Week One… A new adventure

Dec.30-31st- Wow, what a couple of long days of sitting. The flights themselves weren’t all too bad, read a little, watch a couple of movies, etc. Its the lay overs of five hours that are the killers.

Madrid airport is super modern. Beautiful ceiling, nice and clean. However their seating, which there is no lack of, is all hard plastic or metal. Not real comfy to say the least. We were able to get a SIMS card there for a special rate. Three months with 10 gigs a month for $50.00 euros. More than what we should need. Good for Google maps for getting around.

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We took a nice walk after getting settled in to see what was in the near vicinity. Found a beautiful huge park just a few blocks downhill towards the ocean. There were chickens running loose everywhere and we even spied a couple of rabbits in the bushes. Took a turn towards what we thought to be Bechnal Beach, only to find it was the name of big “resort” and no way to get to the ocean. Nice view though. We will know which way to go tomorrow.

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Dinner time most things were closed up so we went for the Chicken guy on the corner. Great roasted 1/2 chicken and chilled potatoes and a coke, $8.00. Not bad. Bill “passed out” before 8:00 totally exhausted. I made it til 11:00.

New Year’s eve was less than expected and very un-eventful. Per a website a brought my “glasses” and mask, and headband. LOL. I was the only one walking around in them after dark. Watch next year it will be all the rage. I did get a nice comment from a gentleman. So the big thing was on one of the side pedestrian streets was a mob party. People jam packed in with a d.j. and huge speakers, and way too much alcohol. Saw a man peeing against a building. Not the norm I’m sure. After ten it got real quiet, and then a few bang bangs at mid night and that was it. We understand this evening is for family and house parties. We saw a lot of people dressed and walking some where. Little girls in dresses, heels, men in suits.

The Christmas lights are all lit and looks very festive. Our hotel is on a pedestrian street and we have lights all up and down. A great sight off of the balcony.

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Jan. 1, 2019 Tues. After what ended up being a 36 hr day for me turned into a late sleep in. It took me a while to get up and get with it. A very nice cup of good coffee took care of the trick about 10:00! We started out walking down hill to the ocean. Passed thru a very nice, large park. The park was full of chickens and roosters, and rabbits sneaking around.

We weren’t on the beach very long before we somehow started chatting with a woman from Switzerland. Did you know they speak four different languages there? I didn’t. She prattled on and on for a while. Filling us in on all kinds of things. She has friends here and has been coming for quite some time. Very nice, very friendly.

There are dogs here, EVERYWHERE!!! Literally. Some people have two and three. We talked with a woman that has three, two being a hunting greyhound breed. She chatted for quite a while also.

The Malacon ( boardwalk) goes for Miles! Today we walked about 7.5 miles of it. Shops, stores, beer, ice cream,restaurants, etc. I can only imagine how crazy it must be here in the summer as about 25-30 % of the places are closed for the winter.

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We walked ourselves into a needing lunch break, and it was New Year’s Day after all so……a little bubbly was in order. We also had an order of fresh sardines, and calamari.

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Marina District

After an hour and some it was time to keep moving along the Malacon. We found the Marina. Voted one of the best in the World. Beautiful setting to say the least. Once again all kinds of shopping, etc.

 

some shots along the way back to our place.

 

On the way back to the room we cut through the big park again and found more things there. A playground for the children, farm animals, sculptures, cactus garden, and the darn rabbit again. Can you run faster than a white rabbit?

 

Jan. 2, 2019 Wed- Birthday Day! yea. I had brought cards from home with me so I had something to open. Facebook had many wonderful wishes from you all. Thank you so very much. So nice to be thought of by you.

Just up the street near the train station. (two blocks) is a church and Cultural Arts center. We popped inside both to see. The church is small and beautiful. The art center had a huge nativity set up. With running water and all. Must have taken a long time to set up.

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Bill and I finally had some rest and we were good to go again today. We decided to take the train in to our next “flop” to see how far away it was, etc. We found it, eventually, and found a couple of ladies in the lobby looking to help two confused strangers. The one lady has been coming down for 9 years the other for 20. NICE BRITTS. Sure seems to be a huge amount of them here. The area is VERY different than in Benalmadena. Not sure I like the area, but it will be nice to finally have a kitchen, etc. And, it will be much larger. The building is an old hotel that sold off suites to Condos. Can’t wait to get inside.

So, after that we headed down to the beach and Malacon again. After walking a ways we stopped off for some lunch. I had decided I wanted fish and chips for my birthday. We had a wonderful fillet. We happened to sit next to a pair of chaps that were travel savvy and have been all over the world. SO, make a long story shorter, they yapped and yapped. Ben was from Austraila and Martin from the U.K. They had lots of neat stories from some of the places they have been. Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Peru, etc. Time went way too fast. We needed to start for the trek back, as were too sure how much further we had gone by train to walk back. Turned out it was over 11 miles and took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the room. Needless to say we were both bushed. We stopped after about an hour for some birthday ice cream and landed in front of a man playing guitar and singing. Nice sea side touch. The ice cream was the creamiest I have ever experienced.

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Jan. 3rd Thurs,- Moving day. on to our next flop. Before hauling our luggage, we decided to get a full breakfast. Best darn breakfast wennies I have ever had. Also spied some nice valencia orange trees that were loaded. I was quite proud of myself for purchasing the correct train ticket all in Spanish. We moved four train stops closer to Malaga near the village of Torremolinos. Here we have a flat on the six floor with nice view of the mts. and ocean Still about the same distance from the water. About a 15 mins walk down hill. Our land lord is very nice and young. This building used to be a hotel and sold out flats (condos) in the 80’s just before the collapse of the real estate market. Richard bought here a few years ago and has been with Air B&B for five years. This is a totally different feel of neighborhood as it is more residential than touristy. It is about twice the size of the last place and has a mini kitchen and washer. It should be just fine for the next three weeks before we move on down the coast.

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We found the local grocery store and opted to hike down the hill to the bigger store. That too is about 15 mins. Less than 20 mins. up hill with bags. Below are pics of this flat.

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Bill fiddled with the remote for the t.v. long enough to figure out how to change the language on the audio. He has had a little experience with this before and knew where to start looking. So after 35 mins. of frustration he was able to get 10 channels in English. Plenty for me. I made spaghetti for dinner and it was yummy!

Jan. 4th, 2019 Fri.- We threw a load of laundry in and got it laid out on the drying rack ( no dryers as elec. is so expensive) and took off for Torremolinos by train to get the lay over there. Just one stop away. All the shopping anyone could ever ask for and then some. If you can’t find it there, they don’t make it! Period. Stopped at a nut store and had some fabulous almonds. Unlike any we get in the U.S. The seafood counter at the grocery store is crazy. We went into San Miguel church. Very modern inside. Puttered around and ended up walking down to the beach and strolling our way towards our area. We popped into the Posiden where we had met Martin and Ben two days ago only to run into a lady we had met in the lobby of our flat two days ago also. She remembered us and we yapped. She had her in-laws with her. Interesting couple. They are Brits of course, and have had this flat for 35 years. Malcom is the president of the New Orleans jazz society. Crazy. You never know who you will meet while traveling. That’s one of the best parts.

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Jan. 5th Saturday- Our adventures took us into Malaga. A beautiful sea port city. First stop off the train was to find our way to the bus depot, as that is how we will be getting to our next destination. We walked thru a modern mall to get to the depot. Pulling luggage should be no problem.

After finding the “stations” we wound around the streets only to find ourselves inside a fresh market. Fruit, fish, meat, veggies, bakery, etc. As today was is the Feast of the Three Kings I had to get a slice of King cake. A wonderful sweet bread confection filled with whipped cream Yum Yum.

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Everything here is soooo clean. Not a cigarette butt, no paper wrappers, etc. The sidewalks, the trains, streets, buses, all. Nice to see in comparison to Panama.

Winding around the back streets we saw what looked like a pretty posh joint. We stepped inside only to find it was one of the local beer breweries. Deck out very nicely. Grand Rapids has nothing like this one guys! I thought it odd that the brewing operation itself wasn’t behind glass.

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Next stop was the Cathedral number One. Building began in 1530 worked ended in the 17th century but is still unfinished. Became a Cathedral when the Spanish conquered the Moors. The organ has 4,000 pipes. 276 feet high. The wood carvings are amazing, as is everything about the church. The paintings, sculptures, adornments, all a marvel.

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Leaving the church we stumbled upon another church. Church of the Nazarene. Very small yet beautiful.

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From there is was on the the Roman Theater. It appears much as it was back in the day. This is the oldest monument in Magala. Built in the 1st century under Emperor Augustus. It was buried for centuries and re-discovered in 1951. Sitting in the gallery it is easy to see the characters and actors come alive. This is all lit at night and I’m sure is a very beautiful sight. Above you can see Alcazaba Moorish Fortress. We are saving that for March.

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Being the Three Kings Feast, the floats were lined up along the parade route. Hundreds of pounds of sweets are thrown out to the crowd. we wouldn’t be staying til dark to see it however. Five hours off walking again today has slowed us down some. The floats are lit, and quite a sight I’m sure.

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The last stop for the day would be the port. Not as busy as I had thought. A nice U shaped port with stores and eating places all along. The big ship is the Mediterranian car ferry that goes to Moracco.

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Well guys, that’s it for the first week. If you are thinking man you should be tired, we are!!! Dani will be coming on the 11th and I am having her bring her fitbit. Anxious to see just how far we walk in a day. So far we are loving it here. The people couldn’t be nicer. The weather is great, and the food is very pleasing also. Hoping to shed a few pounds while we are here.