Dancing in the City...

Because the gates of the Alhambra are locked at night, most of the guests at the Parador Hotel choose to do "half-board" and eat dinner on-site.

We learned the hard-way that booking dinner at 9pm (considered early for Spain, where the summer sun doesn’t set until after 11pm!) is not the smartest as the entire hotel shows up for dinner at that time.

As such, three and a half hours later we were just about finished our meal.

Nonetheless, watching the sun slowly and finally set over the Palacio de Generalife (aka. The Summer Palace)  was exquisite and delightful.

The gorgeous Palacio de Generalife

In addition, the slow dinner pace also gave us the opportunity to hear some of the Poeta En Nueva York performance that was taking place in the grounds of the Summer Palace.  The music sounded intense and spirited and piqued our interest about the show.

As such, we booked tickets for the next night.

Thinking that we had outsmarted the system by booking online rather than waiting for an hour at the ticket office, we were alarmed to find out only a couple of hours before the show that we would need to go to an El Corte Ingles (a large department store) to pick-up the printed tickets.  As such, our early and leisurely dinner was turned onto its side and we hopped into a cab to hurry into town.

Hammering down our meals and skipping dessert, we faced another set back as the gate we expected to go through to get to the venue was already locked for the night.  This left us running to the main entrance gate, down the hill and then all the way back up again to make it – panting and hot – to the performance venue.

Unbelievably, we made it to the concert only a few minutes after the start-time but before the performance actually started. As we watched ten minutes go by with the performance still "to begin shortly", we thought longingly about the tempting desserts we had left behind.

Although we didn’t really understand the show – not just the talking parts but also how the different pieces of the show actually fit together – the dancing was innovative and skillful and the routines captivating.  But it was the open-air venue and historical backdrop that made the evening truly memorable.  And as we walked back – slowly – to our hotel after the show, we both agreed that the chaos and running around was totally worth it!

The Parador Hotel