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

The first week at Costa del Sol 2017

Once again we have arrived at Fuengirola  (our second home Myramar Apertamentos) and will in he weeks to come give you some information about our life at Costa del Sol.

The Norwegian flag har been hoisted and Avenida Noruega is once more presented to all other guests. This time we will stay till after Easter and various blogposts will be presented.

However, since this is the first week, I have decided to present some of the Spanish dishes that we have been tasted this week (and probably will have during our stay this spring too).
We recommend them all.

Tapas are normally our wekcome dinner where we go from restaurant or bar to restaurant and taste some of the dishes they deliver. This is Baccalao, and most likely or equal the one we make back home. Taberna Chinorros.

Oor favorite restaurant in Fuengirola is La Farola, and if going there try the Sirloin (Solomillo) with baked potato and sauces separado; Pimiento or Gorgonzola. This is made Medium.

At the restaurant La Caracola (at the beach) they have lots of great fish dishes but the Mediterranean fish Dorada (Sea Bream) baked in salt can absolute be recommended, The servent remove almost all the spines in an interresting process and the taste is great.

The two next images are again from the menu at La Farola.

First I present the Chateaubriand Steak which is served together with aspargues and grilled tomatoes. A dinner for the special occations and have to be ordere a day in advance,

The second (or third) dish from the La Farola menu is the Lubina or Sea Bass Meuniere with prawns. Try it with or without garlic.

Talking about eating and food at Costa del Sol we also have to present an image of the hotel cat Amina and the food (kibble) we serve to her every morning (when she is waiting outside our door), and night. Simple, but she loves it.

Thursday dinner is Potetball

In the western part of Norway Potetball or Raspeball, Komle, Kompe etc. is a traditional dish for dinner and particularly on Thursdays.
In the old days the tool below was important when preparing the potatoes for creating balls, but I must admit that today I used more modern tols.

Ingredians are as follow:

Salted Mutton (boiled in about 1 hour) and taken out of the pan before put back in when the when the potatoballs are boiled.

Kohlrabi or Swedes cut in pices and boiled soft before mashed and added with butter and light milk

The potato-dumplings need to be cooked one hour, and you can use the same water as the mutten was boiled. After 30 minutes the mutten is put back for the remaining 30 minute slow boiling activity.

Then it is time for eating.
Salt mutten, mashes swedes and Potetballs with some bacon in the melted butter. Back in Ålesund my mother also served smoked sausages, boiled potatoes and vegetables, but that is no need for more fat and carbohydrates in today´s dinner.

Pick fish (plukkfisk) in pancake envelopes

Today I will take you back to memories from my earliest childhood, to my city of birth Ålesund and the way my mother made dinner out of leftovers from the cod dinners we often had.
She made "plukkfisk i pannekake konvolutter"

We had fish almost every second day or at least three times per week at that time; Cod, Pollock, Haddock, Salmon, Large Herring and Sprats. Cooked or fried or sometimes as fishcakes, gratins and the dish that I had for dinner today: Pick fish in pancake envelopes.

Through some images I will describe what I remember from my mothers kitchen and the way she (an with me sometimes as an assistent) performed the dinner.

 We start with the leftovers from our cod neck dinner yesterday. The necks are large and there is always lot of great fish to be picked from the "wings". Some leftover potatos are also cut in pieces and mixed with chopped golden onion and chives.

 Ordinary thin pancakes are made in front of the process to be chilled before continuing.

 Golden thick sauce is made in a saucepan before you put the fish mixture in and warm all up

 It may perhaps not look great but the taste is almost like my mother served. I did not use any additional spices, but I have seen that someboy like muscat and pepper in it.

 When it it time for eating dinner, lunch, or an evening snack put the pick fish in the middle of the pancake and fold it togethe as an envelope.

 Turn it upside down and let it rest waiting for the heat of the frying pan.

 Then fry the envelopes some minutes to get warm and make the envelop a little crispy.

Now it is ready to be tasted and make the memories of my childhood dinners come through.
When cutting the pancake in the middle add some melted butter and life is great again.

Happy 2017

 With an image from Aker Brygge and the last sunset 2016 we thank you all for the contact during 2016

and wish you all a happy 2017.

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.