Day 5

THE RECKONING!!!

I assume I don't have to describe what food poisoning is like.  It turns out we all deal with it in our own way.  Mine was a middle of the night rush to sit on the toilet where I assumed I would pass on to the next life.  Since sweet death didn't come I made it back to the bed to flip flop between cold sweats and chills.  Rebecca was very kind and sweet and we were both glad she came out unscathed.  However, hers was a mad dash to face the commode where she got to visualize all of the squid ink in Christendom (as well as a random grilled red pepper apparently).  She claims that with European's tendency to not have water in the toilet bowl she could see a wonderful panoply of chewed up baby squid perfectly presented amidst the black muck blanketing the bowl..We spend the entire day in bed in and out of sleep and hallucinations.  We barely spoke a dozen words to one another.  The reason to come to Granada was to tour the Alhambrah but that clearly wasn't going to happen. But there was no other choice but to wait for things - and I mean ALL things to pass.

At around 4:00 Rebecca said she was determined to make our appointment for 8:00 to go to the Turkish bath.  I was doubtful but I hobbled to the reception to order us some sports drinks and bottles of water and cokes.  We set an alarm for 7:00 and continued to go in and out of sleep.


Here was our view as we gingerly made it down the hill. 

And here is Rebecca standing outside of the Hammam al Andalus Granada.  One of the most magical places on earth!

-+

There was no chance to take pictures inside but if you google it the pictures are exactly as it is.  It's like a movie set.  They limit the number of people at a time so we never saw more than 5 people at a time.  You shower and then go from a luke warm pool to a hot pool to a cold pool to a steam room and then hang out in whichever one you want. The entire place is stone and marble and lit by candle light with Islamic music playing in the back ground.  I was amazed at how impeccably clean everything was.  After an hour or so you are let to a hallway with alcoves where you lie down on your back and are washed.  First you're soaped up with a scented soap of your choosing and then bowl fulls of hot water are poured on you to rinse you off.  After that, a large bag of bubbles are squeezed over you and you are covered in bubbles.  They wear a very scratch mitt to then scrub you down. It's exquisite.  When they're done you roll over and the whole thing starts over again.  We had opted for 15 minute massages once the washing was done.  The one and a half hours in there completely washed away (see what I did there?) the last 20 hours of misery and we felt ourselves again.  Just look at us!

It was easily one of the best things we've ever done.  At $150 I'm glad a place like this isn't readily available to me or I would be a very poor man!

Afterwards we walked around and took in Granada on a Saturday night.  It was bustling.  We split an ice cream cone, still not trusting ourselves with real food. 

I gave an advertisement some love.

By bed time we pretty much felt normal if a little gun shy.  We split a croissant and strawberry jam before bed.  Tomorrow, Seville.