Mondays in most cities are not good days for sightseeing...most sights are closed! But most shops are open...
I've decided that shopping centers and supermarkets offer an excellent way of peering into a culture. On Monday morning I took myself off to Corte Inglese, a huge department store downtown from Granada's center. It's one of those five floor jobs, with women's accessories on floor 1, women's clothes on floor 2, the men's department on floor 3, and so on. While I did mosey round the women's section for a bit - and came away with two summer cosies on sale! - the really interesting floor was the "supermarket" in the basement!
It's really just a regular supermarket, with a fresh produce section - beware the e.coli lettuce - a bakery, meat section, fish section and then all the non-perishable stuff inbetween. In many ways, it looks a lot like Pick 'n Pay. But then you start to look closely...
I've always found the BBC cooking shows a little frustrating because the chefs use all these amazing, seemingly exotic ingredients, that us mere mortals couldn't dream of accessing...well, all those ingredients are in Corte Inglese! (And probably a whole lot of them with be in the local corner store here as well!) Artichokes and endives, pomegranates, all different types of tomatoes, beautiful baby broad beans...And then you get to the seafood counter...Real, fresh fish - not that scary stuff buried in ice at the Checkers counter that you take an isle-wide detour to avoid - and different types of fish. Prawns, shrimps, fresh crayfish swimming around - "Yes, I'm justing popping down to my local supermarket to select a crayfish!" - clams, mussels, other things in shells that I don't know the name of. Once you've made it past the fish, it's the meat section...here you can buy a nicely cleaned and packaged sheep's head...I did say that supermarkets offer an interesting window into different cultures. You can also pick up an entire leg of cured ham...trotter included! Then of course you still have the cheeses...I counted at least thirty different cured and smoked cheeses. Oh, and they sell divine little custard puddings in little terracota pots - for the same price as the stff they sell in plastic!
So, after all this looking at food and wandering through the numerous stores of Corte Inglese, it was time for bite to eat before siesta...I found a very quaint little pub and settled in to dine under the watchful eye of El Torro...thankfully, I was having a ham sandwich!
On Tuesday morning I headed out to the Parque de las Ciencias, or Science Park. I ended up spending the entire day here! There was a fascinating exhibition on the works of M. C. Escher, who produced the most amazing images and studies using mathematics, architecture and perspective. The exhibition traced his interest and transition from still life to the manipulation of reality through optical illusion and impossible designs.
The park also had a wonderful display on the history of taxidermy as an art and science. The gallery included a herd of mountain goats leaping through the air!
I also visited the exhibition on the human body, the butterfly garden, the exhibit on the history of Spanish military aviation as well as the numerous interactive science exhibits. All in all, a really great way to spend, what turned out to be, a rather cold and rainy day in Granada!
I had to include this last picture here...When R. and I were in Granada about two weeks ago, we were walking back to the hotel one evening and almost bumped into this ginger and white cat hanging out the window. At first I thought he might be stuck, but then realised that he was, literally, just hanging out. Earlier today, when I was walking back to the hotel, I saw him again - obviously this is a prime people-watching spot!
Now im jealous!!!! and missing you!!!
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