Walking on the Alhambra hill and around the city

After a good night's sleep I wake to this view:

and we get ready and hurry down to breakfast, because Maria José, the professor, who has arranged our visit, will be picking up the men soon for their talks

Carlota and I take our time getting ready - we're also waiting for it to warm up a bit from the 7 degrees C outside. We have to go to the highly organized Alhambra, for which we've bought tickets over the internet a month ago, to make sure we're all set. Turns out the taxi there takes a very long route, similar to driving through Rocinha and getting stuck behind a garbage truck or a bus - or both. Our tickets are duly checked and we walk down through a beautiful park area

until we reach the Plaza Nueva in the city center in the middle of the two hills. From there we head into a fun area of tiny alleys and many middle eastern style shops, the Calle Caldería,

where we enter into serious negotiations with a very pleasant young Muslim woman and thus manage to get a little discount on our purchases. The men call to tell us they're done with their talks and we're all having lunch - on the Plaza Nueva. We meet Maria José and Manolo, and share a sizzling pan of a local Paella version using thin spaghetti instead of rice and an inky dark rice and squid dish along with a portion of local fava beans cooked with the ubquitous and delicious finely sliced ham, which even we eat - even though we've seen all over the ad for the ham, which includes a delicate little hoof sticking out as a kind of handle… We're sitting outside in the sun at a pavement restaurant, and when the sun moves we decide to go to an old Teteria, an Arab teahouse, where I drink a Boabdil tea, in honor of the last emir, who, according to Washington Irving,

in his Tales of the Alhambra, which I have been reading, unjustly was accused of beheading more than thirty of his rivals…We also fall upon a selection of Arabian sweets!

Then our hosts leave and the four of us continue to walk around the city, wondering why there are so many tea shops near the cathedral

which we forego for the smaller Capilla Real, which contains the mausoleum of Isabel and Fernando, and also their actual coffins. We also head into the old Palacio de la Madraza, which, interestingly has glass floors to show the excavated ancient stone floors and pavements, and fine pale woodwork on every available surface

On our way out Oswaldo stops to admire an amazing and very still human statue.

I linger a bit to watch a kind of changing of guard, as the silver guy breaks his pose and makes room for a new character with expressive face staring out behind matted black hair and covered in a black cape. As he fidgets to get the right pose, his dog, a slender boxer stands still with her head bowed. She looks like she's in for a long chilly haul. He sees my interest and says I can pet her. Her name is Kiri and she leans into me as I scratch her expertly. When I leave and look back, her head is bowed again and she stands as still as her master.