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| Our journey: Altea, Gibraltar, Malaga, San Pedro, Ronda |
It was sad to leave little old Kuki cat with her arthritic hips and her
demands for food she wouldn't eat and to go out which she didn't do,
particularly as she did go out in October, when the cleaner accidentally let
her out and she was lost for 13 days. She was such a funny cat, showed no
interest in Strictly come dancing, with lots of movement and changes of light,
but as soon as Blue Planet 2 came on she was absolutely fixated!
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| Kuki cat watching Blue Planet II |
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| Lunch with Jean and Jimmy in Malaga |
An easy journey to Malaga, except for the last 10 minutes, to get to the
apartments, interesting set of one way streets, though as it turns out not as
interesting or narrow as the streets here in Ronda!
Still we arrived, checked in, parked the car and were only a few minutes
late to meet Jean and Jimmy. It was lovely to see them and catch up, we had a
late lunch before they walked us round the port and shopping areas. We picked
our spot to watch the Christmas lights to music, twice nightly performances,
first at 18.30. Very good, glad they'd mentioned it, as we may well have missed
it if we'd been on our own. Back to our little apartment with a beer and some
roasted chestnuts as neither of us was hungry.
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| Christmas lights and music in Malaga |
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| The Alcazabra in Malaga |
Up the next morning to our free walking tour (never actually free, but
you pay what you think they deserve) which was on despite it being a public
holiday, Constitution day. He was an interesting bloke, though B found him a
bit difficult to hear and to understand, I thought he was good. Quick bite of
lunch before going to the two castles, Alcazaba and Gibralfaro, that'll be more
walking, and more up then! Another 16km.
Met J&J at 18.00, not to watch the lights again, though lots of
people were going to. Finding each other was tricky! Got our dinner before they
all headed into the bars though so that was good!
Next morning, off to Ronda, but the usual route is virtually past
J&J's door, so we took them home to San Pedro, near Marbella. Saw their
current rental apartment and the outside of the one they are buying, that we
have been invited to stay in when we next come visit. Really nice atmosphere in
the town, so look forward to that.
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| Malagas bullring from the Gibralfaro |
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| The battlements of the Gibralfaro |
40 minutes to Ronda through some lovely scenery, up wiggly windy roads,
though I guess in a car not as bad as the bus Denise and Paul normally come in
that she had warned me about! Until we arrived in town, the sat nav didn't know
that the 'New Bridge', the reason most people visit, was closed to traffic! We
found what we thought was a parking space eventually, and blundered up hill to
the Airbnb and Irene.
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| Picassos statue in his Malaga birthplace (with some random children!) |
Nice lady, we are in her room, which is huge, with a
great balcony, but absolutely freezing, the whole house, typing is becoming a
struggle! On talking to her though, perhaps our car parking space is not so
good, the old town is only for permit holders. We confirmed this with the very
helpful receptionist of a hotel near the car who said we could drive over the
Arab bridge! Glad she told us, we'd never have done it on spec! Fortunately we
didn't meet anyone coming the other way down the narrow road to get into the
new town, into the street she said we could park in, where there fortunately
was a space!
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| Malagas unfinished cathedral. The right hand tower is finished, but the left hand tower is not there, and apparently never will be. The roof is also unfinished, but apparently there are plans afoot to build that |
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| The roman theatre & Alcazaba in Malaga |
Irene had recommended her local tapas bar for supper, but it had closed
after lunch, and didn't open again till 20.15, so we nipped off to get some
wine and crisp to wait. We were second in the queue outside La Lechugita (the
little lettuce) when it opened it's doors, and it's just as well. Every seat
was taken in a flash. It was a great place, we were given a list of the tapas
they did, the majority of whichever were 80 cents, you circle what you want and
somehow pass it to the barman along with your drink order, which gets added to
the paper and you wait, and your food gets waved in your general direction from
the bar and you collect it! 4 dishes and two big glasses of wine in round one,
we went for one glass of wine and three dishes in round two. By this time we'd
been befriended by a guy who had obviously had a drink or two, but loves the
English (which includes those from Edinburgh and Glasgow) and seemed keen to
practice his English. Two of our three dishes turned up, along with a glass of
wine each from the guys friends for entertaining him I guess, and the evening
went with a bang!
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| Jean & Jimmys new apartment in San Pedro |
We struggled to the bar to pay, it would have been really easy just to
walk out but that didn't even cross our minds, though I did have to point out
that we never got our third dish, so he just crossed it off. €10.80 the bill
came to. Tapas can end up expensive, but not in this case!
Straight into bed, which was warm enough, but very hard to get up out
of, though fortunately by the time B had made coffee the sun was on the
balcony, so we ate our breakfast out there which was actually very pleasant.
Off to begin the 16km we've walked today, lots of little paths, down the
gorge, up the gorge, round the gorge, through the old town, round the old
town......there are many pictures, but actually not that many words!
I guess I'll have to wait for him to finish culling his pictures and
post this and then, if we are not blocks of ice, we'll go out and find some
dinner. Probably more tapas as it does seem to be the tapas capital of Spain!
Expect it to be really busy as it's another public holiday today, the day of
the Immaculate Conception, so there have been lots of people about!
A panorama from the gorge
