Malaga

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<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tuesday 24^th April 2012:

We learnt something new today: when you re-visit a port you’ve been to several times before, all the pressure to see things evaporates. We’d previously been to Malaga’s castle and to Picasso’s birth place and the cathedral and the shops so today we didn’t feel the need to do anything in particular. So that’s what we did. We wandered along shady lanes, mooched round the cathedral and enjoyed a cool sit down inside it. We found a lovely bar where we drank coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice and then did what all old people seem to do: we went to the park. Alongside the water’s edge is a park that runs for 500 metres and is filled with over 1,000 different plants. There are water features and statues and playgrounds and benches – hundreds of them. So we ate ice cream and people watched and slowly wandered from one bench to another. It was the most enjoyable way to spend an hour that it was possible to do. Really lovely.

The weather proved to be much warmer than predicted today so we came back to the ship, put on swim things and headed for the pool. After the sand storm in Egypt they had to empty the pools and put fresh and very cold water in them. And they are still very cold. But you can’t have been brought up in 60s England and not got used to swimming in cold outdoor pools. So swim we did. And once we got in – and stayed in – others got the idea and joined us. So the pool that has been unused for several days ended up with about 20 people in it all saying “it’s OK once you get used to it”. And it really was very OK. So much so that we went in 3 times and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner we went for a walk on deck to watch our favourite bit of ocean and that is sailing through the Straits of Gibraltar. To see Africa on our left and Europe on our right and have both of them very close is quite magical. The rock of Gibraltar was lit up tonight so we had an excellent view of it.

Then it was off to the theatre again, this time to watch a comedian. He was OK but some of the audience clearly adored him and it was funnier watching them crying with laughter.

But now I’m bushed so am looking forward to a good night sleep. We got woken by the Captain at 4.45 am this morning putting out an emergency call for all crew to go to deck one. Apparently someone had reported smoke on that deck but, luckily, it turned out to be a faulty pipe leaking steam so all was well. But we’re hoping for a quiet night tonight. All that sitting around in parks and by the pool has taken it out of us!

PS –Sorry this is late going on the web but we couldn’t access the internet from the ship last night.

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