Bright and early on a sunny Monday morning we cycled to Cordoba’s bus terminal, picked up our rental car from Enterprise (we’ve been renting cars from them since 1981), stowed the vans in the back (it’s a small van that I’ve secretly named “Ann the Van”), and hit the road.
Traveller’s Tip: Cordoba is pronounced CORdoba. Malaga is pronounced MALaga.
Traveller’s Tip: it’s a given that the first turn you make when you start your route will be a wrong turn. Don’t sweat the small stuff. ‘Nuff said.
The hills got bigger and bigger, and turned from green to drab brown. (Spain has been very, very, very dry until this week.) The sky went from blue to grey and then to dark grey. Just when we decided we could use a rest stop, a CHOCOLATE FACTORY (with clean washrooms) appeared on the side of the road, like a mirage…
See the photos, because we toured the factory. There was a massive all-chocolate layout of Disney’s Aladdin. Life-sized chocolate sculptures of political figures. A chocolate “Guernica”. (For real.). We bought some chocolate. Hit the road. It was perfect. Excellent chocolate, b.t.w. Belen Galleros of Rute, Spain. It was a WHERE ARE WE ANYWAY? moment.
And then… hours of twisty, toe-clenching, hairy driving through hairpin roads in the hills. We saw mile after mile of olive trees, some of them so close I could’ve reached my hand out of the car window and grabbed a handful of not yet ripe olives.
I don’t ever need to see another olive tree.
We made a Coke-CruzCampo-stretch stop in a small town on the Rutas Mozarabas Camino (see photo, John spied the telltale camino scallop symbol) and then pushed on.
It was around 5 when we finally made our way through Malaga’s sprawly outskirts to downtown. Found our parking garage – a miracle – said goodnight and thank-you to Ann the Van for a couple of nights, and walked the pedestrian mall to our hotel, Hotel Vincci. Unpacked, explored the local area, had sardines and anchovies and salad for dinner, I think I actually stole the bottle of wine I walked out with, and we hit the sack. THAT was a big day.
And there was lightning and thunder all night long.
Like, apparently, 20,000 lightning strikes overnight which caused delays at Malaga’s airport on Tuesday morning. https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2024/10/29/watch-electric-storm-sparks-chaos-on-spains-costa-del-sol-after-20000-lightning-bolts-delay-flights-and-heavy-rain-brings-widespread-floods/
But the worst was yet to come. We had no idea. So, we set out for Malaga’s market, thinking we might find a desayuno there. No such luck but lots of fishermen deboning anchovies; olives, saffron and polvo-mongers. It’s a fantastic market. After a sturdy breakfast of ham and cheese sandwiches down the Avenida we pushed on to one of the best museums I have ever visited, on Bob Cowan’s recommendation, the Museo Automovilistico, which pairs exquisite luxury cars with haute couture, vintage dresses by the likes of Charles Worth, Chanel, Pierre Cardin. John and I chose our favourite cars. For me, a saucy Alfa Romero, for he, a discreet little Aston-Martin a la James Bond.
On that 24,000 step day we also checked out the Cathedral (massive), skipped the four-block-long line-up at the Picasso Museum (he was born in Malaga, but we’ve seen the museum in Barcelona and honestly that line up in the rain?…). We headed to the Roman Theatre, and the sun came out so. We couldn’t leave Malaga without seeing one of their famous beaches and checking out the beautiful (and glamorous – see that $$$$ Catamaran) port. We grabbed an octopus salad and some anchovies at a small resto and then, we were done. We visited the sixth floor terrace of the hotel for the view, and then called it a day.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, a phenomenon called “DANA” was about to wreak havoc on southern Spain. By the time we woke up the next morning, over 60 people had died in floods between Malaga and Valencia (where we are supposed to be early next week). Roads around Valencia are washed out. High speed trains have derailed. Flights are departing but people are having to walk into the airport. This is climate change induced.
Our stay was over, we had to press on so we left Malaga, made our requisite first turn wrong turn right out of the parking lot, found our way to Nerja’s epic cave (discovered by five highschool boys in 1959), and toured it along with a huge throng of French, Swedish, German, English and Spanish tourists. A cave is a good idea on a rainy windy day. We then checked into our ocean view room and the charming Hotel Paraiso del Mar. Our host recommended a spectacular restaurant where we enjoyed an exquisite meal (Patanegra 57, highly recommended), came back to our comfy room and read the news about the floods.
We’ll be following this closely because we’re not sure what to do next…. Tomorrow Granada. So far, it looks like it will be fine. I’m glad we have the van for the next few days, we have flexibility and we’re not as vulnerable as we are if we were on bikes. Our thoughts are with the Spanish families who lost home and family members.
As usual your Travelblog is fantastic!
I love the auto museum and the egg car.
Hoping that you are managing to avoid the flooding and all the other problems, and you are not out there on the bikes, sturdy as they are.
Stay safe and all the best on the Spanish adventure.
Glenn
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