Local traditions and culture in Granada

Piononos are small pastries traditional in Santa Fe, a small town adjacent to Granada.

A pionono consists of a thin layer of pastry rolled into a cylinder, fermented with different kinds of syrup, crowned with toasted cream.

The creator of this pastry was Ceferino Isla. He was a patissier and a devout follower of the Virgin. He wanted to pay tribute to the Pope Pious IX (Pio nono in Spanish) when he proclaimed the dogma or the Immaculate Conception of Mary in 1858. Then, he decided to create a pastry with such a shape that remind the figure of a Pope: cylindrical and slightly dumpy appearance (soaked cake rolled on itself), dressed in white as the Pope (paper basket containing the soaked cake), and crown of sweetened and toasted cream on top of the cylinder (the zucchetto the Pope covers his crown with). The pastry should have also the name of the Pope.

The Pionono is just delicious. Don't leave Granada without trying.

Around Xmas there are a lot of markets and stands, specially in the Bib-Rambla and Pescaderia squares, near the Cathedral. There you will have the chance to meet locals which, even not talking much english, will surely find a way to be understood.

If you don't fancy a bottle or a large beer, just ask for 'una cana' (there should be a squiggle above the 'n' but my keyboard doesn't do it, so prounounced 'canya') and you will receive a small glass of beer, just right for a quick nip inbetween shopping or visiting the sites. I like this alot, a small wine glass sized ice cold beer is just right for me. I never drink beer here in the uk, as I don't fancy a chemical ridden bottle or a half pint/pint and don't forget, you nearly always get a free tapa with your cana in Granada.

"Credentials are reported to be available in Cordoba, again, only on weekdays and again from the office of the Cathedral. (I had a friend join us in Cordoba and made enquiries on his behalf about obtain his credentials, Unfortunately as it was a Saturday we were unable to obtain any but I was assured that they would have been available form the office of the Cathedral on any weekday) To find the office, stand with your back to the main entranace to the cathedral courtyard, turn left, and first left, you are now heading for the old Roman Puente across the river, the tourist office is to your right and the office of the Cathedral is in the next building towards the river.

Before you start to walk any “Camino” you need to obtain your “Credentials” This paper is also sometimes know as a “Pilgrims Passport”
On the lesser know Camino’s these can be somewhat problematic to get hold of, and without them you can’t stay in Perigrino accommodation or claim your Compostela when you eventually arrive in Santiago de Compostela.
I searched guidebooks and the internet before setting off for Granada and found no useful information available on this subject so made it a bit of a mission once there.
Credentials are available weekdays only from The Office of the Cathedral, This is an old building on the opposite side of the Cathedral to the main public entrance (The one you pay to see the Cathedral – we were initially told that you had to pay to go inside the cathedral and the office was inside !! – I was going to see the inside of the cathedral in any case so nothing was really lost)
The Building is unmarked but is a distinctive orange colour and has a large studded door with an arched top and poplar trees growing outside -You go into the building and there is an enquiry desk in front of you, we made enquiries here and were met with a somewhat vague response but someone in the office to the left realised what we were looking for and took us up one floor and the office that deals with issuing the Credentials is located to the front of the building. Cost is 2 Euro

In addition to the excellent food and drink at our little bar on Plaza Nueva, we also had a great view of some buskers who were entertaining passers-by in a large open area of the Plaza (with the lead busker seen here in the distance with his red top and black shorts pulled up past his waist). I have always enjoyed watching buskers but had not seen one perform in quite some time, so was pleased to be able to laugh at his juggling, fire-eating and various other antics. The show actually was taking place in front of the old Royal Chancellery at the left, built in 1530 but now used as the High Court.

The guy worked non-stop and had quite a crowd gathered around to watch his show. Unlike him, there were other street vendors (all appearing to be African) who actually came to the various tables trying to sell CDs they were carrying. We did not bite.

By pure chance, as we were finishing our walk through a part of the narrow streets of the Moorish Albaicin district, and had almost circled back to Plaza Nueva, we bumped into our new-found friend Sunny who we had first met that morning as we started out for the Alhambra tour! He mentioned that he had managed to find a venue featuring a Flamenco dancing performance, starting at about 9 PM that evening and asked us if we were interested in joining him. Even though we had not yet eaten, the ladies were over the moon with such fortuitous circumstances and I had never seen a Flamenco performance before, so we immediately accepted.

It was starting soon and we needed to buy tickets, so we all headed off in the darkness along the Rio Darro as we made our way back to the area where the show was to take place. We stopped at a couple of bars to ask for directions and eventually found the auditorium, where we had no problem buying the three tickets we needed for 5 Euros each. Sunny already had a ticket in a good section at stage level but our last-minute tickets put the three of us in the balcony. We were quite happy with both our bird's eye view and the acoustics as the show got underway. The music was great and it was interesting to see how the performance played out with the different female dancers getting up from their chairs to do their bits as the show built to its grand finale of the male dancer on the left also doing a great routine. The other male performers were strictly musicians - and they too really knew what they were doing! No photos or videos were allowed but I did slip in this single shot with the flash 'Off'.

According to Wikipedia, Flamenco is "known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance genre characterized by its audible footwork" but the origin of its name remains unclear. It is believed to have evolved from a combination "of native Arabic, Andalusian, Sephardic, and Gypsy cultures that existed in Andalusia following its reconquest in the late 1200s and the dance form gradually spread throughout Spain over the following centuries."

We were quite pleased with our lucky turn of events as we made the late-night walk back to the Plaza, where the ladies retired for the night while I had a beer and tapas with Sunny in a bar before also bidding him adieu.

It is customary to eat very late in Spain - restaurants don't really get going until around 9.00 p.m. or later. If your digestion (or greed, as in my case!) finds this difficult, don't worry, you can either go on a tapas crawl instead, or eat in one of the restaurants in the Plaza Bib Rambla, where they are used to the strange habits of tourists. I had dinner at 7.45 p.m. one night at 'Manolo' - and it was very good (to my surprise both better and cheaper than the traditional restaurant where we had dined at 10.00 p.m. the previous night).