Jun 8-9 flying to Granada

Jim drove me to the airport for 9 Thanks Jim. Always nice to have a friend to say goodbye to.

Checked in fine. The plane left at 1130 right on time. The flight a little bumpy but that doesn't really bother me. I amused myself. The map said it was 1673 miles to Toronto with a travel time of 3 hours and 42 minutes. Just enough time to watch a couple of movies so watched Mirror Mirror and Man on a Ledge. They were pretty good. 

Landed in TO at 505 and after walking from one end of the airport to the other arrived at my gate to discover that they had overbooked the flight and I did not have a seat. I believe my response was to say “I don’t have a seat?” and than I laughed. They seemed surprised and said that I was taking it pretty well. When you travel you have to expect anything and everything.  They did take good care of me. I went over to customer service and they rebooked me through Rome to Barcelona and gave me a travel certificate for $500. I still had an hour before my flight so went to my gate and read Wicked.  When we boarded I discovered that I was going to be traveling to Rome Executive first class!   Wine, hot towels to wash before dinner with wine and dessert, laying down to sleep all the way across the ocean.  I was so spoiled. I loved it. Moral of the story.... always be nice to the airlines when they screw up and they will treat you nicer and surprise you with wonderful things. Sometimes. This time they did.

Rome Airport is crazy.  They are remodeling and there are detours all over. Walking from one end of the airport to the other and through shops to get to my gate. And Italians are loud at least they seemed to be that day. the worlds cup might have had something to do with that. Went straight to my gate to see if I could get on an earlier flight to Barcelona, as the service desk in Toronto could not tell if there was any room on that flight. I got there explained to the lovely gentleman about being rerouted and having a connecting flight in Barcelona at 430 and how if I caught the flight that I was booked on I would miss my connection. He checked the flight and there was no problem. He booked me in on the earlier flight. that gave me two hours to fill, not enough time to go into Rome so stayed in the Rome airport. After having a coffee, which was actually pretty good if a little strong. I got my nails done. Got to my gate with minutes to spare and the flight to Barcelona was good. Flying over the Mediterranean and the Islands of Corsica?.
Flying into Barcelona was good.  I sat across the aisle from an older couple and the lady tried to communicate with me, and I with her. We both decided that Italians are in fact very loud and that Barcelona is a very pretty city. Barcelona looks like a beautiful city from the air. There is a big park with a citadell on the top of a hill and the city spread out all around it . The Mediterranean on one side with a big marina and a very long beach. I had made plans to visit Barcelona on the 6 hour layover on my original flight, but the rescheduling had dashed those plans. Darn! Will have to go back to Spain in the future. 
got to my connecting flight with minutes to spare and met a lovely young mom Pilar. we had a good time also trying to communicate. She gave me her address. she can read english better than she can speak it so writing should be fun. She told me that in Catalan things are very different than from Madrid or the North of Spain. I hope so. Vive la diferencia!  We said goodbye in the Granada Aeropuerto.

 I went to order my air tickets to Madrid by phone for monday which took about half an hour. Once I got the english speaking service agent things went very smoothly. I missed the bus into Granada and It only goes once an hour so I decided that rather than wait 45 minutes for the next bus I would take a taxi to my hotel. they told me it was 37 euros. so I figured we pay that much at home so why not. the drive in was nice . the taxi driver didn't know a lot of english but we did OK. Olivo trees all over the place. grande and poco (large and small). there were some caves on the side of a hill with doors inset and people living in them. He said that there were a few , not so many.  The town of granada is lovely built on hills. When we drove by the walls of the Alhambra and he pointed them out,  he made a point of telling me to see the palace of Carlos V which is inside the Alhambra walls as well. 

At 75 years Old, the American Hotel is doing just fine. My room was small and had no TV but clean and on the grounds of the Alhambra. The other hotel on the grounds is the Parador at 3 times the price of this place.  I checked in and dropped my things in my room. The very friendly and helpful desk clerk told me I had to go to the bottom of the hill the taxi had just brought me up to get my tickets for the next day to the Alhambra. So off I went. The weather was lovely. I could tell that it had been a hot day from the heat still emanating  from the buildings and streets. the road down to the bottom of the hill is lined with trees and has little waterfalls coming from the Alhambra  and running water along the sides of the road/path.  At 7 pm it was still very warm. I found my way down the hill to the entrance way to the Alhambra gardens and picked up my ticket. Then I wandered through the gardens that were still open. they were beautiful. there is a creek down in between the two hills of the Alhambra gardens. I would like to go there if I can figure out how to get down there. they have giant bees in the gardens, black ones. i tried to get a picture but was interrupted by the security fellows shoeing us out of the park at closing time.  I wandered back by a different route and found a restaurant in the parador hotel . A 930 dinner of eggplant fries, broiled goat-cheese and quince on toast and alhambra beer on the patio. Loved the goat-cheese and the beer was very nice. Wandered back down to my hotel and after reading for a very short period of time slept. my first night in Spain.  sueños dulces.