Malaga - The weather is perfect, we're going sightseeing.

30/1/13

Wow! We realised today the we have been in Spain for four weeks. Anyone would think we like it here.

We opened the window today and were greeted by perfect weather, at last. I've been wearing a pair of Craghoppers brand lined pants for months (one of the best buys of the trip, warm and oh so comfortable) but today I broke out the unlined pants and a short sleeved shirt. Yahoo!

Suzanne decided to wear this sign she found in the room. I wonder if that's a hint?

Subtle hint?

On our way to the Picasso Museum we had a breakfast consisting of, wait for it...Churros and chocolate. The churros were superb, and the chocolate was delicious. Here's our version of how to eat churros. Usually step one and two are reversed by the locals:

Step 1: Break off a piece of churro,

and dip it in the hot chocolate.

Step 2: Dip the churro in sugar.

Step 3: Eat.

Step 4: Drink the hot chocolate.

We waddled away from breakfast and found ourselves on the main shopping strip. The shops here are fantastic. Full of all sorts of goodies at prices that are very tempting. A quick visit to the Desigual shop was a fail, as we came out empty handed. Then we came across a really cool little toy shop, and look what I found...

...a little electric Rossi replica Ducati Moto GP bike,

only 349 euros. I so wanted it...

...and this little Vespa replica.
(With training wheels Wanda)

Then it was time to eat again. I can't believe how much we have to eat to keep our energy up. Well, that's my excuse. We walked past a cafe and the waiter very politely invited us in by telling Suzanne they had soup. After devouring a large two course lunch, we were discussing how we could see a cat in the logo printed on a snack packet n the table. Then we could see two cats.

Then I saw the name of the restaurant,

Dos Gattos...or, Two Cats. What can I say?

As we continued on our wander we met a couple of motorcycle riding coppers and I asked them about all the motos riding in the bus / taxi lanes. They said "No, it is not allowed, but the police don't worry unless you are being dangerous." So the bottom line is it's not allowed, but if you do it, no one cares. Brilliant. Then we had a bit of a chat and they gave us a few pointers on good places to see. Like El Pimpi. They said we had to go and have a glass of wine there.

Well we were both brought up to obey policeman, so off we went. We sat outside and enjoyed our wine, wondering why it was supposed to be so special. 

Suzanne saying "Look, my new Desigual top

matches the flowers."

Then Suzanne trotted off to the ladies and came back saying "You have to come inside", so in we went.

El Pimpi has been a part of Malaga for decades and is THE place to go. There were signed photos of plenty of famous people on the walls, and wine barrels that had also been signed.

The wall of fame included the likes of Suzanne's favourite, Sean Connery and many, many more.

Placido Domingo.

Puss in boots, El Gato Con Botas,
Antonio Banderas.

It was an uber cool place, but had a really nice, relaxed atmosphere and very friendly staff. We enjoyed it a lot.

By the time we left it was too late to visit the Picasso Museum as we had to meet Suzanne's painty friend, so Mr Picasso will have to wait til tomorrow. 

On our way back to the hotel we found a tiny, little clothing shop chock full of really nice stuff, so Suzanne scored a few much needed tops to replace the ones she's been wearing for the last six months. It will be nice to see her in something different.

We met up with Pat (the face painter) and Daniel her partner in the hotel bar. What a lovely pair of people. Pat is a real laugh and Daniel and I have a few things in common. It was a fun night with lots of face painting discussion and laughs. Pat told us (as did Malena in Alicante) that Carnival is on this weekend and next weekend, so we've decided to trip down to Morocco, then head back up to Malaga for next weekends Carnival festivities. Thanks for a great night guys, we'll see you next weekend.

We are certainly living up to our friend Tony's Wrong Way Round name for trip by back tracking a lot. Tomorrow we will visit The Picasso Museum.

Granada to Malaga, on our personal winding road.

29/1/13

First up, for our West Aussie friends, it's not Mar-lar-ga - it's Mal (Malcom) - u (up) - ga (guppy).

We're out of here. We punched Malaga into the sat nav. At Suzanne's suggestion we then pushed the "winding roads" button, and it told us it was going to take three and a half hours to cover a hundred and sixty kilometres. You know what that means. Fun time.

Getting out of town was a very pleasant ride.

Feel like an orange? Just reach out and grab one as you ride past. There are orange trees everywhere here.

Just a small decoration over the front door.

Once we were out of town, the first part of today's ride was a run down the freeway, then it was onto nice little flowing roads up into the mountains. It was a very relaxing ride to start the day. 

Here we go.

Hmm, snow. I wonder if we'll end up there today?

Roller-coaster roads

There was no shortage of three things today...

Rocks,

mountains,

and olive trees.

Our stomachs told us it was time to eat just as we rolled into Los Canos De La Alcaiceria. These guys are switched on. They have a great hotel and offer guests ATV and horse riding along with a lot of other activities. We broke our own rule last night and booked a hotel in Malaga. If we hadn't, we would probably have spent a night or two here.

The best part though was what Suzanne found. Over near the gigantic fireplace was a small cage. In that cage there was a...

...baby hedgehog, or erizo in Spanish.

Does Suzanne look happy?

Just how cute is this?

We've been keen to see a hedgehog for our entire trip, and today we scored, big time. Not only did we see one, but Suzanne got to cuddle it as well. It made a great day even better.

After I dragged Suzanne away from her newest friend, we had our usual soup lunch, then took a few photos of the hotel lounge area.

Now that's a fireplace.

Is this a barking Gecko?

WARNING - If you're not a fan of animal trophies, you might like to scroll down the page a bit.

You think this is scary?

Check out how big he is.

Then it was winding roads time again...

 The road was like this for miles, and miles, and miles.

The terrain was incredibly rocky,

and home to hundreds of goats.

Suzanne got creative with the camera and our shadows.

There are buildings like this all over Spain.

It's a shame they've fallen into disrepair.

The roads just kept getting better and better.

The roads were from heaven and I was in the groove enjoying them. Then Suzanne asked me to slow down for the first time ever. I think it had something to do with the Big Mykolajenko Wheelbarrow scraping it's way through one particular corner. I'm just trying to get the most wear out of my tyres. Honest.

Not much later the camera battery went flat so there are no more photos from the camera, only a couple from my phone.

As we rode along one ridge I saw a bridge and said to Suzanne "I'm glad we're not riding over that. Look how high it is".

We looked down on this bridge and I thought it was scary...

...then I saw this one. I hope we don't come back this way.

Then I realised we were probably up a mountain twice as high as the height of the bridge. That was our last photo stop and we sat back and enjoyed the winding ride the rest of the way into Malaga.

After our one star hotel in Granada, we deserved a treat and checked into a nice hotel. It even had hot water - very nice thank you. Putting my bike in the garage was a new experience. I had to ride into a lift to go down to the car park.

We wandered out and finished off the day with a nice Tapas snack in a little bar near the hotel.

All in all, I'd call it a bloody fantastic day.

One last photo of today's roads. Fun, fun, fun.

We visit The Alhambra, in Granada, Spain.

28/1/13

There's not a lot to tell today, but it was a very full day. How is that possible?

A few people have told us that one of the must see things in Granada is the Alhambra. So today we went for a visit. You can read up on the history of The Alhambra here:

http://www.alhambra.org/eng/index.asp?secc=/inicio

http://www.alhambradegranada.org/en/

It was an amazing place and the number of hours that went into building it must have been staggering. Here are a few of the hundreds of photos we took.

Suzanne patting a baby Dalek.

Our photos don't do this place justice at all. It was stunning to see how much work had gone into building it. 

So you thought today's blog wouldn't have any animal photos didn't you...

Hello blue eyes. This guy was asleep in the garden, 

and came running out for a pat when he saw Suzanne.

After all our walking around the Alhambra we were both physically and mentally tired. We needed sustenance, so we headed back to the little restaurant we discovered when we arrived. It was soup time again, this time seafood, followed buy a plate of fried seafood. Yes it was deluxe.

As we try to fit in with the locals wherever we go we did the right thing and went back to our hotel for a siesta. It must have been a hard day as we didn't wake up til about ten pm, and by then neither of us wanted to go out for dinner. We probably didn't need it anyway. 

In the morning we're on the bike again and off to Malaga, and we'll meet up with another of Suzanne's painty friends. That should be fun.