Saturday, December 25, 2010

And Me Without my Camera...

Went up into these mountains today. The Athletes skiied, the photographer drank cocoa!
We saw these Flamenco dancers. They were fantastic and interesting. Even David joined in the dancing!

The Alahambra residence...uffda..amazing. LOTS of photos to come on this one


The main Cathedral in Granada, this photo offers only a brief glimpse



IMAGES THANKS TO GOOGLE..see PPS Below



Christmas Morning
Grenada Spain
8 am
After breakfast where we left the sleeping Anna safely locked in our hotel room, David and I set out to find a Christmas morning mass. Now, you know I´m not Catholic but I wanted to hear Christmas music and since Spain is primarily Catholic, the odds were good that there would be a morning service.
As we left the hotel, David urged me NOT to bring the camera because we would be spotted as tourists and surely not get into the church (What?! God doesn´t like photos?) But I could see his logic so I agreed.
We walked, and walked and walked around the town. It seemed like no one else had the same idea as we literally were on the streets of Grenada ( a city with over 300,000 people) ALONE. The weather was beautiful and the sites were magnificent. But alas, you´ll have to take my word for it, as my trusty Canon was sleeping too.
We saw the street cleaners busily working (this is indeed a very clean city), we saw the shops with their holiday marketing signage (not too tacky...America could take a lesson here) and we crawled our way through a beautiful old hospital (which was open for business...we think) FILLED with lovely fresco paintings and tile decorations.
We also tried in vain to find an open Cathedral.
No one out worshipping but the doves, which lent itself to a very peaceful Christmas morning. About twice I said, ¨Oh that would be a good picture¨to which my wise husband kept silent. Finally I sighed (deeply) and said ¨ okay I guess I´ll have just to remember this day in my head because I obviously can´t take any pictures¨
Then he quietly suggested that it was time to start LOOKING at the sites instead of always looking for the best photo opportunity.
Aha...smart man.
So I enjoyed our walk through the city, making mental notes for this blog (did I tell you about the fabulous church built in 1536?) and slowly breathing in and out as I understood that it was time to stop looking and start seeing.
Later on in the day, we drove up to the Sierra Nevada mountains where David and daughter went skiiling. Nadine hit the souvenior shops, drank hot chocolate and took pictures
(you can´t expect a miracle overnight right?)
When we returned, we went out for a walk again WITHOUT the camera and I just relished the sites and sounds of thousands of people strolling throughout the city enjoying the city on Christmas night.
It was a good Christmas lesson that I will TRY to remember on future trips.
PS I got David to promise to walk through the area tomorrow morning WITH the camera before we leave.
PPS If I can´t get the shots, there´s always GOOGLE IMAGES right?!

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