Andalusia Trip Summary

Málaga

We had an awesome week in Spain.  This was my first time in Andalusia and found it to be brilliant.

We stayed in Málaga which was great.  There's so much to see and do here.  It's also makes a great home base for several day trips.


Plus it's on the Costa del Sol and it felt so good to be at the beach.





In Málaga, we saw people preparing for the Holy Week celebration.  The processions will start on Palm Sunday and continue until Easter Sunday just as they have here for more than 500 years.

Our first day trip was to Tangier which was my first time in Africa.  It was a long day and gave us a quick feel for the city.  There are still places I want to visit in Morocco but I don't have a burning desire to go back to Tangier.  But I did ride a camel.
Our next day trip was to Granada and a visit to La Alhambra.  Granada seemed like such a great place that we really want to stay here next time.  Perhaps combining it with visits to Córdoba and Sevilla.



We really enjoyed our tour to Gibraltar.  Not sure I would want to stay here a week but perhaps for a long weekend.

No visit here is complete without seeing the macaques.  I made sure to pick up a toy monkey souvenir for Tünde.  It makes loud monkey noises so I'm sure she'll love it; Claudia probably not so much but my job as godfather is to spoil her.

In Málaga

I grew up in California and part of my family is Mexican so I grew up with people speaking Latin American Spanish, or our version of it called Spanglish.  Normally my biggest challenge is Latin American Spanish vs. European Spanish.

Breakfast hot chocolate and churros

This week I found my Czech messing up my Spanish.  In Czech, jo means "yes" or "yeah" which sounds just like yo which in Spanish means "I".  So I found myself wanting to say "yes, yes" and felt bloody stupid saying "I, I".  Very much like my Czech messing with my Greek in Crete and Cyprus.  I guess on the bright side Czech is becoming more and more second nature.

The food this week was a definite highlight.  Everything was so fresh, especially the seafood.

Seafood paella

Dinner in Spain is served late as most restaurants don't even open until 8 PM, and that's kind of early. Things start to get busy around 10 PM.



One thing I had never tried before were boquerones, fried anchovies.  They were surprising good.

So a fabulous week in Spain, plus Morocco and Gibraltar.  Even a quick stop in Zürich.  The 23℃ (73℉) weather was a welcome break from the cold in Brno and I'm looking forward to my next trip to Spain.