A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA, MALAGA & ESTEPONA ON WEDNESDAY;

WEDNESDAY 27^th JANUARY 2016.

We were up early this morning and after getting ourselves ready we shot out across to the “ H10 Estepona Palace **** “ to join David & Jane for a ‘Bucks Fizz’ Champagne breakfast! The hotel has an excellent large  international breakfast buffet with everything you could want including baked beans! Today its another fine,clear & warm & sunny day as we set off on our travels. It was the time to set off along the coast road by the sparkling Mediterranean in the early morning sunrise to Malaga; we go into the centre of the city along the long promenade  coast road and found the underground car park which is right by Calle Marques De Larios!

We then had our morning coffee & pastries in the best ‘ Cafeteria’ on Calle Larios taking in the sights and sounds as well as the warm sunshine, again, with of course some glasses of chilled Cava to start the day off! It was then time to head off for a short walk to the famous market in the city “ Mercado Central de Altarazanas “  - as you can see in the pictures below, I bought some very small Baby New Potatoes in their Skins for our fish supper on Friday!

We then entered the old part of the city and got lost in the narrow streets and eventually appeared in the ‘Plaza Constitucion’ at the top of Calle Larios where we sat outside at the historic ‘ Cafe Central’ which is the oldest coffee house in Malaga serving over 50 different versions of Malaga coffee, which are depicted on the Marble walls, as you can see in one of the five walls below! As well as the coffees they serve small chilled quarter bottles of ‘Cava’  which appeared, as if by magic, as we took in the sights of the central square as the council workmen erected the stages for this weekends ‘Carnival Festival’ in the city.

It was then time to head off around the old part of the city to find a Tapas Bar/ Restaurant for lunch, as you walk along the numerous narrow streets all the places have people outside chasing you, which we ignore, I eventually found after going in and out of various places, one that had nobody chasing you, it turned out to be the best/finest Tapas/ Restaurant experience that we have ever had! “ Cervecerias Los Gatos “ in Playa de Uncibay is the place!! No need to chase up the business, its packed out with total Spanish locals, business men, ladies that lunch, young & old lovers, celebrity’s, a famous TV comedian/personality arrived just after us! The un-assuming owner runs the place by greeting all his customers with hugs and kisses, seating them around and fitting them into the small two roomed restaurant with outside tables, the waiters are all characters and the place as to be seen to be believed! Its a Spanish ‘Brasserie’ with attitude!! See some pictures below with more above of the place to be taken by Jane with her Mobile Phone camera!!

The first bottle of Cava arrived, with two more come to later, one on the ‘House’ David was drinking the  White ‘House’ wine from a large requested fine glass that kept being topped up, without asking! We choose a selection of Tapas, starting with the finest plate of sliced ‘Iberico’ Ham that we have ever tasted, it was full of flavour, just sliced and still shining and moist – a perfect start; the ‘Manchego’ Cheese was coated with local honey, a perfect ‘Vinaigette’ salad of Olives and local Tomato wedges arrived, then an excellent ‘Double’ Tortilla slice,  the plain fresh local ‘Gambas’ were the freshest we have ever had as we peeled them with anticipatory excitement! The ‘House’ “ Russian Salad “ was very tasty with a fine Tuna and lots of texture to the overall dish, then the famous House ‘ Croquettes’ came along made with the finest local Malaga ‘Salchichas’ Baby Sausages, later they brought in a very large ‘ Paella’ that was passed out on the ‘House’ to each table by the owner, it was very hot, not too dry and made with ‘Belly Pork’ – it was memorable to say the least! 

Then more glasses of Cava appeared on the table, again, on the ‘House’ with a sweet Cherry lollipops on sticks in them! The ‘House’ specialty is a four-person – four meat platter including local ‘Lamb Cutlets’ and ‘Rabo de Toro’!! We shall return!! Oh and yes as we started to try and leave four hours later we were given ‘Baby Gin & Tonics’ on the ‘House’, again! When I finally managed to get the ‘Cuenta - Bill’ - as the waiters did not want us to leave, to say that we were surprised was to say the least, it was, wait for it ‘53 EUROS’ for the four of us, we were expecting a bill of about 150 Euros !! We shall return very soon!!

We then found our way back to the ' Plaza Constitucion' and  had some coffee's and mini bottles of Cava at the 'Cafe Central' as we reflected on our day in Malaga. 

We then headed back along the coast as the sun went down over Africa and ended up in Estepona Marina, our old hunting ground, which we introduced to Jane back in 2008, she still has the pictures of the two policemen that she ‘accosted’ on her phone! We sat outside over looking the marina and across to Africa as we had some more glasses of Cava – the traditional ‘Sundowners Drink’ in our favourite ‘ Cafe Bar Reinaldo’ as we made our good bye’s after one the finest ‘Helluva’ days on record!! After dropping the folks off back at the hotel we headed back up into the hills to sunny Manilva.

Thoughts for the Day, See above.

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