The local bus services are excellent and very reasonably priced. Bev went to the Friday market at Almuñécar for the princely sum of €2.70 return with a group of ‘girls’ from the campsite. Despite her usual reluctance about ‘shopping’ trips it was a good day out with some successful purchases: fresh asparagus, pots of herbs, avocados and strawberries from the local farms and a dress for Peter and Elaine’s wedding in May from one of the huge number of clothing market stalls. We finished off at a local bar for beer and tapas before catching the bus back in time for Bev’s flamenco class.
Steve spent Saturday at the workshop, after churros and chocolate on the marketplace, to ensure he finishes the guitar next week, while Bev caught up with the washing (as it’s going to rain) and van-tidying. This is so much more satisfying (and less time-consuming) than ‘housework’! Having worked out how to purchase bus passes for us both online, we set off very early on Sunday at 0740 to go to Málaga for the day, returning at 1950. After a quick stop for coffee, then breakfast in the old city, we queued with our tickets for the ‘slot’ at 1115 to visit the Picasso Museum. Having quite high expectations after visiting the smaller one in Barcelona, we were a bit disappointed as it was rather crowded and lacking in information about many of the exhibits. It was interesting but not nearly as well thought out in terms of curation, themes and context.
We hadn’t realised it was Palm Sunday when planning our visit . . . this was, in retrospect, perhaps a mistake as all the good restaurants in the old city were fully booked over lunchtime and everywhere was pretty crowded for the whole day. We were moved on by the Police as we tried to hang around to watch the huge procession when we realised it was about to leave the cathedral. Fair play – many people had probably been there since the early hours of the morning!
We wandered along the fantastic Parque de Malaga, planted over 100 years ago with trees from around the world. These are now huge, towering above the pathways, but clearly suffering from the lack of rain. We finally found a restaurant at the Marina and enjoyed a late lunch overlooking the sea, where a huge cruise ship and a few ferries were docked alongside the leisure ‘yachts’, as the clouds gathered. Back in la Herradura after catching the bus back, we took shelter from the rain and watched the dramatic thunderstorm from under the canopies of la Bambú, one of our favourite, if touristy and expensive, restaurants on the beach. The weather forecast is unseasonably wet and windy for the next few days.