Day 30- Ronda to Malaga

The day started out with us being stuck in the car park of the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel in Ronda the car was parked for us so we didn't know what to expect when getting the car out. This was the tightest car park we have ever seen and getting out was proving very difficult. Along came an angel in a bikkie disguise and he eventually got it out for us.

That was the first hiccup.

    Road to Malaga was very, very windy and lots of wind today.

   Acres and acres of olive trees everywhere.

   Lots of small isolated white towns.

Second hiccup about to descend upon us. After a not so comfortable drive we got to Malaga only to drive around and around for 45 minutes with the gps sending us into streets that are pedestrian access only. We knew where we roughly had to go but couldn't get there and there was no where to pull over to park. Just about to give up and park outside the city we decided to follow a taxi into what we thought was a restricted access street but it was our last resort. The taxi went ahead of us and we couldn't follow him. We found ourselves at the end of the main shopping mall of the city, not sure what we should do we pulled over. 

Within seconds we were pounced on by two police bikes. Can you imagine in this time of terrorism a car stopping at the end of a very busy pedestrian mall is not the best thing to do. Thank heavens they were OK with us and pointed us in the right direction.

   The view from the sixth floor of our hotel, The Hotel Curro. At the end of the street is the spot where we pulled up at the end of the mall, so we weren't too far from the hotel. This street  below looks like a pedestrian street not one you can drive on as it is all patterned tiles.

Third hiccup was the first room we were given, room 707, had an air conditioner that sounded like an old generator, soooo loud. After waiting for them(ages) to see if they could fix it we moved rooms.

  The mall where we pulled up in the car. Lots of main streets and malls around Spain have shade covering the entire length.

   After an eventful day we decided to walk along the port area and head to the beach.

   Malaga is the second largest city in Andalucia and is today a thriving port.

   Malagueta Beach is right around the corner from the port and is not like any of our beaches. It has very course dark sand and the water is not that clean. We were sitting next to a man, Pablo, at lunch who lives in Australia most of the time and in Malaga with his wife for about 3 months each year. He informed us that the closer you are to the port the dirtier the water will be.

   The beach is packed and it was about 5.30 when we arrived and it kept getting busier and busier. It was wall to wall people. When we left about 7 there were people still arriving.

   Dinner at a great spot right on the beach.

   A dish that you have to have, according to Pablo, is barbecued fish over hot coals. Very delicious.

Malaga is very different from the other cities of Spain that we have visited so far. Pablo described it as friendly and easy going place.