Mad about Granada

OK, we actually live over the border in Jaen, but we're pretty close to Granada - the province - and Granada the city is nearer to us than Jaen the city. So we think of ourselves as living in Granada.

And today, we discovered another part of it that we really did like.

Remember a few weeks ago, we went into Granada to get new passports for the boys and met a wall of bureaucracy and a lot of road works? (Actually, I don't think I mentioned the roadworks but the whole of the 'south circular' was being dug up in order to put an underground Metro system in, which I don't really think Granada needs, but then, they didn't ask me, did they?)
Well, today, all went super-smoothly (up to a point and within context) and we came away with two new Spanish 'pasaportes' for each of the boys - it only took one and a half hours and the involvement of five 'officials' all of whom failed to tell us - until it was handed over - that we'd paid for a five year passport but Mateo's would be invalid when he reaches 14..... next year....however....we moved on and out.

In the expectation of things taking a while and as we'd had to take the children out of school anyway (the boys were delighted that they had to sign their passports AND have their fingerprints taken... I told them they'll have to be good from now on)..we'd brought a picnic. We like picnics.

Being so close to an area that looks so interesting everytime we've driven past, we decided to take our picnic to the lake at Beznar in the Lecrin Valley. There are about six or seven villages around this area, which is on the right of the motorway driving down to the coast, whereas the Alpujarras are to the left. They are different as chalk and cheese!

Gentle hills and plots of land full of orange and lemon trees were all around us - we stopped and collected handfuls of lemons and picked oranges up from the roadside. We even drove over some. From the motorway, we wound down a sloping road towards the lake - which is actually an embalse or pantano (reservoir) - and which today was turquoise and glistening in the sun, with a strong breeze whipping up some impressive waves across the surface.




And it was set up perfectly for picnicking, with tables and things for the children to play on and we were the only ones there.

This has to be one of my favourite pictures of all time

This little den became a centre for story telling - imaginations were running absolute riot. Never short of a good story to tell, Mateo used to lead and the others followed - now, they all can hold their own in the dramatic development of an idea.....

I wasn't listening - it was too windy - but suddenly, they saw the camera focused on them and sadly, it broke the spell of their game. I have no doubt though, that today was a very good day and one they will remember!

We'll come back here.