Granada y la Playa

Granada

Flat Stella

Alhambra

Holy Week parade

On the beach

The walk down to the water

Dodging the waves

Swimming!

The Andalusian countryside was absolutely gorgeous- we had a week's worth of viewing mountains dotted with villas and white villages; I loved it. But my two highlights of the trip would have to be our visit to the city of Granada and Costa del Sol, the Mediterranean beach.

Granada is large city, and there was loads to see: outdoor squares with marble floors, all the main Spanish shops (Franny got a watch), stalls on the street selling tea and meats, and an older area with views of the impressive Moorish Alhambra. We were especially lucky to be in Granada on the Wednesday before Easter, as it is the same day that the city holds a parade through the streets, as part of Spain's Semana Santa or Holy Week. It is celebrating when Jesus visited Nazareth, so the people wearing the red pointy hats and gowns are called nazarenos, and made up most of the procession. There was also a large crucifix and candle lighting- very religious (Franny was disappointed that they didn't throw out candy like at the Ballard parades). So, topped off with frambuesa flavored ice cream, the parade was really interesting to see. 

But my two most favorite days were the ones spent at the beach. I had never seen the Mediterranean Sea before, and it was exactly like I pictured it- amazing light blue water. On our first beach day (Monday), we stopped at a supermercado to make a picnic to take to the beach, which was perfect. No swimming that day though- just lying in the sun napping and reading. We went back on our last day (Thursday) to a different beach that was less secluded, with more people around. It was also very, as Mom put it, 'anything goes'...and Dad said it was "rather European:" about half of the beach goers were nude! It was really warm that day; Franny and I even went swimming! Jumping waves in the Mediterranean was the perfect way to end the trip. Although driving to the sea actually seemed like a bad decision at first: Spain takes religious holidays very seriously, because that day was a national holiday for Easter and not a single supermarket, local store, or restaurant seemed to be open! We were planning on a picnic again, but had zero food in the fridge and found out once we were nearly at the beach that it was either the gas station mini-mart or nothing. We decided to just head to the beach, play, then figure something out later for food. We drove down, and right next to the beach were two restaurants, both open. Miraculously, we didn't starve but instead ate gazpacho, fresh fish, and candied eggplant while looking onto the sea... bliss.