Easter Eve at home

This Saturday, also called Easter Eve, started with breakfast for Tullen and me together with our two grandchildren living here in Oslo. The eggs had got smiling faces today and we had to shout "Watch up" before the top was cut. No chicken revealed and breakfast could proceed.

Later Maja got her pigtails done and she was indeed proud of her nice look.

Mari is in a special mood at the time being, and prefer mother or grandmother´s arms and knees before I am good enough. That is, by the way, only if no other are in the same apartment. Then granddad is good enough. I believe that mood will change in the months to come.

She was , however, not in that challenging mode all the time. This photo is an example of that

Nice to have them here together with us, and still Happy Easter to them and their parents.

Good Friday and Orange

Good Friday continued as Thursday. Snow shoveling at the cottage. In a way we also can say that we continue the exercise from Costa del Sol.
Acording to research in heart medicine we quote:

Snow shoveling can be a good alternative to a good run or other exercise at high intensity, which improve your fitness quickly. - But it is incredibly important to do it right, both for the back and the interests of the heart. We know that there are more cases of heart attack right after big snow fall, she says the researcher at NTNU. He recommends people to think of the work of removing the snow like a workout. Heat up well, take it easy in the beginning, dress well, and keep shoveling only for 20-30 minutes so that you get good and sweaty. (Take a break and go on again)

The break for us was to have an Orange at the patio cleaned of snow from yesterday. Easter is often linked to oranges in Norway. Somebody say that it has to do with the color symbolizing the sun, but Here is a more trustworthy explanation:

Previously we in Norway only got oranges when it was the season for Mediterranean oranges. They came at Christmas and had to be matured till Easter. That set the saying: "Christmas last until Easter." When, however, the fruit came to Norway around Easter , they were often the sweetest and best. It might be why oranges is associated with Easter, although today we can buy sweet and good oranges all year.

My orange today came from Spain.

Maundy Thursday at the Cottage

Thursday in Easter Week is a public holiday here in Norway. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper in the Canonical gospels. We do not celebrate these Christian activities in church and elsewhere.
We went to the cottage to see how the winter had taken care of our property, and everything looks ok, except the loads of snow still covering the area.

 To get a place where we could place our outdoor furniture, >10 m3  of snow had to be removed. Lucky us we both could use our muscles. The dry consistency of the snow made it easier than if the snow had been wet and heavy. We could cut out blocks and throw them out on the lane.

The consistency is even better seen on the image above. We see how many snowfalls it has been in Oslo this winter. It is also an example of why the avalanche danger is so high all over Norway this Easter. The different layers can easy start to slide. At the horizontal terrace landslides is no problem.

 Almost finished. The back and shoulders are hurting. Happy us that our hearts are in good condition. Snow shoveling is not recommended for people with heart problems. My new one is in great shape.

Then it is time for relaxation. The Count and Countess of "bare ground" sit and feel the warmth of the sun although the temperature is close to Zero. The cottage season has not yet started but it is coming closer for every day.

The sun is present in Oslo too

 Back in Norway and out walking as in the last six weeks. After homework in our apartment we had to stroll down town to see the harbor and our locals before the Norwegian cod "Skrei" was the homemade dinner. A glass of Sangre de Torres Tempranillo became an excellent wine choice.

Before we visited our most important local "Fru Burum" a glass of Chardonney at Cafe Sorgenfri made the day.
As you see our dress code have changed, but the sun is there to give us some memories of Spain.

Home to a different world

After a nice flight with SAS yesterday, a son-in-law that picked us up at the airport and coming home to a warm apartment, it was first this morning we started to think about the differences between Spain and Norway.
First it is the temperature:

 The weather in Fuengirola on top and in Oslo below .
It is up to you to decide where to be in the coming days, but it looks that we are approximately 20C below yours at the beginning of Easter. It is nice but cold outside our windows.

The second difference must be the speed on my internal WiFi compared to what we have experienced the last 6 weeks in Spain. It is good to be back in that respect.

We will also take the opportunity to thank all our friends at Myramar for the long stay this winter. We really believe that the Happy Hours will not be the same after we left.

Happy Easter to you all.

409 km and 331 km at Costa del Sol winter 2013

Tonight I have the pleasure to present two very active persons during their LONG STAY at Coslt del Sol and Fuengirola. The sculpture of the Pesetas in Los Boliches is normally our turning point and this winter we have passed or turned it on our morning exercise around this point.
We have during our 6 weeks in Andalusia walked a long distance in the mornings or during the days.
You can scroll down through my blog to see our experiences from we arrived to our departure day tomorrow.
Totally Tullen walked (and jogged) 409 km in six weeks and I reached the 331 km. BRAVO!

This morning, on her last day, Tullen made a new record from the hotel to the Pesetas and back. Jogging and slowing down in intervals made her new record. 9 km/hours great!!

Maintenance of beaches for Easter

We have always been impressed by the administration of the beaches here in Fuengirola. Cleaning up after heavy rainfalls or strong wind are often seen. The removal of rubbish, seaweed and seagrass as well as shells and sharp stones are mostly a daily activity.
The latest week more heavy equipments have done a larger job in the sand.

 Sand from the river mouth are dug up and removed.

 Large trucks transport the sand to different areas of the beaches

 The sand are spread around from the seashore to the promenade

Large bulldozers are smoothing and leveling the surface.

The beaches are ready for the "Semana Santa" (Easter Week)

Nuestra Costa - Our Coast

When we talk and write about Costa del Sol we in reality only mean a part of the coast between Malaga and Gibraltar. Our coast is more or less the distance between Los Alamos (close to Malaga Airport) and Fuengirola River / (Sohail Castle).
We also go to Malaga and Marbella / Puerto Banus, and have visited cities like Ronda, Sevilla, Cordoba, Nerja and Granada, but the area on the map above is OUR Costa del Sol.
Except the distance between Benalmadena and Carvajal there is a fantastic promenade and very easy to run, stroll or walk (as we do). Hundreds of cafes or restaurants can be found with all kind of international food and drinks. In some places the tourist industry has taken completely over the shops, but all International shops can be found.
That is why we return year after year and sometimes twice a year.

The photo above is from the App Flightradar24 Pro. test it out and learn which airplane makes the stripes on the sky above your head .

ArneA daily

Sitting on the balcony and looking over the Mediterranean Sea.
A wonderful day and a great evening.
It is therefore an opportunity to remind my readers that I also distribute a daily Newspaper well worth reading and free subscribing. A new edition will be presented at noon ECT every day. Many interesting news can be fount here.
Today´s front page looks like this:

Click here to join.

Primavera at last

At last a summer day at Costa del Sol. The temp was +20C 15 seconds before I took this photo.

Tomorrow we expect the same weather. Blue sky, no clouds and minimum of wind.

Maybe we should have stayed some more weeks down here, but Easter is coming up and we look forward to a sunny Easter at the patio at our cottage.

Hopefully we will experience the upcoming spring at Aker Brygge next week.

Bryne Cykle Klubb at Myramar Fuengirola

 Bryne CK is one or the returning guests at Hotel Myramar Fuengirola. This morning the team was ready for their cycling exercise at 10 am when we started on our long walk. (see below )
Yesterday the BCK-riders had been on the wheels for a long time and visited Mijas, Coin, Ronda and more places in the Andalucian mountains. The distance became up to around 200km.
 Some of the riders felt that it had been a hard Monday, but as you see on the photo, they all were ready for another strain this Tuesday. Later they told us that the weather conditions had been an argument for reducing today´s ride.

We left the hotel at 10 am, walked to the Train Station (2.4km) and started our walk from Los Alamos.  Then we walked 8.4 km to Benalmadena before the bus took us to Carajal. The rain almost killed us in Torremolinos and at Carihuela beach we had to find shelter due to heavy rain.
The same happened when we arrived Fuengirola Harbor. Thunderstorms and very heavy rain made us visit VIVA once more, but that is only a pleasure. We will return the borrowed umbrella before we leave Costa del Sol (or renamed Costa del Rain).
Our total distance in the rain became under 10% of BCK´s ride, but not so bad for a couple in the mid 60s.
Tomorrow "El Tiempo" has promised us sun.

Portraits

The idea of this blogpost came this morning when the hotel cat came to welcome us to the pool. She knows very well which sun bed to climb into (never on mine) and here we see her between T´s legs.

John B(jarne) and his cozy smile is the first person to be presented. John B is almost 86 years old and have stayed here in southern Spain for many, many years together with his wife Karen. They are leaving for Norway in a few days, but we look forward to see them again on our next stay at Costa del Sol.

A portrait-serie without including a self portrait of the editor would not be possible. This one with my special white sun glasses is a good example of the relaxed life we are living when staying in Fuengirola. Here too: Life is great.

Based upon some strong wishes and honoring John John´s marketing of my blog to almost everybody at Hotel Myramar, I include his daughter VIVIENNE in this blogpost. She is one of my favorite readers, and hopefully she will start to give feedback and comments on the posts´ content.
Just click on the comment link at the end of the post and follow the instructions.

Another nice person we have met this winter is Elizabeth from Colombia. She is a waitress at one of our often visited restaurants. Always smiling and giving the most of services so we feel welcome every time. This image together with Tullen was the way she wanted to be photographed.

From Hotel Myramar´s Facebook - Padel Tournament

I have copied this from Hotel Myramar´s FaceBook: (my translation)

We just finished our Steel Custom  Myramar March Padel Tournament. Although expectations of good weather, we have had rain both Saturday and Sunday. With many participants who came from different places in Spain, we decided to proceed the tournament as planned, and we succeeded. We want to thank all the participants, who have endured the rain and not withdrawn from the competition.

It was very difficult to play with wet balls on the wet court, but despite these difficult weather conditions, we have been enjoying many participants delivering a good atmosphere at the hotel.
Thank you all very much, and looking forward to see you in April.

On the photo you see European Market Director of Steel Custom; Mr Marcos Arnais and Sales Manager at Myramar; Ms Liza Adamowska

(Photo by John Rowland)

Sightseeing Malaga

We have been in Malaga City many times. We know where to go and where we have our favorite bars, shops and things to see. However Malaga is a large city to cover by feet and we therefore recommend new visitors to use the HOP-on-HOPP-off bus for the first visit.
You will find the bus just outside the Malaga Centro Alameda (or Malaga Maria Sambrano) train-stop. If you follow the red route you can experience most of what I have covered on my photos below

The first photos are from the huge marketplace selling fresh fish, meat, fruits and breads. If using the bus, this is at the "M" of the map above. Therefore it is better better to reach on your second visit because the market is best in the mornings. (closes around 3pm)
You can for example get Salmon from Norway at a price of 14 Euro. Cheaper than in Oslo, Norway.

Delishious foods presented as art on the disks.

Close to the market along the Alameda Principal (main street) the flower ladies can offer you beautiful roses and other flowers.

 The bus will also take you to the Light House (6B) where a break for a morning coffee can be taken at the new harbor district, and you can see the famous beach "Malagueta" from this point.

The bus also stops at (or passes) the Bull Fighting Arena (F) before it takes you to mountain top and the castle Gibralfaro (9) where this photo is taken. At top right you see the Light House and the Cruice ships and the Yachts harbor.

 Coming down from the hill the bus stop close to the old Roman Theatre (11). From here you should use your feet through the old city.

You can walk to Picasso´s birthplace and his museum (only a few 100 steps), and of course visit the most famous bodega; "El Pimpi"

 At El Pimpi we recommend a plate of Jamon Bellota together with a glass of wine, but you can also add on some other Tapas and enjoy a beer if wanted.  

After the bar visit it´s time for the Cathedral or do some shopping at all kind of shops, from small "tourist traps" to the major design boutiques and dressing houses. They are all to be found along the main shopping street or in the narrow streets linked to that. 

Coffee wine and tapas bars are all over the city.

 One of the nice tapas bars we went to at our last visit is called "La Aldea". Can be recommended.

My wife has black belt in shopping, so a Malaga visit without bags on the train station after our visits, is unthinkable. 

The train from Fuengirola to Malaga takes 45 minutes and the train leaves every 20 minutes. Prices varies in weekends from other days, but a return thicket at 7 Euro can everybody afford down here.

Have a nice time in Malaga. Maybe we will see you at our next visit there.

Benalmadena

Today´s activity was visiting Benalmadena together with Gerd and Arne.
They have lived here at Costa del Sol in more than 10 years, but this visit to Benalmadena was their first, and we took the opportunity to show them both the Carihuela Beach and Benalmadena Beach and the area around the port where we normally take a break during our "Long Walk" from Los Alamos.
This Friday there was a shellfish market at the port and the image above is from that market. (A beer you could get for 1 Euro)

The Temperature was around +30C in the sun, but in the shadow it was around +17C. May be that is the reason for the variations in clothing. :)