Malaga: Sun, Sand and Various Goos

It's been three months since our trip to Southern Spain. Years ago, three months wouldn't be an unreasonable amount of time to wait for a written account of travels on The Continent, but in these times it's an almost unforgivable expanse. So imagine you're reading these words on onion skin air mail stationery and dreaming of the next time you'll hear my voice.

Spain has been a wonderful surprise for Bill and me. Back in the era before I traveled Europe freely, Spain was not on the short list of places I intended to visit if I ever lucked into 10 days across the sea. But this season, generous with sights and sounds and flavors, has taken us beyond all expectations, and now we know--we love Spain.

We're particularly drawn to the balance between food and drink embodied by the tapa. Little bites to accompany refreshing beverages. Compared to Ireland which, I'm afraid, loves its drink more than its food, Spain seems to love them equally, and better yet, doesn't ask you to choose.

I've already described some of the wonderful flavors we encountered in Granada, and we continued to eat well in Malaga. Our first night we wandered the entwined streets looking for seafood. Not a difficult hunt, we quickly found some calamari, fried shrimp and manchego.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast at Cafe Moka, adjacent to our hotel--cafe con leche and pitufo (small) sandwiches. I had sobrassada and cheese and Bill had Spanish tortilla (tortilla de patatas).

We then visited a market full of veggies and fruit and cured meat. We kept seeing bowls of orange goo labeled Lomo en Manteca--we would find out later what it was. We picked up a few snacks--skewers of marinated anchovies, pickled onions, olive and pickle (loved these in Barcelona), and some empanadas. We enjoyed these later on our balcony.

Later we walked down to the beach for lunch. We had some gazpacho--gazpacho originated in Andalusia--and I ordered grilled squid. I had been profoundly changed by the grilled squid I had in Barcelona; the grilled squid I had here was a bit bigger and filled with goo, but the non-goo parts where tasty and I could watch a guy stick the squid on the end of a pole and grill it over charcoal, so that was cool. We also had some tortillitas and Bill had gambas al pil pil (spicy shrimp).

After lunch we waded a bit in the Mediterranean and relaxed on the sand. We returned to our hotel for siesta--the air had been turned on and we napped in cool comfort. That evening we started dinner at Gorki, a wine bar which is a chain, but seemingly popular with the locals. We wrote some postcards and ate jamon iberica and a wonderful salad with blue cheese and wilted leeks.

Our next stage of dinner was at La Rabana where we dined on figs and more jamon iberica (it's so great!), a black pudding sandwich, and yes, Lomo en Manteca! Pork in lard--delicious!

Spain had been so kind to us with its gentle sun, fragrant orange blossoms, and marvelous flavors. We were really reluctant to leave and wished we had planned to stay for the whole week. I knew we'd be glad to have the days for a later trip (for oh, say, Slovenia), but it was hard to leave.

Wednesday morning we returned to Cafe Moka for a bittersweet cafe con leche and more of the amazing tortilla pitufo. Click here for more food pics.

And we did do a few things between meals, other than siesta. Click here for more scenes from Malaga.

Scenes from the Bus to Malaga

Scenes from our bus trip as we traveled from Granada to Malaga on May 4.

Goodbye to Granada

After an extraordinarily lovely afternoon at the Alhambra (May 3), we stopped for a cafe con leche. The Granadians were out in droves wearing their traditional clothes for Dia de la Cruz.










Seeing everyone in traditional dress truly made the day more festive. I was enchanted by these girls in their finery riding a merry-go-round. Note the little one in her mother's arms is also wearing frills.



We returned to our hotel for siesta, and then back out for a tapas-filled evening. We started at Bar Poë, a tapas bar unique in that you get to pick which free tapa you would like with each drink, and the menu is tantalizing. The owner behind the bar is a Brit, so that was helpful for those of us with poor language skills. In our time at Poë we ate seven delicious tapas including pork stew over rice , chick pea salad and chicken stew with polenta. We also tried our first tinto de verano, red wine with lemon soda. Great! The tinto was €1.80 and a caña (small glass) de cerveza only €1.20. Our total at Poë was a gobsmacking €11.40! Incredible. I can easily pay that much for a takeaway lunch of a sandwich with salad/soup and soda in Dublin.

After Poë we walked back to Plaza del Carmen where dancers were still twirling and stomping upon the stage. We stopped at another cervaceria and ordered a selection of meat and cheese tapas.


Supposedly the smoking ban for bars says that smoking is not permitted if children are allowed; it seems most bars in Granada have chosen ciggies over kids. Bill and I theorize that the clouds of nicotine add a bit of zing to the legs of jamon iberico suspended from the ceiling.


Monday morning we returned to Malaga, but not without a moment of sadness for our friends in Dublin who were under rainy skies. You can't see the radar in the pic, but trust me, it was rainy. We also regretted not ordering special pillows from the pillow menu.

Turns out I know a couple people who have lived in Granada, but I didn't remember because I filed the information into the great black box in my brain that was "Oh cool, Spain." Now that I've been there, I am thrilled that anyone I know got to experience this beautiful city day after day.

Evening in Granada

We arrived in Granada on May 2 just in time for siesta. The timing was perfect as we had been up since 4:30 for the 7:30 flight. We flew into Malaga, arriving around 11:00. We took a bus to the bus station, and then ate lunch at a sunny sidewalk cafe--meatballs and hand cut fries, preceded by a salad of greens with canned tuna and olives, followed by cafe con leche. Total €18.00.

While we were eating a man in a blue dress shirt sat at the table next to us. When I glanced at him again, the tie was off and his shirt was unbuttoned to his sternum. He drank a coffee and ate some buttered bread before picking up his briefcase and departing, buttoning his shirt and arranging his tie as he went.

Our skin was already turning pink after an hour, when we boarded the bus for Granada. The two hour trip took us into high hills with scrubby brush, not unlike Central Texas. We drove past groves of olive (or possibly almond) trees and stands of tall, straight poplars planted in tight rows.

After our nap at the hotel we walked over the Rio Genil into Central Grenada. We passed several bars packed with people watching a match. We walked through the Plaza del Carmen where a large stage was covered by adorable girls in traditional dresses. We had arrived in Granada during Dia de la Cruz, the Day of the Cross. We sat in the square for a while and watched the girls dance Sevillanas, a type of Flamenco traditional to Andalusia. The dancers curl their arms through the air above their heads, and follow that movement with their hips, while shaking their frilly skirts and stomping their feet.

Looking for dinner, we wandered down a street filled with sidewalk tables. Some of the restaurants were full, others deserted. I created a restaurant selection logic like this: Choose the first place you see with just one empty table. This restaurant was Casa Jose.

Bars in Granada have a wonderful tradition of serving a free tapa with every drink. Our gratis tapas at Casa Jose was fried sardines. We also ordered a plate of fried seafood which contained more sardines, calamari, shrimp and bacalao. My first encounter with bacalao in Barcelona was, shall we say, slimy. [Although Bill was okay with it.] This bacalao was seasoned with oregano and fried. The bacalao balls were the best bites on the platter.


After dinner, we wandered around and got some ice cream. The next morning after a large breakfast at the hotel, we headed toward the Alhambra.

Alhambra

This year Bill and I spent the May Bank Holiday weekend (plus a couple days) in the Andalusian region of Southern Spain. Our first stop was Granada, and when in Granada, you visit the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a collection of palaces and gardens from the height of Moorish rule in the 14th Century. We somehow missed the desk for audio guide rental, so enjoyed the Alhambra on an experiential beauty level alone, and so that's all I can share with you. Some of you may be interested in Andalusia's fascinating religious history. For you I can pass along a recommendation for God's Crucible by David Levering Lewis.

You have to reserve a time slot for the Nasrid Palaces. We were scheduled for 2:00 PM, so we started our visit there. We strolled through tiled courtyards and rooms with soaring ceilings where every surface is covered in intricate carvings. In our current age, we appreciate beauty with the snap of our digital shutters--Alhambra is highly pixel worthy.

Click here and here to view more Alhambra pics.

The grounds and terraced gardens are lovely. We also loved the series fountains joined together with small channels of water that flow through the grounds, along the paths and down stairs. The sound of tinkling water and fragrance of the gardens add to the stunning visual beauty.