Our second day in Granada was scheduled to be unscheduled. So we got up a bit later than usual, had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, and then wandered out to see the Granada Cathedral and the burial place of Ferdinand and Isabella. Now that I'm writing this, there doesn't seem to be much difference between our scheduled days and our unscheduled days. Regardless, Granada is a very charming city. In the older section, where our hotel is located, there are scores of walking streets where cars are either not allowed at all or very limited. There are many, many shops, restaurants, takeaway windows, you name it. Most of the shops appear to be owned and run by individuals. Kind of like American cities used to be when there were main streets and no shopping malls. (They do have shopping malls in Spain just like we do!) It's really fun to just stroll aimlessly in these old areas and stop to see what's going on in the many plazas that dot the old city. Here are a few photos of the older area of Granada and of the Granada Cathedral.
Quiet evening street in Granada

Colorful display of fans in Granada

A guitar maker's shop in Granada; passersby can look on through a big picture window.

The pipe organ in the Granada Cathedral

After we visited the Cathedral we grabbed a light lunch (bocadillo (sandwich) of calamari (squid) for me), then we hiked a long narrow street to see the view of the Alhambra from the other side of the river. The view was spectacular: Then we kept hiking further up the hill to a ceramic factory where they make the traditional Granada pottery: Traditional Granada pattern pottery We all bought some mementos to take home with us.

Our afternoon walk took us a bit longer than we expected it would, and we called a cab to take us back to our hotel because we had purchased tickets to attend a 7pm flamenco show at the Teatro Flamenco de Granada. We did get there on time, but just barely. I was hoping for a good show but wasn't really expecting too much. There were only five artists participating: two singers, a guitarist, and two dancers. We were all completely blown away by the show. There is a word that is used to describe a really great performance which is "duende". It kind of means a mystical energy that comes over the dancers and by extension, the audience. These performers really had duende the night we saw them. We were all very glad that we attended the show. One of the ushers told us afterwards that the show is pretty much improvised all the way through and that the next performance would be quite different from what we saw. Here are a couple of photos Cath took at the show:
The flamenco dancers

The finale to the flamenco show.

So there you have the highlights of our free day in Granada. Slept very well that night. Which is good because we had to be up early to catch our bus to Cadiz the next morning.