MALAGA - PICASSO

SUNDAY 14th AUGUST

  It was fiesta time in Malaga today, it being the feast of the Assunption of The Virgin Mary - a small fact that we overlooked when setting out on our journey!  We found our way to the town centre and an underground carpark relatively easily.  Adam then started pannicking about finding a bar showing the Stoke v Chelsea match, so we parted company with Karen,Leia and I going to the Picasso Museum and Adam in search of the Chelsea game.  We rendezvoused at the museum at 5.00pm.

  The crowds were teeming in the centre and much alcohol was being consumed.  However all was peaceful and quiet (and air-conditioned) in the museum.  Malaga was a town that Picasso left at the age of 19 and vowed never to return until General Franco was dead.  Sadly for him the General outlived him by two or three years.

  Adam wandered the town for a couple of hours and found numerous Irish pubs but not one of them was showing the Chelsea game.  Amazingly enough they all seemed to prefer showing Spanish football.  Ah well, you can't win them all, and Chelsea fell into that category too!

 We got back in time to go out for an evening meal, which was a good thing as the waiter in Malaga obviously didn't hear my order for a Brie Crepe and only delivered Karen's order so I had to make do with my cup of coffee!

UP IN THE MOUNTAINS - ALHAMA DE GRENADA

SATURDAY 13th AUGUST

  We decided to set off on a journey of about an hour and a half each way up into the mountains to visit a town located on the edge of a gorge called Alhama de Grenada, which derives its name from the thermal baths located there, "Al-hammam" being the arabic for the baths.
  Immediately upon arrival Leia was sick in the car, which took a while to clean up, but she made a rapid recovery!  A tour of the town yielded a view of the gorge, the local church and an old Moorish castle as well as Constitution Square, but we never made it to the baths!

A view down into the gorge.

Moomee!!!!

All in step.

Ice cream break.

                              A pause for photo op in the mountains.

DOWN THE NERJA CAVES

FRIDAY 12th AUGUST

  After the usual stint in the pool, we set off for the Nerja Caves.  This proved to be a more than interesting excursion.  The problem was the low lighting which made photography difficult.  No flash was permitted.  However the caves were enormous and contained a stalagtite that was some 30 metres in heighr - I think it said the tallest in Europe.

NERJA

TUESDAY 9th - THURSDAY 11th AUGUST

  I was awakened by cries of "Moomee" at 8.30am and wandered into Leia's bedroom.  Seemingly I was quite an acceptable substitute for "Moomee", for Leia was soon chatting avidly to me.  She wanted to get dressed and wanted her "Party" dress which Nana had bought her.  I told her that we didn't wear party dresses in the morning and we would be going to pool, and you certainly didn't wear a party dress to the pool.  I picked one out for her and she quite happily put it on, informing me she want wanted milk - hot milk.  We descended to the kitchen and I heated some milk up in the microwave, when I say heated, I mean it was scalding hot.  I added cold milk to it and held it under the cold water tap until it was eventually acceptable for Leia.

  There is only one WiFi area in this part of town and it is at the H20 bar which doesn't open until 2.00pm, so today (Tuesday 16th) is the first time I have been able to continue the blog.  Last week we went to the pool and local beach and then out for a meal around 9.30pm on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so the precise nature of events is a bit blurred.  Leia started going to bed later and later, until midnight was almost her bedtime, and I'm glad to say slept in a bit later.  As I was out with Adam on the terrace consuming beer and wine most nights until the early hours, I was more than glad of this, as I was Leia's regular morning companion!

  I will therefore post photos to show the events of these days:

 The pool has become a regular daily haunt, sometimes more than once a day.  I have to confess that it is very pleasantly warm and even I have no hesitation in venturing in!  Not that I have much choice as I'm told by Leia that I have to go in and her word is law!  Armed with a ring and her "muscles" she happily floats around in the pool and is particularly fascinated by other little girls who are there sometimes. The first time we went there was nobody else in the pool so it came as a bit of a shock to her when the place was crowded the following day.  It took a while to persuade her to enter the pool complex!

 A happy passenger!

 Out for dinner late!

OFF TO SUNNY SPAIN

MONDAY 8th AUGUST

  I set off about 10.30am for Wembley Central where I caught a train to Gatwick via Clapham Junction.  I arrived over 2 hours before departure time, only to discover, once I had checked in that the flight was delayed by 45 minutes.  It gave me plenty of time to look around and I purchased Andrew Strauss' book on the Ashes tour to Australia.  It was £15.99, but the cashier told me that a previous customer hadn't utilised a half price voucher, so he would give it to me.  This reduced the price of the book to under £8.00, making it an even more enjoyable read.  I relived those halcyon moments in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.  In no time at all it was time to board and off we soared bound for Malaga.

  I had managed to establish contact with Adam after boarding the plane, and he told me to contact him when I had landed.  I gave him our new ETA.  Upon arrival he texted me to go to the Euopcar Rental Office.  There were no signs for car rentals anywhere in Arrivals.  I wandered around and was none the wiser.  I asked at a tourist information desk and the girl had no idea where the car rentals were!  So much for tourist information.  After asking numerous other people and wandering what seemed like miles I found the office and got myself put on the car insurance.  Adam, had in the meantime wandered off to another terminal in search of me, and gave me directions where to go.  Needless to say it took me ages to find him and I covered another marathon in searching for him.  Asked if I was happy to drive back to Nerja, I answered in the affirmative, and was immediately made the driver-in-chief for the rest of the holiday!

  It was 38 degrees C (or 100F) that day which was certainly quite warm but I was well versed in the sun and its effects.  Leia was a delight from the first and was completely at ease with me from the start, and I regularly get a kiss and a hug from this effervescent four year old!  Adam had laid in the beer and the wine and after Karen and Leia had gone to bed, Adam and I sat out on the veranda until 2.30am consuming the drink and smoking some Cuban cigars I had bought over from Brazil.  I was allocated an upstairs bedroom - in fact the master bedroom - across the landing from Leia.  Adam and Karen were two floors down in the basement and well away from any cries in the night!

HOMEWARD BOUND

SATURDAY 30th JULY

  So in the words of Simon & Garfunkel, I'm Homeward bound.  I was concerned about my alarm clock going off - it has failed me a couple of times - so I awoke several times during the night.  Thankfully it worked as I nodded off into a deep sleep!  The cab arrived at 4.30am as requested and then proceeded to drive non stop to the airport - this involved going through approximately 18 red lights!  I must admit that I will not miss the continual honking of horns, cyclists and motorcyclists ignoring one way signs, and the general manic driving of most citizens clustered around the equator!

  My flight was shown as going to three different places with Salvador coming up last.  Were we going to land prior to getting to Salvador,?  There was really no way of telling.  I settled close to gate 8 which was shown as the departure gate, only to be thwarted by a last minute change of mind, when the gate was changed to no 7.  This instigated a mass stampede by the waiting hordes that I distained from joining.  As I was in row 3 I knew I'd be one of the first off, and unlike Ryanair nobody was going to grab your seat!

  And indeed I was.  I looked at the departure board, but there wasn't a single flight to Sao Paulo on it.  However the departure board terminated about half an hour before my flight was due.  I took a wander around the terminal, but there wasn't a lot there and it was absolutely chucking it down outside.  I suddenly spotted Sao Paulo on the board.  Took a closer look but it wasn't my flight number and it wasn't TAM airlines.  I wandered around aimlessly and then I had another look at the rain, but it had all gone and you wouldn't even have known a drop had fallen!

    I took another look at the departure board and several more had appeared.  There was one to Guarulhos.  But wait, it had my flight number against it.  Surely there weren't two airports in Sao Paulo?  What's the odds I'd be flying into one and flying out of the other.  I quickly searched for my Trailfinders info on the flight home and it stated "Sao Paulo (Guarulhos)" - phew! Thank heavens for that.

  It was about two and a half hours flight to Sao Paulo, and I got my luggage fairly quickly after arrival.  I went in search of BA check-in and found that the queue was non-existent, I walked straight up to the check-in desk - that was a first! No problems with weight, I was allowed 2 x 23Kg.  I had in fact removed all the heavy items from my shoulder bag and put them in my suitcase.  It was about 2.30pm and as my flight was due out at 6.00pm I had loads of time, or so I thought.  "Boarding is at 3.15, closes at 3.45" the lady told me.  I went and had a look at the departure board, the flight was leaving at 4.15pm and not 6.00pm as it stated on my Trailfinders itinerary.  There was a massive queue for security but it moved steadily so I got through that OK.  Then passport control and that was moving much more slowly.  There were different queues for different types of passengers, but what the criteria were I had not a clue.  I offered my passport to a bloke with ID round his neck, and he said, "Ah! a foreigner".  I confirmed this assumption.  "Are you over 60?", he asked.  As I am considerably over 60 I immediately confirmed this fact.  He promptly opened up a pathway to a queue of some five people!  This is the first time that I've come across a special queue for OAP's!

  Having got through with half an hour or so before boarding time I looked in the duty free shop to see if thet had Lacoste.  I had declined to travel halfway across Fortaleza in search of the Lacoste shop, even though Mark told me that the shirts were made in Peru and therefore much cheaper than their European counterparts.  I dashed off to the Red Somethng-or-Other Lounge, got a beer, a wine, a coke and some sandwiches and rang Mark on Skype.  I gave him the price and he asked me to get him a size 5 in light brown or black.  Black it was, as there was nothing in brown.  I made another purchase for my trip to Spain, and went in search of the departure gate, which of course had to be at the other end of the terminal.

  I had a pleasant surprise, my seat was an aisle seat in front of the bulkhead, so plenty of room.  I must admit the meal was the best plane meal I had had on the entire journey.  A piece of fillet steak that melted in your mouth, with potatoes in cheese sauce and veg.  An odd snooze during the journey saw me arrive reasonably fresh at Heathrow.  I caught the train to Boston Manor and arrived almost simultaneously with Mark.  It was a beautiful warm day, and I soon had a wash going - in fact it took two to see to all my clothes.  Mark cooked some lamb, so I was well fed, and in sufficiently good form to go to the Black Horse (driven by Mark) to meet Alan and Jim.  I thoroughly enjoyed three pints of different bitters, the first such beer to cross my lips in over 9 months.  I slept well.  I'm off to Spain next Monday, Poland in September and probably back to Oz in late October/early November for the wedding, so I may carry on the blog, for those who have got used to starting their day at work with a perusal of my activities.