Malaga

  Strange thing happened today - I got up and it wasn’t sunny. Didn’t know what to do! Ended up taking the train to Malaga, and as fortune would have it, by the time I got there the sun was working again. Malaga itself is fairly standard – it’s got the old town with the tiny streets and a square at every corner and an impressive old church/cathedral/mosque in most every square and an old fort on a hill and a palace – you know, the usual stuff. Since the fort “Castillo de Gibralfaro’ has been sitting up there looking over the town for 700 years, I decided to go there first. Its a fair good hike up (~130m) but there are lots of benches and lookouts along the way and obviously lots of good views from the top.€2.20 to gain admittance to Gibralfaro and €3.65 to see both Gibralfaro and the palace below (Alcazaba) that Gibralfaro was built to protect. On the way down, pass through the Alcazaba Tunnel and in about 100m you can find a most excellent tapas cafe (on Calle Mundo Nuevo).



YUM! One free tapa with each beer!
those are little mini burgers and
eggplant con miel - delicious!



Once again, the only customer, but the tapas were superb! ..and cheap... There is definitely no shortage of cafes and restaurants to choose from in the old part of the city – nearly every square and every street has one, if not a row...



another square with another monument and more cafes - actually this
one was quite neat - absolutely huge!

 Trip total 9382km

 


- Alcazaba Tunnel -
look carefully and you might
see me sitting there enjoying
a beer and tapas in the sun!

  
 


art is everywhere - a wall of glass at the port



more art in the middle of the street!



and must not forget, El Toro!

Benalmedena

...typical

Tried to do a bit of studying today but got bored and went for a walk – had the thought that I might take the gondola that gives a 600m lift to the top of the mountain, but unfortunately it is still winter. Speaking of which, I heard a rumour that it’s the coldest winter in 25 years... I don’t think it really qualifies as cold here, but I will admit the mornings are rather chilly. I’m thinking the nail is pretty much in the coffin for the term ‘global warming’!

Took the bus to the old town Benalmedena Pueblo which is described as a typical white Spanish village (well it is that – a bit blinding at times) but I’m not sure if there is any ‘old’ left...certainly the streets are narrow – the main street is only wide enough for one lane, so there is a traffic light at each end. Had a look round, then ended up spending a sunny afternoon studying my Spanish on a pub patio.  I named the bus route there the ‘Circle Tour’ because I’m sure whoever designed the route simply played connect-a-dot with all the traffic circles they could find – a little bit like taking the teacup ride at the fair...

on the left, note the elevator which will take you up (or down)
the cliff - in case you don't have time to walk the path...now
that is public transport!



to Malaga

View from my patio

Train from Seville to Malaga was very reasonable (19.85euro). This was the slow train - there was a faster one that cut about 45min off the time, but I wasn't in a hurry and at €2.50 per glass of wine, I’m sure I could find a better use for the extra €30.  Initially, much of the trip was rather dull - once out of town, flat farmland for the most part, but after leaving Bobadillla, the last stretch into Malaga got rather mountainous and there was much scenery to look at. A short 5 minute stretch consisting of a series of tunnels and gorges was particularly fun, then lots of white houses with red tile roofs as we left the mountains and entered Malaga area. GPS didn’t work for the entire ride – I guess the trains are signal -proof, but the information panel said we travelled at up to 150km/h. 2hr40min later in Malaga main station I hop on the local train (€2.20) and zip off to Benalmedena (sort of a resort suburbia community). A 5minute walk down the hill and there is my apartment/hotel. It has a kitchen, and I can see a supermercado down the hill so off I go to get supplies. For those of you who were wondering if Spain is expensive or cheap, I'd have to say the travel so far was really inexpensive, the hostel I had in Seville was maybe not cheap, but it certainly was excellent value at €22 (desayunaro incluido). But let me describe groceries - this is going to kill you. Total bill €26... 1/3kilo each of cheese, ham, salmon, coffee, cocoa, 2Lwater, 750ml red wine, 2L beer, 1L orange juice, 3 tomatoes, cucumber, pizza, olives, 8 yogurt, 5 avocados, box of biscuits & a bag of rolls... Now some of you might say, “But mate, you’ve got 17 items on your list, how can that be? Everything would have to be like €1.5!” ...well, you’d be right...except for the cheese. It was €3.

uno el grande cervesa
..and cheap too!

....would you be interested to know how much it is to rent or buy an apartment?...

Apparently I was tired last night, after a walk round, I had dinner at 8ish, came home, put my feet up and fell asleep. Today is Sunday and the sidewalks have been put away for the day...so I will tell you about dinner. €18 total (tip tax everything including desert). I have always had this vision of the Mediterranean, sitting on a patio, eating fish and roasted peppers topped off with a nice glass of wine. Well its winter, and although I did sit outside last night, tonight I opted to sit inside...so no patio. It was a small restaurant, off the strip, but very nice. I was the only customer other than two gentlemen drinking coffee, but they assured me the kitchen was open. I recognize 'atun parrilla' on the menu and since I am already drinking a rather nice red wine... Rather clumsily, I ask for it 'less grilled' - thank goodness the waitress has a fair understanding of English! The chef brings it out and I perceive grilled pepper, potatoes and two rather large slabs of tuna. I give a tentative prod as I am initially sceptical, but the tuna falls apart exactly the way it should and I see that only the outer 3-4 mm are grilled. The flavour and texture are perfect! I notice the chef is watching me from the kitchen as I take my initial taste so I give him ‘the nod’. A moment later he brings out a tray of course salt in case I wish to augment the flavour a bit more... It was perhaps the best tuna I have ever had...and defiantly one of the better meals. Imagine how good it could have been if I’d gone to one of those busy places on the strip!.  J

Trip total 8992km



Seville

Well all the connections worked - got through at Gatwick a bit quicker than expected so had a fair bit of time to kill. Decided against going into London and opted instead to have an authentic English lunch at an authentic English pub. So I took a train to Crawley and 'ad a walk’ round the town center in search of said pub. ...bloody cold! Just as I was about to give up, there it was, the perfect pub!  It even came with a lively set of regulars, with whom I had a good chat. Seems it is a bit colder and snowier than usual for the south of England... 

Arrived in Seville on time -apparently Ryanair arrives on-time 90% of the time. Picked up the airport bus for 2.40euro and then a tram for €1.30 and walked the few remaining blocks and voila, here was my pension. Next morning, a nice breakfast of cereal coffee, juice, toast (con jamon y queso) and I was ready to explore.  The old part of Seville is the traditional medieval town design - narrow streets (many only a couple of meters wide and some nothing more than a shoulder width walkway)...and of course winding every which way.... a person probably could get lost in about three minutes in that maze! But, besides my paper map, I had my GPS and never a worry about where I was.... sometimes I'd find myself going in entirely the wrong direction, but I always knew where I was!  Had dinner at a restaurant/bar at the edge of a 'square' (more correctly a triangle). It was enlightening. The square was about 30 by 50 meters, a busy lane on one edge, and a fenced kids play park in the middle. Outside of this area served as a dog park and meeting place where you could have a drink and a chat while your dog or child went about their respective business.... Lo and behold, no catastrophe occurred during my time there due to animals near children who were near adults drinking in an unfenced public park... amazing! ...and I was there for a while - the kitchen wasn't open when I arrived at 7:00 pm so had no choice but to have a glass of wine or two while I waited....  Trip total 8750km

Seville really does have everything; 

 

old art

fashon



oranges - lots - everywhere!





a big tower

architecture

 

meeting places

 




shopping

 




decent transportation

  



medieval cathedral and palace

Christopher



parks



romance

Spain is next!

This has been in the works a long time now.  Dreaming for four or five years, actively considering for half a year and planning for two months now. The original thought was fairly straight forward:
 Home -> Spain _> Home
A bit of planning gave a timeframe and the rough destinations ...and it was at once obvious that direct flights were not in the picture. Mucho dinero! ...thus the plan was modified:
 Home -> London -> Spain -> London -> Home
Once the hotels were finalized the plan became:
 Home -> London ->  Malaga -> Ibiza > Alicante -> London -> Home

Right! So now you are in Europe and all you have to do is get from England to Spain. No problem, everyone knows that to get the best deals you should wait till you get there to make internal European flight bookings...? The falicy of this logic became very apperent once I checked what next day ticket prices were. Yikes! Like ten times the ten day advance price! ( Notice it is not a week in advance - those are still expensive too)....and of course at this point knowing that you're getting into London at 6AM would it be expecting too much to hope for a connection to Malaga that day? As it turns out, yes, it would be too much. ...oh, and it would be too much on the return flight as well... Many permutations of airlines, cities and airports later and we now have: one migrane, two lost days and a new plan... :

Home -> London -> Seville -> Malaga -> Ibiza > Alicante -> Madrid -> London -> Home

Yes, as it turns out, some of those internal flights were very cheap... well, until you pay for your luggage....and then they are just really inexpensive.

Yea!, I thought I was now good to go. The Spain internal connections should be the easy part - just wait for the day and walk up to the plane/train/bus/ferry counter and say "One ticket to Alicante, please."  ...um, no.   The ferry doesnt run in winter...only on Tuesday... the train doesn't go there then...its an overnight flight...bus? who knows, maybe, but how long will it take? So rush, rush check four different airlines two ferries and two trains and lose another day, and voila more schedule.

Home -> London -> Seville -> Malaga -> Mallorka -> Ibiza > Barcelona ->Alicante -> Madrid -> London -> Home

Well, the original schedule was pretty basic -  it was just a matter of being able to meet it. Well now I'm pretty sure I will. And in the end I get to go to a lot more places than I had originally planned. All said and done, I only needed four different airlines and one train. Simple!

Next time I think I might try it without a schedule.  ;)

So here was an interesting choice - would you, given the choice, save $$ and go way off course spending an extra 2 hours flying with an 8 hour (daytime) stopover in some new place, or would you just take the more expensive direct flight to your destination?

St Lucia - Gros Piton Day!

Getting there is half the fun - or so it is always said! Well in this case it certainly is true. Knowing that we were going to be climbing Gros Piton one day, we tried looking for the start point a couple of times in advance, but never quite found it. Got within a couple hundred meters one time... found sign posts north and south, but all the signs closer in have 'fallen down' - many still exist, but they are on the ground, which makes them really hard to see... On the day of, we came across some locals one of whom said he was headed there and would be happy to direct us - in exchange for the ride. A most agreeable arrangement.... Ten minutes later we arrive, and although I could go into great detail about the trek, it seems someone else has already done a much better job than I would.  So have a read of:

http://www.naturalbornhikers.com/GrosPiton/GrosPiton.htm 
The details are all very similar - even the guide Lucien was the same! - though he carried a banana this time instead of the rum (water) bottle.


Our GPS track and elevetion plot

 
 I notice the above link does not always function so you may have to use the trail search page and select 'St Lucia' and 'Pitons Managment Area'.




at the top!

Starting out at around 200 meters elivation, you climb to just under 800 meters. We made it to the top in 110 minutes at a relatively leasurely pace including 3 or 4 rest breaks. Coming down was nearly the same. 

In these pictures the yellow lines are hikes and all the others are driveable roads. For those that were there, N and S mark the north and south facing viewpoints,  A is a viewpoint where you get a great closeup of Gros Piton , B, another washed out bridge (under repair), C is the start of the hike near Fond Deux we didnt have time for, D a fabulous unmarked roadside/cliffside cafe. 

Viewpoint S - south -Vieux Fort in the far distance



Viewpoint N - north - Petit Piton in the forground and St Lucia's highest peak is in the clouds



Westy stress test

Ever wondered what would happen if a tree fell in the forest?

What if there was a Westfalia under it? As far as making a noise goes, I can set your mind at ease. You do hear a noise. I'm not sure if the Westy hears a noise though....

Branches punched a couple of holes in the topper, but otherwise there was surprisingly very little damage at first glance.  Looking a little closer though you notice the roof (not the topper) was compressed by about 2-3 inches. Because of the way the upper bed cushions are stowed between the roof and the topper, they absorbed a great deal of the impact, so the topper wasn't smashed and the impact load was spread out over the entire rear roof area.   It probably would look a wee bit different if the top had been up...

It was still a write-off in the end though, so after 15 years, it is time to look for a new westy!