Granada 13th October

This afternoon we headed into Granada lateish, we went to the Science Museum. In hindsight we didn't leave enough time for such a big and interesting place, but we didn't realise that at the time. Our first stop was just in the courtyard where we stopped to pose with Einstein as pictured below.

This was one of two of these "discs" about 50 metres apart. When standing inside one, if you whispered, anyone standing in the other one could hear what you said. Hilary, Di and Jo had fun with this.

The second part of the Escher exhibition was on display here, I forgot to say but that was one of the highlights of our trip to the Alhambra too, there was an escher exhibition on temporary display there, complete with a number of his drawings and a very good film about/of his drawings. In this part of the exhibition there were a few dozen of his works, they really are fascinating, though Hilary struggled with them because I guess she couldn't understand them, they didn't fit into a particular box, or they just didn't work. Not sure, she got quite twitchy watching them though and really wanted to "get it".

In the room of mirrors.

Part of the modern building which houses the exhibitions

Diana standing on the "heat detector" spot, which was then projected onto a screen.

At the museum there were excellent displays, many about the human body with sections on genes, anatomy, senses and many others. As I said, we didn't allow nearly enough time for more than a cursory glimpse at a few sections before we had to head off for the "bird of prey" demonstration. Again, in hindsight, it wasn't the best use of our time as the commentary was completely in Spanish, and though it was interesting watching the birds do their thing, we missed out on a lot. Once there we couldn't escape without being very rude though so we had to sit still, even though the bloke went on for 45 minutes and we knew closing time was approaching! It is a bit naughty actually, the museum closes up many of the exhibits 30 minutes before closing, so though it says the museum is open until 5 I think it was, we couldn't get to do anything other than look in the shop after the bird display as the viewing tower, butterfly house, and other things we wanted to see had closed. Very disappointing.

We had a date with the Alambra for a night-time visit to the Palaces for tonight so we walked back up that way, stopped for a pizza and beer at a little bar/cafe before heading up the road in the darkness to the side door which was closer to where we needed to be than the main gates (it is a huge complex). We waited on the wall in the warm evening, glittering lights of the town below, and the castle walls bathed in golden (artificial light) until 10.30 when we were allowed to go inside for our visit. It was certainly beautiful, impossible to get photos though as it was very dim inside and there were lots of people crowded around. The plasterwork and tiling and pillars were great though,  though the climax "the patio of the lions" was all ripped up as they are renovating the fountains etc. which I found very disappointing and frustrating, as I hadn't realised and had really been looking forward to that part.

The visit lasts about an hour and a half I think, which is actually plenty of time, but I had visions of superb photos like the ones you see on postcards, and it wasn't to be (at all).

A turret from the Alcazaba

Granada through window arches

A very dark Patio de Arraynes