Paella Class and Mijas

Wednesday morning - we only had two more days in Marbella. We  were heading for Seville on Thursday and would be gone all day - then an early start Friday morning for Madrid. 

We spent a leisurely morning - breakfasting and relaxing on the balcony. I started gathering my things together - washing a few things - there would be no time to pack tomorrow. 

Then we headed for paella and Sangria lessons in the restaurant. All of us were going - our group and Charlene's. There were several other people there - including that good sport from the Flamenco night. 

These two ladies taught us to make the paella - a rice dish with vegetables and seafood or meat or both. The gal on the right was very funny. She told us that her family has paella at least once a week. She said they just throw in any leftovers. She has worked at the Marriott Resort for 10 years - she just recently transferred from working in the children's club. She told me that working at the Marriott was considered a very good job - worth the 45 minute drive to work every day.

Now we are getting ready for the Sangria - a wine punch made with inexpensive red wine - although white wine can be used.  

They told us the secret ingredient for Sangria is this Licor 43. I found some at the airport and brought it home with me.

Line the bottom of a one liter pitcher with ice cubes - then add the diced fruit - apples, oranges, peaches. Add 300 ml of the red wine,  10 ml each of Triple Sec and brandy,  20 ml of apple or peach schnapps, and 30 ml of the secret ingredient. (1 ounce = 30 ml.) Finally add Fanta orange or Fanta lemon. Stir. Serves 4. It was delicious! Even better than the Sangria that they serve at the Marriott!

When they asked for volunteers to make a batch of Sangria, I jumped up! I had learned my lesson at Flamenco night. So now I have first hand experience making Sangria.

We ate the paella that the two girls made and drank the Sangria. Both were excellent! I had tried someone's paella the first night at dinner and didn't like it. But this was quite good.

Tom, Beth, Joan, and Sarah - my empty seat - I was busy talking to the two girls.

Sarah, Julie, Tom, and Beth's head.

We headed back to the apartment to get ready to head to Mijas.

Julie drove along the coast and then headed up the mountain to Mijas - one of the Andalusian white villages.

View of Mijas from the parking garage.

Joan looking out from the parking garage.

We'll walk over to this shrine later.

Giddy up!

Joan is checking out the horse and carriage before we jump on for a tour of Mijas.

Mijas is an ancient village - the Phoenicians and Romans traded here. A white chapel is located up on this hill - just barely visible in the center of the photo.

I love all the little balconies.

That is the Mediterrean Sea in the background - not clear enough to see Africa.

I love the street light, the balcony, the arches.

What a colorful idea! Flower pots on the walls!

What about these signs made out of tiles?

The tour was along the main road in Mijas - past the white buildings with colorful flowers and tiles. Afterwards we stopped for ice cream. That shop keeper was quite rude - wouldn't let us sit down because we only had ice cream. I could understand if the place had been packed but it wasn't. 

So we kept walking and then browsed through the stores. We stopped at one gift shop. The people here were very friendly. They had been drinking small cups of coffee - I started talking to them in English while they were talking to me in Spanish. I wanted to know what kind of coffee they were drinking. Turns out it was instant coffee! From the strong smell I thought it was brewed.

I bought a couple of aprons with bulls or something Spanish on them - I figured my kids or myself could wear one for a Sangria party. I bought a couple of wallets, some fans, more magnets, and postcards. Beth bought a few things as well. The shop keepers were so happy to have so much business that they ran out after us to give us a couple of fans. 

Beth, MEM, and Julie - we all went to BC School of Nursing together - still friends after all these years!

Love those palm trees!

We walked over toward the shrine of la Virgin de la Pena.

Above and below, views to the Mediterranean Sea outside the chapel.

In the1580s a dove led two shepherd boys to this cave. The Virgin Mary appeared to them - a statue of the Virgin hidden for 5 centuries was then found inside the cave. The monks had a shrine carved out of the rock. 

It is very ornate inside the shrine as you can see above. On the right hand side there are rosary beads hanging in thanks for prayers being answered. I lit more candles here.

I think these very elaborate trappings are used in parades on holy days or during religious festivals.

I bought roasted nuts from this fellow after I bought rosary beads in the shrine.

Good-bye Mijas! Wish we had more time there.

We headed back to the Marriott. Charlene stopped by - she and Debbie had driven Ralph to the train station in Malaga - he was heading to Madrid to fly back to West Virginia.

We were going to Seville in the morning. So I finished my laundry and packed up my suitcase. Now I wouldn't be rushing Friday morning to pack and get to the train. 

Old Marbella

Well, we didn't make it to Mijas on Tuesday. We found out that Charlene's group had left at 10am. We were going to head out a little later, but ended up postponing it until Wednesday. 

Should we go to the pool or back to the Mediterranean or to the gym or just chill on the balcony? I decided I wanted to see the old city of Marbella. Everyone vacations differently. And one thing I have learned about traveling is to roll with the punches. Another thing I learned is that everyone doesn't have to do the same thing. Grab any opportunity that comes along. And I could hear Marbella calling my name. Beth decided to come along. I had seen a poster in the lobby about a shuttle to the old city. So we walked over to check it out.

There were vendor stalls outside between the buildings. We poked through the displays. There were several British women selling jewelry, clothing, etc. I talked to a couple of them - they all love living in this area - they love the weather. Beth bought several things - I bought a couple of scarves.

When we got to the lobby, we found out the shuttle is only on Wednesday. A taxi to the old city is 20 euro. So we dropped our purchases at the apartment, and ordered a cab. The clerk told us that some of the shops might be closed for siesta at 2pm. It was about 1:30pm.

The taxi driver dropped us off near a park and pointed down a street on the right. We guessed that he was showing us where the old city was. 

We strategized - it was almost 2 pm so stores might be closing. But there were horse and carriage tours across the street at the end of the park. We decided to do that. The snag was that I had very little cash. We went to Santander - the Spanish bank that owns Sovereign Bank here in Massachusetts. The ATM would not take my debit card. Beth had cash so she paid for the horse and carriage tour. 

And what a lovely idea that was. It was sunny and quite warm - there are a lot of hills in Marbella. I probably would have had sunstroke trying to walk around the old part of the city. But it was cool and relaxing sitting back in the carriage just taking in the sites.

Many homes and business had metal grates in front of their doors and tiles around the entrances like the picture above. I loved both. It was similar to what we had seen in Morocco.

I couldn't take pictures because we were bouncing along in the carriage, but I became fascinated with laundry hanging on the balconies along with the metal work and tiles. If I haven't said this before, I drove everyone crazy with this thing about the laundry! And don't worry, I will have pictures.

When we finished the carriage tour, I had to have ice cream so we relaxed in the park as we ate an ice cream bar from a street vendor.

Notice that the ground is tiled in this park. And what about that colorful bench! We sat on a bench like this and licked our dripping ice cream bars. Beth dripped some on her white sweater. In the confusion of cleaning her sweater, I forgot my camera on the bench when we headed off across the street to the old city. 

We were strolling along looking in store windows when I saw a picture of Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Marilyn Monroe in one of the windows. I reached in my pocket to try to take a photo of it and realized I had left my camera on the bench.

We headed back and met a woman hurrying to catch us to give us the camera. Humphrey, you were with me! Thank you for helping me get my camera back!

In the next window was another favorite - Jeremy Irons! A new series on several Shakespeare plays had started the Friday before we left for London. I saw the first episode but missed the episodes about Henry IV which starred Jeremy Irons. The picture isn't very clear but look at what the store is selling in the two pictures.

We stopped at the little souvenir shop below - I bought some shot glasses, some magnets, and some postcards - small souvenirs that don't take up much room in a suitcase.

We continued walking to the right of this shop and decided to get something to eat since we hadn't had lunch.

Don't you love the colorful shawls, fans, and skirts decorating the building above? This was lovely Plaza de los Naranjos - full of little shops and restaurants with outdoor seating.

We looked at a couple of menus and picked a place to eat. The pictures above and below are the restaurant where we ate, but we sat at a table across the street. 

This is where we sat. We decided to get something light in case we  would all be be getting together for supper. I had a delicious salad and more Sangria I believe.

I had one of Julie's cell phones with me. She called to see what we were up to. She and Joan were going to head to the "super" supermarket which was here in Marbella. They would pick us up - we arranged to meet them at the park on the main drag.

So we finished up, paid the bill, and headed back to the park. We were sad to leave the Old City.

The picture below has a pump in the center. While we were waiting here for Julie and Joan, a fellow came along and took a drink from it. You can just barely see a horse in the picture - above the pump - that is where we got on the horse and carriage tour.

I texted Julie where we were waiting. Really, what did we do before cell phones?!!

Beth spotted the car which pulled over just above and across the street from the picture above.

Julie and Joan gave us a tour of some exclusive areas of Marbella. Then we headed for the super store. This place had everything! Groceries, clothes, furniture, everything. I was again fascinated by the prices - especially the cost of the food - it seemed so expensive! How can families feed themselves with those prices? Later I learned that many of the workers live outside of Marbella in the smaller villages. Maybe things are less expensive there. Maybe they have their own gardens.

We headed back to the Marriott with the groceries. I have to give Julie credit for parking that car in the garage. The spaces are so narrow that sometimes Beth and I jumped out before Julie backed in!

Joan whipped together a delicious supper with pasta and shrimp. And of course we had Spanish wine. We had good food, good wine, good company. What more could we ask for?

My Big Regret

So we went to Morocco on Saturday and a bullfight on Sunday.

Monday, after breakfast on the balcony, Beth and I decided to take a swim in the Mediterranean. It was warm and a little overcast. There was a bit of a breeze. I slathered myself with that 18 euro bottle of SPF 50 suntan lotion.

We walked past the gorgeous outdoor pools with their lounge chairs - most were occupied or had towels on them. No problem -  we were heading for the real thing.

We went out the gate to the beach and saw that it was almost empty. The wind was quite a bit stronger here. 

The next thing I noticed was that the sand was not the white sand that we have in Cape Cod. And it was not clean!! It was more like dirt. As we walked over to put our things down in a lounge chair, I noticed all the cigarette butts all over the ground! How gross!!

There were lines of these chairs along the beach. Notice the waves - they don't look too big from this view - but they were!

The water was cool, but with the waves, it didn't take long to get wet. There was no lifeguard, and there were very few swimmers. The waves were strong - I'm a wimp now that I am older and have had two hip replacements - I was afraid to go out too deep. I love the water and used to be a good swimmer. Now, since I am out of shape and can't swim like I did a hundred years ago, I didn't go past my waist. But the incoming waves were high - I didn't have to go out any further. I saw one guy get knocked by a wave, and he had trouble getting back up. His pal had to help him. Sorry Beth - I didn't have that much faith in you. We probably both would have drowned helping each other!

The waves reminded me of Chappaquoit Beach here in Falmouth. We have been going there since we were kids. The very best times are when there are big waves. The waves in the Mediterranean are every bit as good as at Chappa - even better I think. So I bounced around on the waves. Beth came in as well. After some time, we decided to stretch out on those lounge chairs.

I was sitting there wondering if I had brought my binoculars, if I could see the coast of Africa. It was amazing to think we could almost reach out and touch another continent. 

A topless bather walked by. I guess there is a topless beach further down the coast. I remember when GeeGee, Julie, and I were on the tour of central Europe back in the late 70s. Our tour bus passed a topless beach in France, and everyone was gawking out the window to see someone topless. I don't get excited over it. But some of these people strutting their stuff, well - maybe they shouldn't!!

Eventually, the wind made it difficult to read so we packed up and headed back to the apartment.

I loved all the flowers.

We relaxed on our balcony - had some lunch with Julie and Joan. It was a beautiful day and a great place to chill.

Then we got ready for our Flamenco night in the hotel's restaurant. Besides bullfighting, what else does Spain bring to mind? Flamenco dancing of course! We were going to have a traditional Andalusian dinner and then Flamenco dancers were going to perform.

I think Charlene's group had driven to Ronda that day. So it was just Beth, Julie, Joan, and myself. There were several tables set up.  Ours was one row from the stage. 

The dinner was delicious like everything we had eaten in Spain. There was plenty of wine - I had Sangria. 

The stage was simply decorated with a few silk shawls. A guitarist played on stage as we ate. After dinner he was joined by a female singer who sang a couple of songs. It is times like this that I wish I spoke another language or two. It would have been an even better experience if I could have understood what she was singing. Then the female dancer appeared. I liked the performers because there was nothing touristy about them.  I'm such a snob - I hate to be caught in tourist traps. But these seemed like the real deal. This was more cabaret style than a fancy stage production.

I liked the dress the dancer wore - nothing flashy but exotic in a subdued way. I had only seen a Flamenco dancer when I went to see Michael Flatley's Riverdance - twice in Boston, once in Killarney. I loved it then - very high energy - but that seemed more like a production. Here it was more intimate and simple. 

Even though Flamenco is part of Spanish culture, I think the Roma people - the gypsies - are also closely identified with it. I read that there is still a fairly large population of Roma people in this part of Spain. 

The guitar was the only music - the singer clapped as she sang. The dancer had no castanets - but used her hands and arms as part of her story telling. She was graceful but powerful as she danced.

Another fellow joined them on stage. He was seated beside the guitar player and was playing what looked like a plank of wood with his hands. But then he got up and began dancing. He seemed so intense - his eyes were glaring at ... what? He would look out from the stage with those piercing eyes! I was afraid of him! He danced solo but also danced with the woman. Clapping his hands, snapping his fingers, tapping his feet so fast without moving, his whole body vibrating! All the time peering out from the stage. Oh my god, I was afraid his eyes would meet mine!

I wish you could see the video I have from this night but I can't upload it. And maybe it wouldn't be the same. 

When the dancing was over, the female dancer pulled a gentleman up from the audience to try Flamenco. And he was good enough for her - he played right along. What a good sport.

Then those eyes came down into the audience looking for someone to bring on stage. I kept my eyes downcast - I told you that I was afraid of him - I didn't want him to pick me. And he didn't. But when I saw that woman that he did pick on stage, I started regretting that I hadn't tried to catch his attention - I would have been so much better - because I really wanted to learn Flamenco! But those eyes!! Scary!! Still!

Of course, we had a drink outside when it was over. Charlene's group was there. They had enjoyed Ronda. We talked about going to Mijas in the morning. Julie said it was about a half hour away and up the side of a mountain.  She and Charlene said there was shopping for souvenirs there. Beth was looking to shop since we didn't do much in London. I was looking to explore a Spanish village.

But I was still regretting not getting on stage to learn a little Flamenco!! And I still regret it!