Walking around

Walking around gives many nice experiences.
When walking on the red carpet in Malaga last Wednesday we suddenly met friends and colleagues from my time in DNV. Einar Venold and his wife Ingrid, Torger Baardseth (taking photo) and his wife Anne-Sofie. It was a cold and windy morning,

but at Plaza Merced the sun gave us a good shelter and some clothing could be removed.

The Easter (Semana Santa) is soon coming up and the decorations and candies are to be seen all over Malaga.

Walking around sometimes also bring us to Torremolinos where we after a quick coffee outside the train station, start on the long way home along the coast and beaches.

Here is an image of the lovely beach Carihuela towards Torremolinos and with Malaga city in the background.

The mirror in my glass of beer is an art itself and I do not dream of not having the Cerveza Grande at the restaurant La Fragata on one of our pit stops.

After walking about 8 km we used the bus between Benalmadena and Fuengirola.
In Carvajal another new experience could be noted when we had lunch at restaurant Los Marinos Paco. It can bsolutely be recommended.

Then it was only to start walking once more for the last 7 km back home to our hotel. Passing the Pesetas sculpture in Los Boliches is on the route, and we came healtht home after 21609 steps during this Friday.

Another weekend with tours and food

Life in Fuengirola is as usual filled with moving around and eating good food.

A leg of lamb at La Farola is always a favorite. Ask for Salsa seperado, verdura sin ajo and baked potatoes with manteqilla normale. La Farola always returns with the best dish you can imagine.

The weekdays have also been full of heavy weather. Not too much rain but very windy and with large waves from Africas coat once again

However, a visit to Marbella and our friends Brit and Audun Bell is a requirement during our stay here at Costa del Sol. They have been here for many years and we have met at least one of them since 2010.

This week we met them at the restaurant Capoccino ain Marbella nd as you can see we all are in great shape. Audun has postponed his death by 26,5 years due to organ transplantation and I am 19 years in the same route. Our wives Brit and Tullen are mostly responsible to this long living history.

One of the most visited places, by tourists, in Marbella is the Plaza Najanjas or Orange Square.

Since our last visit they have rebuilt the square and moved all the restaurants around the plaza. The beauty of the plaza floor is then more visable, but we have heard that the people living around are not so happy. Their problem.

At the end of our fourth week in Andalucia this spring I present our Saturday dinner at La Farola (once again). The National dish Paella. You have to be two persons to enjoy this dish, but my sister wanted to join me so I am very pleased. (tullen has shelfish allergy, so that is the challenge).

Go to La Farola a day before and ask for this great experience.

Sunday stroll along Mijas Costa

The beaches along Mijas Costa are well worth a visit. Not mostly for sun-bathing but mainly for the beautiful path the municipality has built along the coast.
From the Marbella boarder and Sitio de Calahonda to La Cala de Mijas there is about 5 to 6 km of this wooden path. We walked this way yesterday in a warm and lovely afternoon.

At the starting point and the beach restaurant La Luna you can see all the way to Cabopino in Elviria / Marbella. If you like to walk on sand you may well take the tour southwest and we know there are many good restaurants in Cabopino.

Turning north-east there is only about one and a half km to a recommended restaurant called La Capricho. We had lunch with my sister and her friend Nina there. On the way we passed one of gen Franco´s estates. Closed and dilapidated.

 From La Capricho there is no wooden path and you either have to go up to the main road or walk in sand. Yesterday the sea level was so hight that the main road had to be used by us. We then went down to the beach again close to Calahonda Watch-Tower as seen on the photo, and continoued along the sea to restaurant La Lucera Paradice. Very difficult for me.

 From here and to La Cala de Mijas the path is great, and there are several possibilities for pit stops

In the horizon to the east you can see the great lighthouse El Faro and behind it Fuengirola .

Malaga, Sierra Nevada, Granada, Frigliana, Rincon de la Victoria and Puerto Banus

Living in Andalucia does not mean that we are bound to the hotel and sunbeds all days. For us  travelling around is also an important part of our Spanish Life.
Since last blogpost we have moved around to different places and here I present some of them.

 First we went to Malaga and made our usual strolling around to our favorite Tapas Bars.  This is from Plaza de la Merced where you can find Pablo Picasso´s childhood home.

At the bottom of the main shopping street: Calle Marques de Larios we can sit down for a refreshment before starting on the way back to the train bringing us back to Fuengirola (55 minutes)

Before our next tour we can join some of our friends during the Happy Hours talks at the hotel Myramar.

 This afternoon we had a drink together with Britt and Evert from Stockholm and Lillian and Knut from Lørenskog

Then it is time for planning the birthday event for Tullen. She has some radical ideas of what to write on her "Bucket  List", and this year she wanted to ski in the Sierra Nevada. Off we go.

By car from Fuengirola it is a 2h 15 min travel (196 km) on good roads all the way tot he snow in the mountain and the resort: Pradollano

 At the top of the first Gondola (altitude 2701) you may take other chairlifts higher up (top alt 3300)

 Turning your eyes downhill you see Pradollano (alt  2102) with many hotels and very nice service personnel if you want to rent ski equipment.
A full day skipass for plus-seniors,  costs only 5 Euro

This time of the year the heat (+ 12 C in Pradollano and + 2 C at the top, the snow was not the best but good enough to tick off one of the events in the bucket list. Tullen was very satisfied with her skiing on her birthday this year although she had dressed for more cold weather in the mountain.

From Pradollano to Granada city it takes about half an hour but be aware that travelling in the city may be difficult even with a GPS.

 We have been in Granada and Alhambra earlier so this time we only looked up to Alhambra  Palace from one of the city squares.

Visiting restaurants and other locations in Granada give you an impressive view of the traditions in this area. This image is from Puerta del Carmen where we had lunch

The second image is from the brasserie Pinot Noir where a night cup could be taken in the bar before returning to the hotel after a late Spanish dinner.

On the way back to Fuengirola on the fantastic new motorway you have enough time to visit some of the nice towns or villages along the road. Here you see Salobreña where we now have tried twice to find a parkingplace. Hopefully we will succeed the third time in the future.

The second break on the journey was the village Frigliana

 You have a great view out to the Mediterranean at the platau above the cheep parking garage.

From a restaurant you can see up the hill where many visitors use their feet to climb up to the top

Well down to the sea level and the beautiful quiet beach, we stopped for lunch at Rincon de la Victoria
(the municipality with the highest well being of the province according to the Synthetic Indicator of Economic Welfare developed by Andalusian Analysts.)

It would be easy to jump into our next tour, birthday lunch with my sister Gerd at Puerto Banus, but first we had to join the annual Long-Stayers-Lunchon at Myramar where the management gives free lunch for about 60 people staying more than 28 nights at the hotel.
We were up to 147 nights in 2016 (21 weeks)

Daniel, Tullen and Don Carlos have to be photographed as long as we came too late to the group photo this year.


Then it is time to present our yesterday visit to Banus with the beautiful morning sun, some Yachts in Puerto Banus and Gibraltar and Ceuta at the African continent in the horizon.

Welcome back for more reports from the Spring / Summer at Costa del Sol within some days