Incline up–take a stair step; incline up–take a stair step…not a gym machine, but honest to goodness narrow street stairways that just went up and up and up.

There were obvious advantages to climbing the narrow passageways of the Albaicin quarters, the ancient Moorish area, in Granada rather than using a gym machine. First and foremost are the amazing views along the way! White-washed streets with intersecting alleyways with more steps upward leading in new directions; then a small plaza with little Moroccan restaurants and a quiet wall fountain; more stairways leading in multiple directions (choose one); a long and barely two person wide alley lined with shops selling tea blends we have never seen before or spices of every description open to the air and giving off amazing aromas or North African clothiers and Moroccan restaurants–brightly colored and dark and North African pastry shops with sweets dripping with honey and almond or coconut or apricot cookies; then churches–old with golden altars and painted ceilings and ancient wooden doors and large plazas with jaw-dropping views of snow-covered mountains and the still standing Moorish defensive walls jutting into the hills where gypsy homes are fashioned into the hillside caves, and across the valley, the mighty Alhambra in majestic display–what pleasant views!

Another advantage are the pastry shops–eating fabulous sweets and exercise all rolled into one–what a deal!

Yet another advantage is the open air and flowering trees and chirping birds.

You will never see me on a stair master, but I’ll climb the Albaicine any day.

The amazing Alhambra is a national treasure in Spain and it is easy to see why. High on the mountainside overlooking the fine city of Granada, it has seen centuries pass under its watchful eye of power and prestige as the seat of government for the Moorish empire. This empire passed in 1492 with the coming of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who had the goal of ridding Iberia of this foreign invading power (although this invading power lasted over 700 years) and building a united Spain into the premier world power of its day. They succeeded on all counts.

We were thrilled to see Micah Reynolds in Granada today as well. He is full of ambition for his future and enjoying his opportunity to study abroad at the 60,000 student university in Granada, taking courses in Spanish studies that are approved by the University of Texas, Austin. Chris and George Ann have raised a fine young man.

This simply reminded me that people have always looked to the future and what it could bring, whether in ancient Granada or modern Granada. That they leave a legacy for all of us to enjoy is a blessing.

Ferdinand and Isabella, labeled the Catholic Monarchs on most plaques, had a special Royal Chapel built in the city they loved for their burial place. Granada’s significance for the royals was that it was the last bastion of Moorish and Islamic power in Iberia, and it fell before their armies’ might. Having united Spain and allied it with most of the other European nations, they were able to claim Granada as their own and launch Columbus to America from Seville in 1492. They loved the city of Granada above all.

We have now seen the tomb of Christopher Columbus in the grand Seville Cathedral and the tombs of his benefactors in a royal chapel beside the Granada Cathedral. History came alive today for me as I was caught up in the grand sweep of time. WEG

They have great ways of solving problems in Seville.

Take gas stations. They still have fill up service. I thought, how quaint. No, not quaint, practical. You see, space is so limited in the historic cities like Seville, where the infrastructure was never built for modern conveniences, that inventive ways were necessary to meet modern needs, like filling up the tank with gas. So, very tiny gas stations were put right on the city side walks and you just drive up, usually in a queue, and the attendant quickly gets the gas going. The gas hoses are high power, they fill the tank quickly and you get your card or money ready to pay while the attendant is filling the tank and off you go–no slow gas tank fillers can get in the way of this efficient method.

We found the Locutorio today. They are conveniently located all over the city and one is just a few minutes walk from our apartment. We just did not know what we were looking for or know they existed. When you want to call international, you can use the Locutorio. They are expressly for that service for the international community that lives in Seville. When you enter, you are assigned a compartment that has a telephone and an electronic timer that tells you how much your call is costing you as you speak. We have a European phone for local calls and we will simply switch out the SIM card when we change countries. Using that phone for international calls would be quite expensive. However, the Locutorio is quite inexpensive. We had some banking business to accomplish and the ten minute call was 1,10Euro. Yea!

We are really getting the hang of how to live here. We only have one week left before we move on. That will be a sad departure.

Fruits and Vegetables–They come in many more varieties in Spain such as radishes that look like our radishes but also look like carrots and come in lots of colors. You don’t touch them, health rules forbid it. You put on plastic gloves in the super market to pick them up or at the organic section as at the Farmer’s Market, someone picks them out for you, weighs/prices and wraps them for you, wrapped, by the way in a heavy paper rolled into a cone with the top folded in to enclose the package.

Meats–Lots of choices, and if you like ham, the sky is the limit, both in quantity and price. Some of the cured ham, a Spanish specialty, can cost $100 a pound. The cheaper ones are around $30 a pound. You buy it paper thin sliced and it is really good. I bought $4 worth today of one on sale.

Farmer’s Market–Imagine the fresh meat and fish case at Kroger and multiply it 25 times with individual sellers at each case section and you have the Farmer’s Market. It is inside an area under the gigantic Parasols which were built over the ancient Roman ruins. The cases are thematic–all chicken/wild fowl/rabbit, all pork, all fish (eight cases), all fruit/vegetables, all bread/olives/candy, all herbs, all beef and all frozen foods. The meats are all on ice and easy to view and reach, but you do not touch–Spain has high public health standards with signs out. We bought a chicken breast meat and it was walking around clucking only a few hours before–I know, since as a kid we did that kind of thing at our home.

Retail Stores–Lots of specialty shops scattered along streets and byways. We happen upon them by accident as we walk about. Since people are densely packed in apartment living in the core of the city, they simply walk to the store they need in their neighborhood. It’s easy and we have picked it up quickly. Restaurants of all kinds are everywhere. You stop when you are hungry and get a snack or Tapas or pastry and a beer. The evening meal is eaten late and is the main meal of the day. The average people of Seville dress better than the average person at home, by that I mean more formally, even elegantly. If you bring in packages from other retail stores into the supermarket, you place them into a large plastic bag provided by the market and use a hot bar to seal the bag and then you carry it into the market.

I always pay with credit card and they ask to see your passport. At the supermarket, the checker I seek out is used to asking to see my passport in a little game we play. Today, I paid with cash and handed her my passport. She laughed out loud and wagged her finger at me. She now has a story to tell about her crazy American shopper. WEG

Gardens are everywhere in this part of Spain and they are known worldwide. We have seen a lot of them. The one in the Alcazar, the many acres walled compound containing the Royal Palace featuring Mudejar–Christian artisans who used Moorish themes–architecture, is as fascinating as it is beautiful. It blends harmoniously with the beautiful palace. It is many gardens in one–calming gazebo like buildings are within, inviting a cool place to sit. Sunken gardens with brick or stone or tile walls and Spanish pottery lay beside raised gardens with water features of all types. Fish swim in shallow pools lined with citrus and ornamental trees. Floral displays give way to tall trees and gravel walkways. Shaped trees invite entry to bubbling fountains or rose gardens. Tiled benches sit around parklike areas and along paths and in courtyards and beside flowing waters. The garden/s are so large we did not walk them all.

When the Moors ruled this area, they had a love of tranquil gardens with hedge rows and cooling and peaceful fountains. I have always been intrigued by mazes, and so, the maze in the Alcazar palace gardens caught my attention quickly. I quickly got lost in it and would stick up my head and call out for Kathy, patiently waiting on the outside, so that I could keep my direction bearings. It was a lot of fun and I was grateful that centuries ago, the Spanish royalty added the maze to the garden. If Kathy had not helped me, I would be wandering aimlessly in that maze for centuries more. WEG

Within 24 hours I managed to sin in numerous unusual ways. First, I took the road less traveled–except by experienced tour drivers in automatic transmission vans–and scare the living daylights out of more people than appropriate. When I wrote yesterday that I pealed out, it wasn’t a little screech–it was rubber and big screech, since I was afraid I would stall out in my manual transmission on a very steep incline. What I forgot to confess was this: later in that trip, I did not want to turn around between the mountain and the cliff dropping to the sea far below, and since the rule keeper in our family was waiting with our guest, Carolyn, way down the hill, I drove forward to the very top of the hill, only to discover that it was the site of a historic gunnery with a turnstile in the center where the cannon was placed and in the old days could be turned to shoot in different directions by turning the turnstile. There was no one there, except for a few British tourists, at least they looked British and it was a British built gunnery. So I kind of drove the car on the turnstile to turn around. After all, if it works for a cannon, why not a car? The British tourists must have liked it–they were taking lots of pictures. I was a little nervous, however, with the guy taking pictures of the license plate. That was sin one.

Sin two occurred at the entrance to a confectionarie. I did not see a small step down and fell across a stroller at the entrance. Yes, the baby was inside. I think quickly and fell to miss the baby. The baby was not hurt nor was I. Since I did not do this on purpose, it probably was not a real sin.

Sin three was making my wife and Carolyn stand in such a way that they hid a person and a trash receptacle that I did not want in the picture. Kathy said the trash receptacle behind her made her behind too big. I responded that sometimes we have to sacrifice our personal beauty for the beauty of the picture.

Is driving a Spain-only rental car into another country a sin, if you did not realize you were in another country until it was too late? Who knew that Gibraltar on the southern tip of Spain is actually Great Britain? My clue came when they asked for my passport and inquired what I was declaring. I said I wasn’t declaring anything until I confessed on Ash Wednesday. The unamused guard said next time read the signs and “carry on.” Evidently there was a car lane for folks who had goods to declare and a lane for nothing to declare and I was in the wrong lane. Those of you following the blog know I intended to stop immediately, but missed the parking spot, got lost and ended up on a harrowing journey.

Ash Wednesday is tomorrow. I’ll confess those sins and a few more in the beautiful Saint Magdalena Church which has historic ties to the New World back in the explorer days.

It was not planned and that made it all the more exciting! Take someone not used to a manual transmission car and make them drive one. Add over 1400 feet straight up on one lane roads with sheer drop offs into the sea. For fun, make the driver stop on 60 plus % grades. For dare devil madness have the driver park forward on a steep decline with no railing in front of the parking space. Mix in stiff u-turns on steep inclines with big mirrors on the side of the mountain your only way of knowing if there is oncoming traffic on one lane roads. For fun, add monkeys hitching a ride by clinging to the side mirrors. And what do you have? My day driving on the Rock of Gibraltar.

We could not find the taxi stand for the guide tour and missed a turn and found the GPS had stopped giving directions because Gibraltar is governed by England, although on the southern tip of Spain, and the GPS was only for Spain. Before we knew it, we were totally lost and were ascending to the heavens on a one lane road. When I got us to the top, I told the policeman at the entrance to the top of the Rock that I couldn’t find the tour taxi and ended up there. He just shook his head, told me I owed the government 36Euro’s and made me park literally forward into a space where you could actually see the sea about 1,400 feet below from the front seat because the space was steeply declined towards the cliff. I pulled the emergency brake so hard it almost broke off. I got back at the policeman, however, because when I tried to back out later–I kissed Kathy goodby and made her and Carolyn Elsey who was with us for the day stand outside while I attempted reverse in that precarious parking position. It did not work! The car idled and lurched forward, no kidding or exaggeration here, with one tire about 2 inches from oblivion–remember, this is a rent car. I pulled the emergency brake again, put the car in neutral and went to find the policeman. I told him he would have to back out the car–I had paid my money and now I wanted something for it. He shook his head and walked away to find someone braver or dumber than he. Thankfully, he returned and the nice man ably backed up the car. We got in and I was so frazzled on the now steep incline that I popped the clutch and pealed out. This was only the beginning of the thrill ride, and I’ll spare you the details, but it was one wild day! Kathy sat speechless most of the way and when we got home, she quickly changed clothes and washed the ones she had been wearing. Carolyn asked to go by the hospital for a quick EKG.

It will be a day we will long remember.

Do the mass and the bodega go together? In Spain the answer is, “yes.”

Mass in the massive Seville Cathedral with soaring pipe organ notes echoing through the vaulted ceilings and Spanish chant plaintively repeating the liturgical verses competed with incense wafting upwards in billowing clouds of smoke before a pure gold and silver altar to bring new sensory heights.

I’ve been to Bodega Bay of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Birds” fame in California and now I’ve been to a bodega in Jerez, Spain. Both have much to offer, but if you must choose one, go for the Jerez bodega. Jerez is the sherry wine capital of the world due to the chalky soil that feeds the local grapes and gives sherry, both dry and sweet, its distinctive taste. The Gonzalez-Byess Bodega is the largest winery and is located in the old town. Its wine barrels are signed by the famous of this world who have visited. I did not have time to stay and sign my barrel. It was a very informative tour amidst ancient casks, each barrel has 70 years of harvests within, and there are thousands of barrels in rooms kept chilled by special sand that retains cold water to cool the vast chambers.

So in one day Mass in Seville and bodega in Jerez about an hour apart in distance but worlds apart in experience.

Carolyn Lieder was with Kathy and me for a wonderful and full day–the cathedral–awesome, awesome, and we climbed the heights of the Giralda, which is the tall tower of the cathedral and the symbol of the city of Seville; the Alcazar–the Royal Palace that is Moorish in style overall, with manicured gardens and flowing fountains and peacocks; the old Jewish quarter, which is called Santa Cruz, with its pastel and white-washed buildings lining narrow lanes; the Spanish Exposition site with its striking architecture and beautiful Spanish tiles; FLAMENCO–a passionate and powerful dance; devoted Roman Catholics in a candle-filled church and then in silent procession with the Christ and Mary statutes lifted high as they moved slowly with incense through Seville streets. What a day!