Marbella etc (2)

Saturday morning here and it's getting hotter again. Hope everyone's ok back home after Storm Amy.

I forgot to mention that, before we came to Spain, I made some of our travel arrangements for January/February in the southern hemisphere. We leave Aberdeen on 7th January and fly to Singapore for a few days. We then go to Darwin - again for a few days before heading to Adelaide. After that, final plans are yet to be made. We have booked a week up in the Gold Coast the first week in February but otherwise our plans are fluid until we return to the UK on 26th February - a bit shorter than our usual stay.

Now back to the Marbella diary:

MONDAY 29th September

Our second full day in Malaga. First of all we had to check where the bus station was as we had specific plans to catch what was allegedly the only bus of the day that dropped off at Hotel Don Carlos, adjacent to the Marriott property. Finding the bus station was no problem but figuring out how and where to book wasn't quite as easy. After a while we decided we would just come along early on Tuesday and suss it out then.

I had booked us in to the Picasso Museum at 2 pm - it was fully sold out on Sunday when we'd tried. We had plans to see the Cathedral as well but didn't know whether we'd make it over there in time to do it justice before the 2 pm deadline.

In the end, we made it in plenty time. The vastness and the splendour of these historic churches gives pause for thought that "them and us" is not just a current human failing:

We did the full tour with audio guide and still had time for another tapas lunch just outside the Picasso Museum, watching the long line of ticket holders slowly progressing towards the entrance. One of the tapas choices was black pudding so we just had to try it:

Then it was time to join the Picasso line. I can't pretend I'll ever fully understand his work - surrealism, cubism etc - but there were one or two pieces that caught the eye:

I thought we'd look for a quiet beer after the Museum but had yet more frustrations with Google Maps information about opening and closing times and whether businesses were still going or not. We gave up eventually but then happened upon a (very) small hole in the wall that did nothing but Pastis del Nata - and a coffee if you want. It was doing a roaring trade - and no wonder.

That kept us going for a bit as we headed to one of Malaga's very old what I would call sherry houses - Antigua Casa de Guardia. I made the rookie error of calling the drinks that were poured from large casks behind the bar "sherry" - "no, no, no - ees Malaga wine!":

We had 3 each - Seco, Pajarete & Moscatel no.2 - any more and we might not have found our way back very easily! Quite an experience - the barmen tally your drinks in chalk on the bar and then total them up when you're ready to check out - and if you leave a tip, they ring a bell so all can hear!

We made it back to our modern, high tech hotel which didn't appear to have a proper restaurant but it turned out there was a franchise operating adjacent to where we had breakfast. We were their only customers but we had a lovely meal starting with local bread and olive oil which was so nice you could have drunk it from the bottle. Even our random choice of wine was excellent:

Off to bed - tomorrow we check out and head to our Marriott resort.