Granada-Day Three, I Guess!!


 Wednesday December 29th.
     Awoke ‘relatively’ early, with plans to head for Masaya before it got too hot. Ended up leaving a little later than planned (10:30am) The bus dropped us off at the edge of town and we made our first stop at a couple of guitar shops with the plan to buy a really good but really cheap Spanish guitar. While reviews on the net glowed with references to quality and sound, I was, sadly, less than impressed with what I saw, and even less impressed with the prices- $300-500 for anything decent. Scratching that purchase off my list we grabbed a taxi to the Malecon (walkway) at the west side of town. Overlooking Lake Masaya, it provided a perfect spot to see Volcan Masaya in the distance. Disappointingly, the volcano was not belching out smoke and volcanic ash, or at least not in a direction that could be seen from town.
  Heading back towards the city centre, several hammock makers were displaying their art in front of their homes. Since I already own two from previous trips (Mexico) I declined their multiple offers of  “ for you- the best price”
 After a stop in the Parque Central  [No, that is not a wood flooring store!] to visit the church (closed on my last visit) and a quick lunch of chicken fajitas we spent a couple of hours roaming the craft market. By some miracle we managed to leave without endangering the contents of my wallet.
 Dinner tonight was in, of all places, a German run establishment with the traditional German name of Charly’s Bar y Restaurante. Located down a dark side street on the far west side of town, we weren’t sure, at first if the taxi driver was taking us to dinner or to a mugging. Serving up everything from sauerkraut and schnitzel to venison we settled on a mixed skewer of various meats and vegetables. Our beverages were a contrast in sizes- a wheat beer came in a glass that you could almost bathe in, while a similarly priced piña colada came in something resembling a small champagne glass. Beverage size aside it was quite an enjoyable meal with enough leftovers to give a couple of stray dogs something to fight over once we got back to the main part of town.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salerno sin touristas!

Although originally planned as a quick overnight before Rome, Salerno turned into a two night stay that has turned out to be quite a nice break from the mad crush of tourists jamming the Amalfi coast. While the time we spent in Ravello was nice, even being a 30 minute drive above Amalfi did not spare us the cruiseship flocks who seemed to come by the busload.  Our B & B was, some 900 years earlier a Palace owned by a wealthy family. The B & B was built into the original structure and offered a reasonable degree of comfort if one didn't mind the hike up ancient stone stairways. The town itself is a small maze of streets wandering in all kinds of random directions over the sides of the mountain and offers some amazing views of the coast below. From the town there are several walking trails that lead to neighbouring villages on the mountains, or if one keeps going- all the way back to Amalfi and also Minori. Requiring some 45 minutes to an hour the trails wander off in differe...
Read more

Friday night, Istanbul

10pm Friday,          Seems we covered a whole lot of ground over the last few days and have the blisters to prove it.    A morning walk through Gullhane ( umlaut above the u!) was an easy way to walk off a mundane Turkish breakfast [9 kinds of olives, 8 kinds of mystery meat, stewed eggplant and various breads] The Turkish have clearly mastered the art of hard boiling eggs to the point that they will probably bounce if dropped on a hard surface= fried eggs? well let's say it seems to be a work in progress!    The park takes a route north through the section known as Seraglio Point and borders the western side of Topkapi Palace, the fortifications of which loomed high above us.   After leaving the park the route south continued uphill to an area known as Sultan Ahmet Square, an open courtyard with central fountain. To its north, the Hagia Sophia and to its south the Blue Mosque. An early attempt to enter the latter was postponed on seein...
Read more

Bye Bye Istanbul

Sunday night is being spent in Amsterdam,  or to be exact Hoofddorp, a suburb adjacent to the airport.   A dreary night awaited us when we arrived from Istanbul, and from weather reports, that is also what we can expect for the next few days.  We wrapped up the last couple of days in Istanbul with a Saturday morning visit to Topkapi Palace where I finally managed to see the section dedicated to the Holy Relics of the Prophet Muhammad. Under renovations on my last visit and blocked by massive queues of Muslims due to Ramadan in 2006, this was a case of 3rd time lucky. Worth the wait? I think so- where else are you going to see the Staff of Moses and the Sword of King David and bits of Muhammad's beard ( OK, Other than Ripley's Museum at Niagara Falls!)   True to form, the kitchens were closed on this visit.I dont think the palace is ever FULLY open to the public. At least the Harem was open but sadly there weren't any taste tests being offered!  An afternoon visi...
Read more