The Great Flamenco Adventure

We continued our tourist trek by deciding to go to a Flamenco dinner and show. Little did we know what was in store for us… da da da dum… Another hair raising bus trip! This time the bus was newer, and filled with fellow tourists, a very young guide, and a very angry driver. I guess he did not want to drive in the rush hour.

Manhattan has NOTHING on Granada when it comes to grid-lock! Try streets at up to a 50% slope AND only one car wide, with tight curves and a real lot of scrapes and dents in the walls! The other side of the wall is a looonng drop to the next layer of street curving up the hill.
And our driver liked to GO FAST!!

It took an hour and a half to pick up the 20 or so guests at different hotels throughout the city. The driver kept making wrong turns and getting into fights with the guide. The guide kept trying to smooth things over. Mom and I made the mistake of sitting in the front seat (again…) witnessing all the close turns, near misses and arguments (not really – it was probably not as bad as we thought, we just were going on tone, not words).

By the time we got to our show, we were pretty shook up. Then we had to walk up a steep incline and go into a building built into a cave. Granada Flamenco is performed by the gypsies, who used to live in the caves in the hills. Atmosphere, you know.

The food was really good, the service was good, and the show was really good. The show was by the family of El Gallo, consisting of six women, who were related. They took turn dancing very gracefully with lots of hand action, and turn, but the real effect was with their stomping feet, making lots of noise along with the hand clapping of the other dancers, and the gypsy songs, and a flute and Spanish guitar music.. Very dramatic and most enjoyable.

Even the eldest lady, Mama, stomped up a storm to show she still had gusto plus. After the show, we had to walk further up the “street” to see Alhambra at night, a beautiful sight! My photo didn’t turn out so well, but I hope you can get the idea.

Then there was the bus trip back… without the guide… the good news was there was not any traffic, and we were the third hotel stop. It did take me a while to go to sleep…

The Wedding is Tomorrow, today is beautification day. Sunday is travelling back to Great Britain and a boat to catch.