Sunday - April 17, 2005
Spain: Malaga
Seeing as we have a timeshare condo we can use that is just an hour's drive away from Malaga, we felt like we were coming home in a way. We have visited all the places that the shore excursions were slated to go (Granada, Ronda, Mijas, Marbella and Puerto Banus) and didn't feel the need to pay for a guided tour, so we decided that we would just hire a taxi and poke around on our own for the day. It made for another lazy day where we didn't do a great deal of anything, which was just fine with us.
Malaga is a major city in the Andulucian area, on the Costa del Sol. There are some interesting places to visit in the city, and it is the birthplace of Picasso (and Antonio Banderas for the less esoteric of mind), but most people hit the ground and immediately head west to the resort towns along the coast. Some of the these towns are very overbuilt and tacky, like Torremolinos and Fuengirola, but others still retain a old town center and are beautifully located, such as Marbella and Estepona. Our condo is located in between these two towns, just across the highway from the port of Puerto Banus, the Spanish equivalent of Cannes. We decided that instead of sightseeing, we would head for our familiar stomping grounds and just see what had changed in the two years since we last visited. Our taxi driver drove like a bat out of hell, which made for a very exciting drive. I told Mike that I thought we would arrive before the tour buses that left an hour ahead of us!
We were happy and relieved to see that any changes made were for the better. Marbella has done a lot of work to spruce up its central park and the walkway that leads from it down to the sea. Paving tiles have been replaced, a series of sculptures by Dali have been added, and the plants and flowers were all looking cared for again. The old town is still a gem and our favorite restaurants are still in business, plus we saw a few new ones that we'll have to try the next time we stay. The orange trees that surround the main square were in bloom, and scent of orange blossoms was intoxicating as we sat in the warm sun and enjoyed a morning cappuccino. We wandered through the old town, through the park, down to the sea, and then back up to the central road where we caught a bus to Puerto Banus.
Like Cannes in France, Puerto Banus is the Spanish hangout of the rich and famous. You will see yacht after yacht docked in the marina, each one vying with the next to be the biggest and the most fancy. Restaurants and elegant boutiques line the marina promenade, making it a great place to people watch, but you have to be careful when walking to watch out for the Masseratis, Lamborghinis, Ferrarris, etc. that threaten to run you down. It is a particularly busy place at night and a fun place to go for a meal. We picked a nice restaurant looking out over the marina for a very Spanish lunch of olives, Gaspacho soup, and Gambas Pil-Pil (shrimps cooked in oil with lots of red chilli peppers and garlic), and white wine. It was a great way to while away an hour or so.
After a short walk along the beach, it was time to head back to the ship. Our taxi driver slowed down from about 160 km per hour to about 140, so it was slightly less of a white knuckle ride, but we certainly had no worries about missing the ship.