Malaga, my stay, Part 1 of 3

The first town of my winter stop.

2018-11-17

All autumn long I was hindered by the weather that made it "less nice" in the north and midd of Spain.

That is why I had decided to skip the west of Spain and Portugal and cycle straight to the south from Madrid on when the temperatures up north started to drop to far to camp anyway.

After a rather easy day of cycling starting in El Chorro (going downhill in general) I had rolled into Malaga were I had booked a hotelroom.

My new plan was now to "survive the ~~winter~~ " along the Mediterranean Coast. Then the only promise I made to myself for my YesTrip is to Not Ever have any winter (cold) anymore for the rest of my life. So a stay here fits perfectly to that promise.

I expected myself to like it here in Malaga then I usually (also) like to explore cities. But that was a small guess since cycling there would not at all be nice because of the crowded area. I passed an online course "How to become a Regular Tourist level 1", downloaded my certificate, saved it on my telephone and was ready to go.

But once more the first room I got was not the type I wanted (and had asked for) since it had no table to work on. After my complaint I got this room which was very spacious and also had a huge bathroom.

The next morning I had my first coffee at a bar and saw in a newspaper that due to the rains some rocks had come down ... So before you buy your next car : one very big advantage of riding a bicycle is that you can pass rocks like these 😜.

And I also noticed this add in the newspapers. A promotion from the national railwaycompany Renfe to visit Madrid with 70% discount during the X-mas week. That looked great to me then I could visit Madrid once more to discover all that what I had missed before.

Only problem was that this ticket was not really for sale. I could not find that promotion on their website. So I asked several Spanish people for information and help but no one managed to find that ticket either. They were not surprised, "it is so often a mess with them ...". Knowing that I think that the man in the add knew that on forehand ...

I got a little cold and bought aspirine since I had only little left. To find that these tablets did have no effect to me at all . Although they were supposed to be of the same type and working ingredient as the one's I had leftover from the NL and that had always worked for me within minutes. How can that be, are they fake 😕 ???

These 20 ~~spanish~~ Bayer tablets cost a mere € 5,- were the dutch version costs € 1,59 per 50. That's how governamental protection works when they declare (all) medicins (pharmacies) to be highly "difficult" and so "special".

Directly next to my hotel were two cafes, one on each side of the church ... At Eva's Place they served these tapas (sausages) which were the best I ever had. Maybe the garlic had something to do with that 😀.

The ladies at both cafes took good care of me, time after time 😉.

At Sophia's Place my absolute favorite dish was this plate pil pil (piquante) : fried potatoes or chips, shrimps and a fried egg. Combine the ingredients and let the plate rest in an oven for some minutes. Yammie, yammie, yammie !!!

Probably thanks to the church being there the square was attractively lit at night.

Malaga is a big, modern town with about 560.000 inhabitants and about 1.100.000 habitants in the whole area. The centre is quite compact and the surrounding areas are also very lifely. You can walk, rest and have food and drinks everywhere 😉. Also Malaga has several bicycle tracks, in town and along the coast 👍.

Ofcourse I also visited some chinese restaurants.

I even for a slight moment thought to be in the Netherlands again. Fortunately I was not.

Graffity that makes me smile !

I was looking for new shoes since I had been mistaken when I ordered these ones online about 2 years ago. It should have been "selfmoving shoes" according the website text. But it turned out I had to walk all by myself 👎.

Now I urgently needed new shoes since the soles of the old ones were not up to the job and had completely worn out. That was probably due to being in the French Alpes during the summer of 2017. There you always walk on sharp stones as soon as you are outside of any town.

I found a good pair of shoes by accident in the very first shop I entered. Lightweight outdoor shoes for € 35,- and ~~Made in~~ sold by the Netherlands !

I met Sylvia in my hotel were she joined a course. We had buffet and diner several times, and tapas some other times. And she showed me the centre of Malaga in detail and gave me some tips.

The buffet in my hotel was the only place (for months !) where one could have decent vegetables and raw salad.

Although the breakfast and dessert buffet only offered sugar, sugar, sugar and more sugar ... I bought some ham and cheese in a supermercado which I then used at the breakfast buffet. In Spain you can buy (slices of) ham at several "levels" of meat. There is ie ham with 74% meat and with 96% meat, I even once saw a "ham" containing 55% meat ... Guess what the rest of the "meat" is ... For desssert I often ate an icecream which I hadn't had almost all year !

I often cycled into town to explore the centre and the coastal line. Malaga has many kilometers of cyclingpath. To the north-east you will be on a smaller and more busy and touristic path. To the south you will be along the wide, more empty beaches and there, somewhat more inland, you also find the big shopping centres (and hamburgers 😉).

The smaller fishingboats stay close to the shore. In the harbour I saw three bigger fishingtrawlers but they still are far smaller then (all) the ones in the NL. I guess the rest of all the fish is imported to town by trucks.

In certain conditions of light the sea looks so extra beautiful.

The underwater world is also beautiful 👀 ! I do like to be near the water but don't like to be in the water. Maybe I should reconsider that 😄.

Malaga is a beautiful town were you can spent many days to explore it. However I forgot to visit the big wheel since I for some unknown reason never came close.

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Along the coast, south of the centre, there is a monument to remember the old industrial days. Click this picture to find out what that is.

I spent an hour

at the beach

to create something nice.

The restaurants along the beaches always grill the fish outdoors.

Gasbottles are distributed by trucks. In many countries it is just too difficult and so too expensive to build a pipeline gasdistibution network. That might be because of the distances and the structure of the land and the ground.

The regular household equipment runs ofcourse on electricity and so do heating and cooling. In more modern houses the cooking and hot water run on electricity. In older houses the cooking and hot water run on gas.

Some creativity.

And some X-mas atmosphere was showing up.

But also simple pleasures can do the trick !

And grilled chicken can.

Or a cafe where they serve 100 types of small sandwiches.

There is a lot

to see in Malaga 👍.

But in Spain also less simple things do a trick. This country is known for it's debating culture.

Liberalism and conservatism are marching together. As they always do.

Malaga has history, so a lot of details can be found if you look carefully.

There is modern art to.

A fountain like this one has so many beautiful details.

Although the maintenance and cleaning could be a bit better. What it also has is a plastic glass so everyone can have a drink. I like the idea but doubt whether that is wise to do ...

The Plaza de la Merced

One more selfie for all my fans 😄. Oh, so sorry, this is a statue to honor Pablo Picasso who was born in Malaga in 1881.

Did you ever see wallpaintings this beautiful ?

I did not, and it will be very difficult to beat them ! Besides that, they are totally clean and completely undamaged.

A beautiful roundabout.

Hee, even more tourists today 😕!

Will they ever leave ? I could appreciate to have back my own tree ...

Along the boulevard there are a lot of palmtrees.

And certain suburban areas are full with orangetrees. They always make you happy then they are the symbol of the Sun 🌞.

This is a typical spanish terras situation. Due to the fine weather people are always outside to have a chat, a drink and some tapas. However this terras is run by a chinese family who seem to be fully integrated. At least concerning the terrass.

At the harbour area you find the most modern part of Malaga. It is really close to the centre and only one main road has to be passed to get there.

Parrots are as common here as the trees are.

And chestnuts are, they are roasted on every corner. Just walk towards the smoke ...

These kind of offers are seldom in Malaga. This town is not about alcohol in any excessive way. But it might be an option if it is your 💯st birthday ... I suppose this is a british owned pub, or a british copied idea.

There was a schedule in a newspaper indicating where one could visit Christmas cribs. This one closed the moment I arrived ... Nevertheless did I make a donation 😇.

The X-mas fair along the main boulevard.

Here you can meet Santa Claus without wearing a jacket.

But you have to look close since he does not wear a jacket either 👍.

The main boulevard.

And The Main Boulevard for the young La Bella Juliettas.

From this point you have a beautiful view all over Malaga centre and the harbour. You find it about halfway along the way up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro. Which means a though climb of about 20 minutes to get there.

But for "modern" people visiting the cafe next to the castle ruine could cause a problem 👀. They don't have wifi overthere, instead they want you to talk to each other ! All I can add to this is : If you are waiting for a sign, This is It.

One last very nice asian diner at a noodle restaurant in the centre.

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The Cure ?

Staring at the Sea !

As you can see the weather was still not very cooperative. But in practice every day had it's nice hours which I planned to be outside. I was never caught by any rain so my stay here was very oké.

What will Time bring me ? The next blog will tell you !

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