I Love Malaga

In 2016 Bruce and I stopped off at Malaga on a Celebrity Reflections Transatlantic Cruise. We adored it. It was a beautiful little city and fun to walk around.

That’s why when I started planning our around the world trip, I decided to spend four nights in Malaga. We rented a one bedroom apartment in the middle of everything.

On our arrival we walked through the cute little alleys until we came upon a plaza with several restaurants. Not feeling overly hungry, we split a sandwich and I had coffee.

On our first full day, we met our friend Adriana, who I know from Guatemala. She stays in Malaga usually for several months.

It was photo op time.

We went to the Cathedral de Malaga which was very beautiful. Mass was going on inside.

Afterwards we stopped for lunch. Adriana had carrot soup and salad.

Bruce and I had pizzas.

We walked some more and talked about our plans for the next day. We decided to rent a car and go to Ronda. By the way, this was at the objection of Bruce – he wanted to go by bus or do a tour but finally relented saying “whatever I want.” He is going to regret those words.

There were people in costumes making a living. All very light and breezy.

I didn’t mention but on my two flights I sat next to two very sick, sneezing feverish people. I was afraid I was going to get sick and by now my throat had begun to feel tight and sore. Darn. I thought I’d make it through an entire trip without a cold.

We woke up early and picked up the car. Adriana was waiting for us. Andy at the car rental place gave us directions and we were on our way.

Beautiful white buildings were everywhere. It was a scenic drive, rather lovely but I was in need of a cup of coffee. We followed MapsMe to what I thought was Mija a picturesque mountain town, only to end up by a gas station. Adriana sat in the back trying to give directions, but we couldn’t use her and the devise. That time we should have listened to her. I could tell Bruce was getting irritated, this being his worst nightmare, lost in some foreign city and not able to find his way out.

We followed MapsMe which got us totally lost. It said there was an on ramp where there wasn’t any. After driving back and forth looking for the ramp we all concurred no ramp. So we drove and took a wrong turn into this beautiful golf community that went up and up the mountainside. This wasn’t working out. Adriana, who speaks Spanish, asked this young man, he was a little pudgy with teeny tiny shorts, how to get out and find the highway. He spoke a little English so we both listened. It was hard to take him seriously. I think he was a sitcom character. But we did find our way out of the golf community but never saw the ALDI’s he kept mentioning. Still no luck with the highway.

We next stopped at a restaurant and got further instructions. The bartender only spoke Spanish so Adriana was on her own there but another fellow spoke a little English and he drew a map. Great. We thought we followed it but ended up in No Man’s Land.

At that point, Adriana asked a little old guy on a scooter how to get to the highway. He said for us to follow him. Ok that sounds like the best plan so far. We rode around the town, up streets and down streets. We were right next to the highway but he kept going. We followed. Then no more highway. He finally pointed and said, “Go there.” We did but found no highway.

As a last resort, Adriana jumped out of the car and ran to a police car. They said to follow them. The Spanish police were very helpful. They got us back on track after being lost for several hours.

It took us five hours to get to Ronda when it was a two hour drive. But it was quite spectacular. The drive up the mountain was quite scenic and twisty.

We found a parking spot relatively easy and walked to the area where you can see the bridge.

We sat and had a cup of coffee. Always the coffee. Cafe con leche. Bruce ordered an ice tea. What they brought him was hot tea and ice. He said it was good!

The town was kind of cute but Malaga is my town. We were ready to head back. It only took two hours to get back.

It looked stormy but we were lucky – no rain fell on us.

On our last full day unfortunately, I was feeling really punky so I slept in. We did our packing and met Adriana for dinner.

We found this great place, Nacalu, where Bruce and I shared a mixed paella.

Adriana had a delicious looking salad.

Our waiter, Ronald Antonio, was wonderful.

We said our goodbyes.

We are now on the train back to Madrid. We had a few laughs at the station while people lined their suitcases up to get on line to get the train. Then they were told they couldn’t do that so they took their bags back. Then slowly they put them back on line again. It was funny to watch.

We took the are fast train to Madrid and then a flight out on Thursday. I’m looking forward to getting home.

See you all soon!!