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| ARRIVAL IN MALAGA'S PASEO DEL PARQUE |
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| NOW, WHICH WAY UP DOES THE MAP GO? |
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| OUR APARTMENT NEAR PLAZA DE LA MERCED |
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| MALAGA RAILWAY STATION |
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| NEAR THE CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART |
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| EYE, EYE, BUT NOT IN LONDON |
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| CALLE MARQUES DE LARIOS |
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| RUBI PRACTISING HER FAVOURITE HOBBY |
It's February 2018, and there has been plenty going on since we came back from Ireland last August. We spent a week at Longmynd House in Church Stretton at the end of August, with me guiding walking guests for HF Holiday's and Rubi as a guest herself. The weather was great and exploring the Shropshire Hills on foot was a real pleasure.
The other significant event was that I sold my holiday home in Dartmouth. It has provided many happy memories during my 17 years of ownership, but work is thin these days so I need to cut down my outgoings and have some capital to call upon.
Like last year, February is an ideal time to take a cheap European holiday somewhere warmer than the UK, and this year's destination is........Malaga, on the Spanish Costa del Sol.
Wednesday February 7th, and after an early morning start we flew from Gatwick. The airport bus from Malaga Airport finally dropped us at Paseo Del Parque near the centre around mid-afternoon. It was coolish, but the sun warmed us as it peeked its face from behind the clouds.
We were travelling light, so immediately headed for a tourist information office to get some maps and advice on what to see in the city. The Picasso Museum naturally came high on the list. A slow wander through the streets brought us to our apartment near the Plaza de la Merced, close to Picasso's birthplace.
Our apartment was quite cold, and we needed the owner's advice on how to operate the air conditioning unit to get it warm. It was quite chilly outside by the evening, so after a supper comprising leftovers we had brought over from the UK, we opted for an early night.
Next morning we headed off to the bus station, to the west of the city, roughly a half hour's brisk walk away. We needed to book bus tickets to Granada for the following day, and to Gibralter for the following Monday. With a little advice from helpful locals, the process turned out to be quite simple.
We walked back to the city centre via the railway station and the docks, passing the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo (Centre for Contemporary Art) and a big wheel similar to the London Eye, only a bit smaller. A walk up the pedestrianised Calle Marques de Larios took us through the main shopping hub to the Plaza de la Constitution, where an information office provided us with a map of Granada, useful for the following day's excursion.
Rubi found a nice clothes shop and bought a pretty dress. There, we bumped into a chatty lady from Brighton, travelling solo, who had come over on the same flight as us. She ended up buying a similar dress.
We continued east through the jumbled streets, looking for a non-touristy place to have lunch. Finally we found a locals' cafe on Calle Victoria which offered a 3-course 'menu del dia' with wine for €9.25 each. Cracking!
We had eaten quite late, so by the time we walked a little more and visited the supermarket to stock up with food, it was time to get some rest. We needed to rise by 5.00am the following morning to catch a bus, so another early night beckoned.