Grand Cafe Oslo, a place to visit

In the time between Christmas and New Year it is always a lot of restaurants in Oslo that are closed.
At Tekehtopa they are renovating the rooms. At Aker Brygge many of our regular places are closed for totally down-washing. And when the ordinary crew members at pubs and cafes are on holiday, we were searching for alternatives.

And we found Grand Cafe at Karl Johan.

The restaurant has been closed and renovated almost all 2016, it has never been "our" place, but now I think we will return more frequently

The paintings by Per Krogh must have been renovated and gives an interesting view of the cafe from 1928 to 2016

We will come back. The crew were very nice, prices acceptable and we could sit in a modern environment and relax with a glass of vine (or two) and enjoy the artwork form the Bohemian time

When half finished paintings get lost

Normally I have presented my paintings in the blog quite soon after I have finished them. Sometimes I must have lost the photo process or at that moment not felt that it has the standard expected.

I learned once from a photographer that out of 1000 images shot maybe you present 48 that still have the quality expected from your audience.

Well, in my storeroom I found two paintings that earlier have not gone public, so here they are. Merry Christmas

 The Sunnmøre Alps

The Lighthouse.

Inspired by the feedback from TripAdvisor

Encouraged by the feedback from TripAdvisor when they decided to use one of my photos (from Playa de Carihuela) in their worldwide web site, I here will present and maybe repeat some from earlier blogs images that also could be presented in TripAdvisor or other PR publications.

First a photo from Fuengirola early on the morning covering the Fuengirola River and the Pedestrian bridge close to Castillo Sohail.

2nd image is from the train station in Antequera with the sunrise on our trip to Madrid by AVE Renfe

When living in Fuengirola the Mediterranean Sea changed from day to day. This image is on a windy day taken from southwest and facing east towards Torrequebrada

This one is from Torreblanca / Carvajal facing southwest and the port in Fuengirola. The weather here is most typical for our days at Costa del Sol.

As TripAdvisor presented an image of the beach Carihuela from Torremolinos to Benalmadena, I here present an image in the other direction where you can see Malaga City in the background.

Andalucía and Malaga is not only beaches. There is a lot of mountains too and this is to the north from Fuengirola river facing one og the white cities; Mijas Pueblo

Another beach often visited is the area between Cala de Mijas and Calahonda, where the new walking path make it easy to come close to the sea and still be dry on your feet.

The Paseo Maritim along the beaches in Benalmadena with villa Bil Bil is also a nice area.

When evenings come and the sun is ready to take a break the beaches are almost without people.

and during the late night hours the waves have the coast complete for itself and the wind blows as usual.

Photo in TripAdvisor

Dear TripAdvisor Member,

 Congratulations! One of your photos has been selected to represent on TripAdvisor websites around the world.

I will continue to shoot images and present them in TripAdvisor after this encouragement

December and back in Norway

After 10 weeks at Costa del Sol we are back in Oslo for Christmas.

The images of my wife are however still an important part of my photo albums as they were during our stay in Andalusia, and we continue to visit favourite restaurants (here Cafe Sorgenfri) for lunch, dinner or just a drink.

The street decorations for Christmas in Oslo cannot be compared to the "light-festivals" in Malaga, but the real Christmas trees (Pine tree and Fir tree) can be seen all over.

In our home a new painting has found its place and perform an eye breaker in the entrance hall

The painter Terje Fagermoe has really succeeded with his "Solgløtt" (Sun Ajar to the right)

Pre Christmas time in Norway is an eating festival. People from companies and other work places as friends and families gather around Christmas fool tables as they do in Malaga and Fuengirola. Being together for good food and drinks is a cultural experience not to be covered in this blog.

However Christmas food is also consumed at home and during the first week we have had Lutefisk and Rakørret.

Dont be surprised if some more dishes will be presented in the weeks to come.

Christmas decoration Malaga City 2016

This blogpost will be without comments to every image. Instead I invite you to join me in the walk from dinner at Los Gatos (recommended) through the streets to Plaza Constitution, further down the Marques de Larios to Plaza de la Marina and Alameda Principal:

and at last a Merry Christmas from Malaga to all my blog followers 

This week has been cold

This week started with  heavy rain on Monday so the normal beautiful images had to ve replaced by a very wet video. This is the second time in 7 years down her we had to use a taxi to come home.

But as they say here in Spain "aqua es vida" and the flowers love the gift from heaven.

One of the activities we decide to do although the weather has turned into "winter-time", is to make our stroll from Torremolinos to Benalmadena with lunch at our favourite restaurant Pinocho.

 This is Carihuela Beach with Malaga city in the background and a calm Mediterranean

and yesterday´s special at Pinocho was lobster with pasta. Delicioso

 From Pinocho to Villa BilBil where we took the bus back to Fuengirola you see that the weather changed from blue sky in the north to grey and rainy clouds further southwest.

We decided to make another pit stop at Buba Bar and Cafe Colon before we could walk the remaining kms back to Myramar in dry weather waiting for Magnus Carlsen to start playing the 10th game of  the World championship in Chess 2016 (which he won) against Sergej Karjakin.

You see that the crowd of tourists have diminished during the last week or stayed home because the weather. For us it is important to exercise daily and be active and happy for the long stay periode here in Andalusia, Malaga, Fuengirola oeste etc..

A different Malaga day (almost)

In DN.NO on November 15th you could read about the best tapas in Malaga.
We had to check it out and went on a different tour through Malaga city yesterday.

The first tapas bar "Gorki" was closed due to renovation. (see you next time)

Because we were a little too early "Taberna Uvedoble" was closed too, but we returned later in the afternoon and can add that the style was too modern for us and the prizes too high for the small tapas.

 Next visit was at "Meson Cortijo de Pepe" ( see photos) and here we join DN.NO in the recommendation. The different tapas looked great in the food area and those we tasted were very good at a exceptionally low prize.

 The decoration behind the bar was also nice and available if cured Ham was your choice.

The next tapas bar "Meson de Cervantes" was also closed but would be open in the evening.

 We therefor looked around in the area, and found Teatro Cervantes where the Tapa in a small bar was priced to 1 Euro and tasted great.

 When walking around in Malaga never forget to look up, and walk through narrow streets.

Much beauty can be found on the houses, and the shadow on the ground makes it even more lovely

The Christmas decorations are also in place and can be seen without lights in the sunshine

I said this visit to Malaga was a little different. No cafe with Croissant, no shopping and no normal tourist walk to El Pimpi.

But one thing cannot be left out. Our regular visit to Meson Iberico

The owner and his family has driven this tapas-par for many, many years. We are normally the only non spanish people in the bar and hopefully we will be so for many years. Our secret place to end every visit to Malaga City

Bioparc Fuengirola

After 7 years we decided that it was time to visit the Bioparc here in Fuengirola. Many people have told us about this spectacular Zoo, and today with clouds on the sky we walked to see these animals from all over the world.
First we arrived to Madagascar:

The Nile Crocodile did not like me, but I was in acceptable distance.

From Southeast Asia:

Python Snakes in beautiful colours

Sumatran Tigers

and a False Gavial (?)

From India-pacific:

 A Komodo Dragon (Winter)

 A panther Camaleón

A Galapagos Giant Rhinocero

All the other animals like Lemurs, Flamingos, Pygmy Hippo, Chimpanzee, Gorillas, Orangutangs and Golden-Cheeked Gibbons are there too with many other species.
An interesting afternoon which can be highly recommended.