Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 10

Day 2 I was tossing and turning a lot last night. It wasn’t a great night’s sleep, but I feel fine this morning! I woke up at 6:30 because I forgot to turn my work alarm off! I got back into bed and had a couple more hours good sleep. By the time I actually got up, showered and sorted, it was 9:30. I went down for breakfast in the hotel. I considered going out for breakfast, but decided to ‘eat in’ until I get oriented. It’s all very closed in around the hotel. It is hotel, after hotel, brick on brick. It’s very different to what I’m used to, but it seems fit for purpose. I’m on the seventh floor. Looking out this morning, I see that I am a stones throw from the marina. ... read more

It feels a bit cooler today, although everything’s relative I suppose; I’m sure you could still very comfortably fry an egg on the metal table out on our terrace. We’ve got a long day of travelling to North Africa tomorrow, where we’re led to believe it might be even cooler still. Who would have thought. We’re looking forward to this like a hole in the head (the travelling that is, not the destination, otherwise presumably we wouldn’t have planned to go there - excuse the nonsensical text, it’s been an uneventful day and I’m struggling to think of things to write about. Sensible readers should probably stop here), so we prepare ourselves by doing very little. I tell Issy that I can’t leave here without swimming in the sea at least once, so I head out ... read more

We spend the morning doing very little, something our cute apartment is very well suited to - double glass doors opening onto a large terrace with stunning views down over Playa Burriana. Eventually I succumb to itchy feet and head out for an aimless wander. It feels a bit on the warm side, and it seems that this would indeed be an accurate assessment. News outlets are reporting that southern Europe, particularly Italy, Greece and Spain, are in the grip of a massive heat wave, with the head of the World Health Organisation tweeting yesterday that “in many parts of the world, today is predicted to be the hottest day on record”. The weather system that’s causing all of this has been dubbed Charon, after the mythical Greek boatman who ferried lost souls off into underworld, ... read more

Today we bid a sad farewell to our cute little Malaga apartment as we head fifty kilometres or so east along the coast to the town of Nerja for the next leg of our Spanish sojourn. We’ll be taking the bus, so I take a few minutes to check the tickets just to make sure everything’s in order. And just as well I did. The rules include “avoid talking to other passengers”. Huh? I tell Issy that in the unlikely event of us seeing any long lost friends on our chariot we must just ignore them and look the other way, or we risk getting kicked off. I’m now also starting to wonder if we're even allowed to talk to each other. We board in silence, to find everyone else chattering away across the aisles with ... read more

We sleep long after yesterday’s exertions, and as I lie in bed half in dreamland I can‘t help but reflect on a couple of other apparent oddities of life here in Malaga. They‘ve got Un Museo de Videojuegos, which unless I’m very much mistaken translates to "a Museum of Video Games". Now I think most of us can probably cope with museums displaying artefacts from Ancient Greece and Rome … but things that were only invented last week? Now we didn’t go in, but I can’t help but wonder what exactly is on display - it’s a bit hard to imagine a bunch of 12 inch floppy disks with “Pac-Man“ written on the covers attracting too many customers. One of the busier squares in the middle of the city has pairs of wooden seats bolted to ... read more