got to the hotel after a long drive to and in the city. It was very
difficult to find the hotel. Once we got there, the receptionist
explained the parking garage was close if walking but not close while
driving due to one way streets. She gave me a map and said follow the
arrows to the garage. A car blocked the first part of the route, so
the arrow plan failed immediately. Even with the arrows, the unmarked
streets would have made navigation difficult. The streets are
sometimes marked with a plaque on the side of the building and
sometimes not at all. Sometimes the plaque is instead the name of the
building. It's hard to tell even when walking what street you are on
and where you want to turn. I've seen the same road change names five
times in a mile. Again the GPS, when it finally found satellites over
the tall buildings, saved the day. The construction, the one way
streets again, etc. had me arriving back at the hotel 25 minutes
later. It seemed like record time with the narrow, hilly streets,
dotted with pedestrians, which kept me in first gear a lot of the
time. The streets are filled with impatient drivers behind me, crazy
mopeds swarming around me, and pedestrians stepping in front of me.
As the crow flies, I had traveled about 100 m for an average speed of
about 1.5 miles/hour, the land velocity of a man with a walker, with
the basket in the front full.
We took a bus up the hill to Alahambra, a castle fortress with a
history involving the Moores-(the Mooks as the George would say around
the Bubble Boy). The Gardens were the nicest parts, with copious
flowing water and fountains and plants growing over trellises to
provide some wonderful shade.
We eventually had to run into the stereotypical German tourist. He was
seated with his camera pointed when Jenny walked across his camera's
line of sight. "Dunkeschon," he ironically scowled. Jenny answered,
"Excuse me" in German to let him know she understood. (Avoiding
stepping into people's pictures accidentally is a full time job in
touristy areas. But with the advent of digital cameras, it shouldn't
be a big deal). We went back to the very nice hotel, which Dana told
us was not really a hostel because of its amenities.
Which brings us back to toilet technology:
the hostel toilet and some others featured a bifurcated flush button
for deciding how much flush you need-the small button for you know and
a big button for you also know.
-D
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