From Cordoba, daughter/mother team took the bus for Granada. The travel was around 3 hours. The sceneries gave a feeling of calmness. As we reached Granada, we noticed two female tourist from Japan whom we had casual conversation when we were at Campers shoe store in Arguelles. And of course, typical female reaction of jumping and saying things "Oh, my gosh, I could not believe to see you here!." Before we boarded a cab, we checked whether a bus leaves from the station to Algeciras and probably that is the only bust station in Granada. As we boarded a cab and told him where we were going, he said he does not know how to get there and he got of his cab and asked fellow cabdrivers how to get to our destination. The bus station in Granada is not near the center of town. We paid 1,000 pesetas from the bus station to our host's house. We did a home stay in Granada that is staying at someone's house. Our host Simon, is British, who teaches at the University in Granada and his wife, Rosa, is Spaniard, Their house is a typical townhouse that we usually have in the U.S but the materials used are better. For example the stairs are marble, marble flooring and kitchen is surrounded with designed porcelain tiles. We did not expect for Granada to be colder than Madrid and we were not prepared for such cold temperature. We stayed in one of the first floor rooms. Mind you, the house does not have a central heating but was comfortable provided you have extra layer of clothing. They have a cat named "Blanca", a white fur cat. She is very friendly! We arrived just on time for lunch. Simon prepared a delicious lunch of steak fish sautéed in mushroom and typical fried potatoes. After lunch we had for desserts an assortment of cheese and I was taken by surprised to eat cheese for dessert. My daughter said, it is typical in Spain to serve an assortment of cheese for dessert. Simon gave us a map and directed us where to take the bus from his house to the city. After lunch, we ventured out to discover Granada. As we were walking towards the bus stop, we noticed that the streets were Ecuador (address of our host); Peru, Mexico and so. While waiting for a bus, a friendly 65-year old man, spoke to me and I responded "hablo poquito espanol". As always, daughter had to give this brief explanation of my background. As we boarded the bus to downtown, Granada, this old man told my daughter how the city is divided and invited us to have cafe con leche with him downtown which daughter gladly accepted. We all got off at a Plaza and proceeded to the bar and had cafe con leche with this jolly old man. He told us that Granada's problem is drug and because of drug, there is an increase of beggars and homeless people. As we were having our cafe con leche, a young man went inside the bar and asked for money so he could buy food. The owner of the bar told this young guy probably mid 20s not to bother his customers. This old man told us that one time, he bought food for a beggar that included bread with meat and sauce and cafe con leche. The beggar threw the food in the trash. As we walked to locate a tourist office, a young boy approached my daughter and pretended to be lost After a few exchange of words, he told us he has lived in Alabama where his father, a pilot is under this exchanged program with U.S. Air force. He showed the city of Granada, the cathedral where Fernando and Isabel where buried. We walked to Albacyn (I hope this a correctly spelled), the white village and in front of a church, we saw several beggars sitting asking for alms. What I found amusing that most of them have nice looking dogs. The street was very narrowed and walking up was quite tiresome. Walking down hill was easier. Granada is not as alive as Madrid or Sevilla. The next day, we made sure that were at the gate of Alhambra to buy our tickets. We chose to take the mini-buses up to the Alhambra and I'm glad we did. We would not have managed to climb up and still have the energy to see the Castle, tower and the garden. To our surprise, there were several buses of tourists from Japan and senior citizens from the U.S.A. The Alhambra is out of this world and you can really feel that you are going back in another time. The architecture is just magnificent. The mosaic tiles looks so delicate and exquisite. The courtyard gardens with fountains are so refreshing. One advice - have good walking shoes and if you have weak knees, a cain would be helpful.