My second serie of Andalusian sculptures you may find in Torremolinos, Benalmadena, Marbella and Mijas.
At Plaza de la Union Europea Toremolinos, there is the Monument to Europe, which is a white marble sculpture of Zeus as a white bull with Europa on his back. According to Greek Mythology, Europa was the beautiful daughter of the King of Tyre, a Phoenician king. Zeus saw her gathering flowers by the sea and fell in love with her. Zeus turned himself into a white bull and knelt before her very gently. Europa climbed on his back and the bull rushed toward the sea and kidnapped her. He revealed his true identity and brought her to Crete where he made love to her.
Another sculpture at a nearby square just outside the most heavy tourist shopping streets, shows this Flamenco trio.
Flamenco is an exotic dance, but is actually native to only one region:
Andalusia. Flamenco is the music of the Andalusian gypsies and played in their social community.
Buddhism is strong in Benalmadena with the
West´s largest Buddhist stupa. On our long walk from the train station and down to the beaches we passed this Buddha statue.
On our long (>15 km) walk along the beaches from Benalmadena to Fuengirola we passed this round-about with the Elephant family. It is located between the all inclusive hotel Holiday World Hotel and it´s
Beach Club.
Another elephant (may be one of
Hannibal´s leftovers) can be found at the Beach de Faro in Marbella. He is looking towards Gibraltar which you can see in the horizon if you click on the photo to get it larger.
Between the beach and the old city of Marbela you may walk up the avenida del Mar with many beautiful and interesting modern sculptures. At the top you will find the spectacular benches as shown earlier, sculptures by them selves.
On the other side of the park the next sculpture are places at the entrance of the old city.
My last sculpture is from the white city Mijas, and of course the statue is white too.
The beauty of the Mediterranean Sea seen from beach terraces during winter in southern Spain can fully compete with the beauty of the white clean snow in Norway.
Local fishermen are searching for their catch in the morning and the stormy weather during last night has made the fish coming closer to the beach than normal
The water is curling into the arched form and breaking on the shore giving the turquoise color a green-grey or brown image.
Only trained surfers in special suits dare to enter the waves. No bathing can take place. The temperature in the water is too low at this time of the year.
But not only the temperature is a challenge. The flooding of rivers due to continuous raining and the stormy weather has sent a lot of bamboo and canes into the water. Swimming can be more than dangerous.
However, help is not far away. Maintenance of the beaches are highly prioritized in this country, and tractors are every morning busy with cleaning if necessary.
The great volume of garbage are quickly gathered and taken away by lorries. (Just dream about the ability of removing dirty snow in our "the world riches country" streets at the same time. Once a year?).
Soon thereafter we again can stroll along the Paseo Maritime. Looking at the sea and the beautiful beaches, and stop at our favorite cafe for a coffee, beer or copa de cava. Winter in southern Spain will be repeated. May be even earlier. Come and join us.
