor where you can help yourself. Real nice.

We took 3 hour nap. Then toured around a part of the city, mostly to find food. We had a nice dinner then it started to get cold and rainy.

We got back early and were in bed by maybe 8. I’ve been up since 2 am and getting a lot of reading done. It’s almost 4am now and I’m ready for breakfast.

We are in Chicago now on our way to Madrid. We should arrive in roughly 8 hours and then will catch the fast train south to Cordoba. Three days in Cordoba, then three days in Seville, three days in Granada, then remaining days in Madrid.

We each had our own row to try and sleep.

Orlando was up this weekend for a quick visit. He came alone as his kids do not have visas. On Saturday we had a dinner with friends.

Dirty dogs got their showers today. There is a place near the house that works out pretty well.

The starter went out on our old Honda Element last week. That’s the problem with older cars. We were quoted $350-$500 here in Tucson, but forget that. We took it to Mexico today and repaired it there for $20. Four hour job / $5 an hour. This is the benefit living close to the border. When the clutch was going out last year, local quote wanted $1200. We took it to Mexico and paid $100. It seems pretty consistently 10% of the price.

While there, we decided to get a full check up on our blood and urine. We paid $60 and got the reports an hour later. For the most part, we are both healthy. Our blood sugar was a little high, but not abnormal. My white blood cell count is low though which could be related to stress. There are minor dietary changes that could help us both.

There is a young college guy from our church that we look after from time to time. He plays basketball in a wheelchair. Last night we were able to go to one of his games for the first time. It was a fun experience. This was his third game of the day and I am sure was exhausting. Even so, they won all three.