Sexton's Travels

Thursday, January 28, 2016

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM A VERY WARM & SUNNY MANILVA, MALAGA & ESTEPONA;

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.

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA. RONDA & ESTEPONA;

A WARM & SUNNY MANILVA, RONDA & ESTEPONA ON TUESDAY;

TUESDAY 26^th/ JANUARY 2016.

We had a quick breakfast and then got ourselves ready for the day; we shot across to the “ H10 Estepona Palace **** “ and met David & Jane in the foyer, it was so nice to see then both after a little while since they were last over here. After a good catch up with all their news we sorted out the day ahead, we discussed the various options and David said that he would like to go to Ronda for the day as he had so much about it from Jane when she came over for the first time back in 2008 when we gave her the ‘royal tour’!

David had hired a rather special car from the airport over in Malaga, a “ Mini Cooper ‘S’- its very fast ( sports mode! ) with all the latest gimmicks including a very good Sat-Nav ( not needed! ) – the only problem that we had to push/shove/squeeze Jane & Brenda into the back seats and then get them out again when we arrived anywhere!! I took us up through the mountains through Casares and then down and up the valleys to the white mountain village of Gaucin and then past Algatocin coming into the back streets of Ronda and across the famous bridge into the underground car park that we use in the centre of the town, excellent driving by David and the co-driver/navigator was not bad also! See the first pictures as we arrived in Ronda ( little Japan !) taken across from the famous Bull Ring!

We then walked into the old part of the town to the main square and soon found a nice table at the main bar for our first bottle of Cava, in fact it was a rather different Spanish Sweet ‘Prosecco’ style Champagne! It was a glorious day down here on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ – as forecast, the skies were blue and the sun was out early, by lunchtime it reached 19 degs and there was no breeze, in fact as the day went on it got even nicer; we then went for a walk to take in all the sights of Ronda, fighting or way through the large crowds of ‘Japanese’ visitors to the bridge & gorge, the old town and churches, the Bull Ring, the old boutique hotels on the cliff face etc.

It was then time to find a bar in the old town for a ‘light’ Tapas style lunch, we ended up in a very old ‘Taberna’ just off the square where we had a very nice lunchtime ‘session’ with this time ‘Cava’ – which soon became our chosen drink, for the next two days, we had a selection of the tapas with also a Roasted Shank of local Lamb to share!

We then set off back down to coast on the famous & spectacular A-376 ‘drivers’ road through the mountains, one of the ‘top ten best drives’ in Europe! It comes out in San Pedro de Alcantara so we then went around the new ‘ Boulevard’ to give then a taste of the new addition to the town, we then headed along the coast past a sparkling Mediterranean back into Estepona where we went up to the new Orchid House, which was sadly closed for five days for essential maintenance!! – you can’t plan everything!! We then passed the new and controversial ‘Gold’ statue on the new island in the centre of the town, which the Mayor commissioned without anybodies permission! See the picture below, not very good so I will take another one another visit!

It was then time for some refreshment, so we ended up in the ‘Champagne/Sushi Bar’ on the promenade where we had a bottle of their excellent ‘Cava Rosdao’ with fresh local Strawberry garnish sat in the hot sunshine outside at 6-00pm!

We then retired to hotel where we then ended up in the lounge overlooking the views across to Gibraltar & Africa – more bottles of ‘Cava’ appeared as we reminisced about the good old days!! One ‘Helluva ‘ day with great friends – with more to come!

NB, For all the family over in Australia!

Thoughts for the Day, See above.

Monday, January 25, 2016

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY FROM SUNNY MANILVA:

A MILD & DRY SUNNY MANILVA ON MONDAY AT THE START OF AN 'HELLUVA' WEEK !

MONDAY 25^th/ JANUARY 2016.

“ NEWSFLASH “ A 6.3 ‘TERREMOTO’ – EARTHQUAKE HITS ANDALUCIA !!

At 5 -22 am this morning a 6.3 earthquake took place 100 miles of the coast of Malaga, in the Mediterranean off the coast of the Spanish enclave of Melilla; all across the region and of course in Melilla there was substantial damage from falling masonry but no fatalities. Here in sunny Manilva the ‘earth’ did not move for us, I checked with Brenda and she confirmed that she had felt nothing!

After a quick cup of tea and a piece of toast we shot off on our travels across to Estepona, I called into my barbers, Manuel, for dry shave, shampoo, trim & cut with a face and scalp massage, meanwhile Brenda went off sales shopping and returned with a nice jumper & scarf; we then shot along to the computer shop to see Ben our ‘IT’ man, he recommended a ‘Logitech’ set of ear phones/mike to go with equipment that I have, we will buy them when the studio is set up, Finally we went up to the ‘Poligamo ‘ Industrial estate to go to the Car Hypermarket for Oil & Coolant for the ‘Ferrari’

On the way we passed the new roundabout in Estepona where the Mayor has erected a new Gold statue of two people ‘coming together’ that he commissioned from a famous sculptor in Madrid for 50.000 Euros! Its startling and provocative and stands out in the sunshine from a great distance, I will take a picture when we next pass it in the next few days!!

When we returned we were greeted by ‘ Chispa’ who came running up the street, she has the wind in her tail and is charging around the house like the mad dog that she is! Its milder this morning with no sign of any rain, snow or wind, unlike the rest of Spain, the forecast for the next few days is for more of the same and reaching 19 degs again by lunchtime.

The first of our Pensions arrived in our bank account this morning as forecasted it was considerably down on last months, which was already down, so its not looking good for the next ones due in over the next week also, overall we will be down over 100 Euros this month! And of course we are missing the 300 Euros Winter Fuel Allowance this year due to the Pensions Minister Mr, Ian Duncan Smith cancelling it as its too hot in Spain?!

We are taking things easy for the rest of the day catching up with the chores around the house and sorting out our outfits for the next couple of days, Brenda’s all ready tried on her new jumper for tomorrow, I will sort something out later to go with my new ( expensive ) Brown Loafers! Watch this space.

For our supper this evening we are just going to use up any leftovers from the fridge as over the next couple of days we will be out and about ‘fine’ dining down on the ‘ Costa Del Sol’ with David & Jane! Last night after supper we channel hopped on Spanish TV and found two terrible films not to watch!

PS; This picture appeared on Facebook and asked the question ' What are they ? ' Lots of people guessed wrong until I posted what they are ! ie " Shirt Suspenders " - which I wrote about the other day.