November 11, 2007

After our usual breakfast, we walked to the Cathedral for Sunday Mass and hoped-for organ music. The mass was in Spanish and lasted 30 minutes, including communion. I understood a few words, including a frequent reference to ‘Senior Christos’. Jesus? Like every church service I have ever been to, the parishioners were mostly old people. There was no organ music. Back at the hotel, Craig suggested that we go to see the actual Sacromonte. After a lengthy €1 bus ride, the route headed up into the foothills of the mountains. We got off at a dilapidated monastery and hiked on dirt paths to a peak far above Granada and La Alhambra. This brought us to an abandoned, terraced olive orchard with a cistern and other indicators that it had been a significant working orchard at one time (25 years ago?). We also noticed lots of rosemary and picked some. After we ‘took the summit’, led by Hannah and a few pictures, we started the long downhill walk, back to the hotel (after stopping for food at a roadside café). Back at the hotel, Leslie and I made our final preparations for leaving Granada. At the taxi stand, we had our final gelato, and then Leslie, Hannah and I all took turns crying. We really did not want to leave. After various taxies and busses, Leslie and I made it to a nice €65 hotel near the Malaga, Spain airport. It was in a very up-scale residential neighborhood, 3 blocks from the Mediterranean beach. We had the final bittersweet dinner of our Spain vacation (salad, olives, spaghetti, bread, wine, beer) and then slept well.