Arrival in Malaga

Our ship docked in Malaga on a cold, windy, rainy day.  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast since we were one of the last groups to depart; not having a flight to catch or other deadline.  Finally, our group was called and we wound our way down the gangway and into the baggage claim area.

Three of our bags were waiting for us and we stood watching the carousel for the final bag until all bags had arrived.  Ours was nowhere to be found, great!  Looking around we spotted a small group of bags attended, disinterestedly, by two uniformed gentlemen.  Sure enough, our other bag was there with the other bags that had been randomly searched and nobody called out or complained when we collected the bag and left the area so we assumed everything checked out.

Following the crowd and the signs we thought we were headed for customs and immigration but suddenly found ourselves outside, in the rain, with four heavy bags, two backpacks and two hundred uncovered yards away from the cab stand.  Welcome to Spain!

It took 10 rain-soaked minutes to find a taxi large enough to swallow our baggage for the ride to our hotel.  After a short 5 minute ride we arrived at our hotel and sure enough, there was a staircase to an entrance which consisted of a revolving door.  Traveling heavy like this is a real pain in the …….!

We were too early to check into the hotel so we checked our bags and wandered to the nearest café which turned out to be a business breakfast and lunch coffee shop that was just what we were looking for.  There was free WIFI and we spent an hour or two checking our email and updating ourselves on the news.  Our room was still not available when we returned a couple of hours later but the rain had lifted so we decided to find the bus station and perhaps buy our tickets for the following day.

The bus station was half a mile away across several intersections, roundabouts, a shopping mall parking lot and café lined streets; not a possibility for walking with the amount of luggage we had.  After waiting a few minutes in the ticket line at the bus station we asked the clerk, in our very, very limited Spanish for two tickets to Cadiz.  When we finally understood that she was asking when we wanted to go we told her “tomorrow” and she waived us away telling us to come back tomorrow.  This seemed very strange to us but we did as she asked and left.

Realizing again that we were strangers in a different place we wandered off to find something to eat in the shopping mall.  At this point, we didn’t know how to order wine or food or even what things were so there were some interesting and laughable situations that occurred and we figured it was all part of the learning process we had to go through.  Marilyn ordered what she thought was a red wine and ended up tasting her first tinto de verrano (summer wine) while I proudly ordered Cerveza and stumbled over myself when the waitress asked me “draft or bottle” in Spanish which I did not understand in the least.

We finally managed to get a couple of sandwiches with an order of home-made potato chips which we wolfed down hungrily and then we returned to our hotel to find that our room was ready at last.  Once we had checked in, crammed our baggage into a very small elevator and found our room we noticed that the rain had stopped for the moment.  Perfect; it was time to go wander the old town and get our first tapa in eighteen months so we headed back outside.

For this trip we only planned to spend an afternoon, evening and a morning in Malaga and chose to stay at a hotel that was near the bus station because we were going to catch a bus to Cadiz the following day.  This meant that we were far from old town Malaga and its castle or fortress.  No problem, we’re intrepid walkers and sure enough, it took only about 20 minutes to find the “old” part of town with restaurants, cafes and tapas bars. 

Stopping at a likely looking joint we settled in and ordered our beverages and tapas.  Unlike in Granada, tapas are not free in Malaga but we simply wanted a drink, a snack and to settle in and enjoy mainland Spain for a moment.  Almost immediately a group of ten or so Americans walked up and started rearranging chairs and tables against the waiter’s wishes in a manner that disturbed several other patrons.

The waiter rolled his eyes and let them settle in while bringing us our drinks and tapas.  Meanwhile the Americans had been consulting a street map of Malaga in addition to the menu and as soon as the waiter turned in their direction, pad in hand to take their order they asked in English, pointing to the map, “Where are we?”  The waiter did not even bat an eye as he answered to the annoyance of the Americans, “We’re in Malaga”. 

Yep.  We were back in Spain.

Following this we set off on an exploration walk, map-less and trusting our judgment and after about an hour we noticed that the neighborhood had degraded and was not improving.  We had no idea where we were and since it was a cloudy day, which direction was which and although we knew that we needed to go south, we couldn’t agree on which way was south.

Hmmmm.  Another two hours of walking and we had worked our way back to our hotel both of us urgently needing to use the services by this time.  We barely beat the rain which returned with a vengeance and continued throughout the remainder of our stay in Malaga.  

The following morning, we decided to head to Cadiz on the early bus because it was still pouring rain.  We caught a cab in front of our hotel for the embarrassingly short ride to the bus station and found that amazingly enough, there were tickets available for the bus to Cadiz.  The bus system in Spain between cities is absolutely amazing: in most cases you do not need your tickets in advance, with the exception of a few special heavily traveled routes.  The buses are clean and spacious with a restroom on board and on long trips they will have a scheduled stop at a station where you can stretch your legs, find restrooms, coffee shops, newspapers, books or maps, and souvenirs if you are feeling the need.  The bus was less than half full and we boarded after loading our baggage in the compartment below and settled in for our four and one-half hour ride along the coast.

The rain stayed with us for the first hour and then it gradually faded away and we were treated to beautiful vistas along the Mediterranean coast, the wide fabulous beaches of Tarifa, with glimpses of Marbella, Estepona, Algeciras and of course, Gibraltar as we transitioned to the Atlantic coast of Spain.