DAY 198

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Remember him from The Ed Sullivan Show?

PCH, or Costa Del Sol??

The aroma of the warm cereal bread came wafting in the van from Charles’ early morning visit to the camp market. Although most the camp appeared to get up after 10, we were fed and ready to explore Malaga by 11. When we arrived in the town center parking was abominable and we circled the area for an hour. Not fun. We must remember that these old sections weren’t engineered (if goats running on a trail is engineering) for so many vehicles and even the river where we parked was bone dry with only a few joggers and free parking making it a draw. The Picasso museum WAS a draw (no pun intended) and for the second time (gracias, Espana!) our respective passes (journalist, teacher, student) got us all in gratis. What bliss for Dian who, in art class at UCSB got paired up with Picasso to copy his work as faithfully as she could.

One of the famous bull billboards in Spain



Dandelion-like fountain

Pretty old train station

Etched window art

Nicole in front of and around the cathedral:

Pedro De Mena, sculptor

Taking down Christmas lights

We left after two hours of musing and close inspection of the master and an adjacent exhibit by renowned sculptor Alberto Giacometti. We perused the cathedral exterior and peeked in ditto for the castle but didn’t go in. Inside a bookstore we bought a map of Morocco. Now we were committed. After a few tangerines and chips we were escorted by a kind gentleman who took is on a twisting convoluted maze of narrow streets and finally to the river, so we could find our way back to the van. 

Entrance to Picasso museum

Street musician singing "Ave Maria"

Inside we had couscous with curry sauce and then left for the Facebook friend Ana’s jazz jam in a town 30 minutes from Malaga. Unfortunately we didn’t have a phone number for her and when we stopped at a cool Indian restaurant (Raju’s Indian City) to order take out and use the Internet to see if she had written back, she hadn’t. Alas, we had only chiken tikka and aloo gobhi to console us but we enjoyed meeting the outgoing owner, Raju, who moved to Spain 15 years ago and said to quote him on his choice: “East or West, Malaga is the best!” We loved walking into an Indian restaurant in Spain and hearing Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings coming from his programmed music mix, also LA icons Warren Zevon and the Eagles (or did he surreptitiously call up “Hotel California” just for us?) – it’s a music/culture blast that’s hard to describe unless you’re there. Turbaned Raj was also playing a computer chess match nearly the whole time he was chatted animatedly with us.

Our guiding angel

Back at home we went to the restaurant near our camp to catch the end of the big soccer match, have a beer and call Dian’s mom and dad. Charles eventually did reach them and learned that Grandmother had received the castanets Nicole bought her!!! It had been 75 years since she learned to use them and perform Spanish dances but she was glad to try and work up the routine again, or so she said.

Raju and Charles