Our hotel in Torremolinos is on the beech. To get up to the town and the train station we climb a lot of steps. Excellent exercise!!

Today we climbed up to the train station and caught the train into Málaga to go to to the Málaga Picasso Museum. Picasso was born Málago and lived the first twenty years of his life here. The museum has more than 200 of Picasso’s works.

In the basement are the Phoenician, Roman, Islamic and Renaissance archaeological findings from when they built the museum.

I missed it but while we were in the Picasso Museum Duke saw an older gentleman bringing his glasses to his eyes while his cane was still in his hand. He almost put his cane through a 400 year old painting that was being displayed because it influenced Picasso. One of the guards threw herself between the painting and the cane and barely saved the painting. Afterwards she tried to tell him to be careful but who knows if he understood. The guard was still recovering when we moved on.

We left the museum and took a break for some coffee

Then we went to the Picasso birth place museum which was also excellent.

Then we took the train back to Torremolinos and had a great dinner near our hotel.

This morning before leaving our hotel we went out to get a bit of breakfast. Something different to us that is always offered everywhere we’ve been so far in Spain is toast with crushed fresh tomato. I tried it this morning. It was pretty good.

After breakfast we walked to the bus stop and caught a bus to Málaga. From Malaga we caught a subway to Torremolinos and the walked down to the coast where our hotel is.

For dinner we climbed the hill back into town and had a tomato salad and another great fresh fish dinner.

Today we spent a wonderful day relaxing on the coast in Nerja at the east end of the Costa del Sol. We walked down to a lookout called Balcón de Europa. Apparently the King of Spain called it this in the early 20th century. Hence Duke’s picture with the King.

Below us on the beech was a fisherman fixing his net and next to us on the lookout was a harp musician busking. The temperature was in the low 60s and it was a perfect day to just stroll and enjoy the view.

We went back to our room to read and rest and then we felt an earthquake!! It was a magnitude 5.1 and apparently it was 25 miles off the coast of Morocco due south of us. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us10004g3i

It gave us a pretty good jolt. I thought we might even see a small tsunami but if there was one we missed it.

Later on we went for a walk on the beech to see if a beach front paella place that I read about in the guide book was open. They have seating on the beach for what looks like several hundred people but since this is the off season there were only about a dozen people around. Nerja must be packed in the summer!

Tonight we had dinner at a tavern not far from our hotel. The owner told us the fish was very fresh so I had dorado and Duke had salmon. It was divine! With a bottle of wine, dessert, and coffee the total bill was $54.

Tomorrow we are off to a town called Torremolinos near Málagaalso on the coast.

This morning in Granada we walked to the Monasterio de San Jerónimo. It was unlike any church I have ever seen. Almost all the walls and ceilings had painted scenes and as Lonely Planet says “the stained glass literally pales in comparison.”

We walked back to our hotel, got our bags and took a taxi to the bus station where we caught a bus south to the town of Nerja on the Mediterranean. We are staying at a Parador right on the beach. As we left Granada we also left the olive trees behind. And the towns on the Mediterranean look different too. Almost all the buildings are white.

We checked into the Parador. Because we belong to the Amigos program we get points for every euro we spend at a Parador and we get a coupon for a free drink when we check in. So that has been our routine. We check in then go down to the bar for a glass of wine or beer. It is clear from all the shops and signs that this area has a lot of British snow birds. In the dining room next to the bar there was an English group with six tables of duplicate bridge.

We took the elevator down to the beech. That’s the elevator in the picture below. Then walked along the almost deserted beech. The weather here is a lot warmer than inland and the Mediterranean was calm and relaxing.

We had dinner in the Parador dining room.

We are spending two nights in Granada which is nice. It is amazing how fast one can ‘settle in’.

We started relatively early this morning to explore the Alhambra. It is network of Moorish palaces, irrigated gardens and towers sitting above the city it is world heritage site and rightfully so!

One of my favorite parts about our trip so far is being here in winter. Sometimes it can be cold but having so many sites almost to ourselves is wonderful. I really don’t like fighting crowds and it seems we never have to.

It was quite a climb from our hotel up to the Alhambra. We savored the views from the towers. Our room must be visible down there someplace. Then we got in line for our 9:30 ticket to the Palacios Nazaries. This central palace complex was all jaw dropping carved walks and ceilings, geometric gardens and running water and fountains. In my opinion the Muslim geometric designs stand the test of time much much better than medieval Christian paintings.

We stopped for coffee in the parador that is in the old convent of San Francisco inside the Alhambra. Someday we may stay here but it is the most expensive parador in Spain. A room even now in winter would be about €300.

After our coffee break we strolled through the gardens. Even in their winter dormancy they were gorgeous. Leaving the Alhambra we headed down hill back to our hotel for a siesta.

This afternoon we visited the Royal Chapel. I’m sure I learned about Ferdinand and Isabella in first grade when I first learned about Columbus. Of course we didn’t learn about how Ferdinand and Isabella united Spain or how they completed the reconquista and took over Granada from the Moors in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella are laid to rest in the Royal Chapel. We saw their coffins in the crypt below their marble monuments.

For dinner we went to a taverna near our hotel and had a bottle of wine the grilled vegetable plate, the cheese plate and the free tapas that I think was beef. It was another wonderful meal for less than the wine alone would have cost at home.

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