A patron of Granada, San Juan worked with the mentally ill and the sick. Specifically, he founded the Order of Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God and the church is connected to a hospital. I was planning on having a lazy day, but the Peruvian-American family I hung out with last night raved about the church. The church was indeed incredibly ornate, gilded gold, and intricate. They had a free audio guide which was super informative. I don't really get audio guides unless they're free, but this wasn't too cumbersome.
What is also interesting about the church is the main altarpiece is in front of a large enclave and tabernacle. This tabernacle holds the remains of San Juan de Dios. Only at certain times are you allowed to enter and go up and behind the altarpiece to see the ornate tabernacle that is the reliquary of San Juan de Dios. At this point, the audio guide was a little too informative. There were also the skulls of other saints that were supposedly sent from Rome to make the church even holier. Here's a photo of the main altar (you can kind of see the tabernacle behind it) and the gilded pulpit:
Afterwards, I headed to San Geronimo Monastery which is one block away. There were holding a concert in the church as part of the International Dance and Music Festival of Granada, so I didn't get to go inside the church. As such, they only charged me half-price and the courtyard filled with orange trees were lovely as you can see from the photo:
I then walked up to the Triunfo Gardens, walked by the Royal Hospital, and over to Elvira Gate. This is all part of Nueva Granada and near the large university campus here. There were college buildings sprinkled around in the neighborhood with students walking around as well.
As I was walking, I saw a bachelors party walking by. I was warned by the Peruvian family that the traditions were interesting. Earlier yesterday, I saw a group in animal costumes - the lobster dancing to La Bamba comes to mind. Today, this group was wearing a white shirt, black pants, and the groom-to-be wore a black tube top, a blonde wig, and was carrying a blow up doll. Why they walk around during the day beats me!
I then walked down to Gran Vía and stopped by Mercado San Augustin suggested by the family I met yesterday which was more of a real market than a food court that I was used to. I didn't see anything I wanted to eat, so I headed to Via Colon, a restaurant we walked by yesterday and has a large projection screen. The family mentioned they wanted to watch the European Champinship game here which was on tonight. I ordered a tinto verano and a BLT.
After lunch, I took the #1 bus back to my hotel and rested in my hotel lobby. My train wasn't until 5:30 pm, so I caught up on the interweb and then got ready to leave. I was originally planning on taking a taxi, but since I had a lot of time to kill, I decided to take the #5 bus to the train station. In getting off the bus and as I was walking to the station, I thought I was in a bad neighborhood, as all the shops were closed and there was graffiti everywhere. And then it dawned on me they were all closed for the midday break!
The train took over three hours to Sevilla and my train was over 30 minutes late. I got off at the Sevilla - San Bernardo stop and walked a few blocks to the Hotel Mélia. Here's a photo of the southern Spanish countryside:
The lateness of my train cramped my plans to go find a cool bar to watch the European Championship League soccer match between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. I got to celebrate with the Atlético Madrid fans near my hotel last week when they advanced.
I ended up going to the hotel bar / restaurant that was filled with Real Madrid fans. I had a local beer called CruzCampo and a hamburger. The game was super exciting as if it were the Yankees playing the Mets in the World Championship! The news showed pictures of the empty streets of Madrid as presumably everyone's watching the game. Unfortunately, Fuente de Neptuno where Atlético Madrid fans celebrate, won't have the rally like I experienced last week. But I hadn't been excited for soccer in a long time, and with the World Cup in Brazil just around the corner, hopefully I'll get more psyched! The game is indeed exciting, but the guys are pretty cute too!
No comments:
Post a Comment