Plaza del Salvador

For me, there was so much going on in Seville, this is a place I could really get used to. The city was really closed up in the day, come afternoon, the place comes to life with people eating outside, bars and romance.

Seville electric micro bus

Navigating the tight streets of Seville, I saw a fleet of smaller electric powered buses transport a limited number of people around, I looked on with interest.

I wonder if these buses are still in the trial phase, I am not sure if the size and carrying capacity makes this fleet currently viable, it is definitely worth trialing. As the technology develops, larger buses and fleets may be the future of sustainable public transport.

Seville shop front

Wandering the lanes of Seville, I shuffled past this wonderful shop and couldn't but help but stop and take a snap of this shop front. For me, this is Seville all over.

Paseo Vicente Aleixandre

Because of the heat, I was out and about in Seville early, this had the advantage of no crowds and cool temperatures. Hanging out in parks reading a book was a pretty good way to spend the late morning. Apparently, the park was named after the prominent Seville surrealistic poet who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977. As the afternoon heat kicked in, it was time to head back to the hostel and kick back for a while before heading out in the afternoon.

Seville shade cloth

There is no denying it, Seville is hot in summer, really hot. So, it is a brilliant idea to erect shade cloth between the buildings, not only is this really nice to look at, the drop in temperatures is amazing.

Not everywhere is covered in shade, the places that are tend to be in the tourist friendly areas, this gives the city of Seville a distinct look and feel - wonderful place.

I loved this place, the city is both scenic and large enough to not do the same thing every day yet small enough to be personable. 

A fiesta

Maybe leaving my passport in my hotel room was a positive after all, we headed across to La Línea de la Concepción and right into a fiesta. Already forgotten about not making it across to Gibraltar, just a distant memory now.

The streets were alive, music pumping, young and old together in a great big street party. When people were still showing up at three in the afternoon, this party was going to go all night.

The women were dressed in old style flamenco dresses, colourful, once again, young girls, teens, adults and even older women.

There was dancing in the streets, drinking sangria and some other lemon style drink and of course beer.

We enjoyed the sprit of the Spanish festival, you get the feeling the Spanish are living for the moment.

A day in Gibraltar gone wrong

We took the bus from sleepy Algeciras to Gibraltar, once on the bus, it was an "oh no" moment, my passport was back in the hotel room. Still, I wasn't sure, the rest of Europe has an open border system, I hadn't once shown my passport moving between countries once we landed in Rome.

Today wasn't the case, full immigration inspection at the border, our view of Gibraltar was from the border.

I don't think there is much to actually see in Gibraltar, but now we will never know. I have viewed Google maps, there doesn't seem to be much. By the scores of English tourists filing across the border with bag in tow, I guess this is the aircraft hub from the UK.

You could see a number of hotels in the distance, more like a place to land and sleep.

The time was midday, I quickly raced back to the bus station to check on the bus timetable, the next one was 2:15, the one after 3:45 and the 7:00 had been cancelled for some time.

So, I walked back to McDonalds where I had prearranged to meet Noriko, of course, she was nowhere to be found, back to the bus station just in case she went there, once again, no Noriko.

The chances of us spending the day in La Línea de la Concepción were fading, instead this day was rapidly shrinking, today was turning out to be yet another disaster.

Two days in Algeciras

Two days in Algeciras was a monumental mistake, I have seen pictures of Gibraltar and I thought it would be similar, nope, I was completely wrong.

Anyway, we arrived Saturday morning, look around Algeciras that day, get some long overdue washing done, look around Gibraltar Sunday and off to Seville on Monday, Tuesday to Friday in Madrid and then to Portugal on Saturday.

I had a dinner planned with staff and students from IE Business School and planned the week leading into around that. I had though a couple of days in Algeciras with a day or so in Gibraltar as the English territory is on the other side of the bay towering above the local topography.

A working shipping port is set on one side of the natural harbour; containers were loaded on ships, this is the landscape directly in front of the town.

Our accommodation was very close to the train and bus station, I was surprised how small it was when we arrived, nothing was open either, so we walked to the train station, once again, small and mostly locked up.

Walking down towards the wharf, I noticed so many backpackers accommodation around the train station. It was when I got down to the street in front of the port that I saw the booking agents for Tangier, this is pretty much a staging post for Morocco. The number of shops in Arabic was a bit of a giveaway too, still, all good. The number of businesses boarded or bricked up was somewhat disconcerting, this is a city in rapid decline.

Overnight in Marbella

We had spent two days in Malaga, the pension was booked up leading into the weekend so we jumped on an early bus for Marbella instead, just overnight, but we thought that was enough.

Marbella is a lovely little scenic town with a couple of features, the old town is of Arab descent with small windy streets and the marina/beach area full of sunburnt English tourists with what I could tell northern accents.

The old town is small, really small with a couple of lovely plaza that come to life in the evening.

The church, Our Lady of the Incarnation is pretty much the centre of the old town, from what I could gather, was gearing up for a wedding.

The old castle is pretty much built up with housing and shops, you can't go and enter like you can for most old castles.

We walked around and viewed the outer wall, that was pretty much it, there wasn't much to see inside.

The beach was all action, drinking and fighting right in front of us - and that was just the women.

The town was full of English tourists, the beach is pretty much the main attraction for the English escaping the drab weather of the home country even in summer.

Carmen Thyssen Museum

Having been to the Picasso museum earlier in the day, late afternoon saw me at Carmen Thyssen museum while Noriko went and looked at clothes. I quickly found out, these are not the friendliest people in Malaga. Walking through the doors of the Palico de Villalon, a 16th century former palace, an example of Renaissance architecture build on the foundations of a Roman city - the old Moorish quarter.

My issues started at the front desk, I purchased the dual permanent and temporary exhibitions and copped some attitude straight away, moving to the security area, they just ignored me as I placed my bag on the x-ray machine, I pulled it off the conveyor and tried to walk through the metal detector - that got their attention.

Next, I tried to book my bay into the cloakroom as required, there is a service desk and a slightly lower section in the desk, the woman sneered at me and refused to take my bag until I placed the offending item on the bag section and not the jacket section. There was no one else in the room, the two desks were joined, she finally took my bag when I moved it and threw the return tag at me - unusual behaviour towards a paying customer.

Then I needed to navigate the ticket scanner, she gave me more attitude, I asked myself, what did I do wrong? Still, she scanned my ticket, gave me dagger looks and I made way way through to the first section.

I noticed I was the only person in the room without an electronic device explaining numbered artworks, this came as part of the package at the Picasso museum so I wandered back to pick up an earpiece, after all, the front desk was busy giving me attitude, no time to tell me about this.

I met the cloakroom woman's gaze as I picked up the device, she hissed "not free, not free" and although I had purchased the dual ticket and I suppose premium price, I placed the item back and returned to the gallery somewhat bemused.

The gallery started with the permanent exhibition, romantic landscape and costumbrism on the ground floor, the old masters with Precieux and naturalist landscape on the first floor and fin-de-siecle occupying the second floor.

The temporary exhibition on the third floor featured renowned Spanish impressionist painter Dario de Regoyos. Hanging with guys like Pissarro, Whistler, Seurat and Signac certainly enhances reputations. Although I know of these four, I am unfamiliar with Regoyos' work, this really means in my limited world of art knowledge, I had never heard of him. This is fine, this is why I visit art galleries, to see the artist's work as intended and not in a book.

I had to produce my ticket to the temporary exhibition, now I was having difficulties, I produced my Picasso ticket from earlier in the day, this one had a sense of humour, a through search of pockets saw me enter the room and view his work. All the staff were grumpy towards clients, there was no flash photography signs throughout the building, the staff hadn't objected to people using smart phones to take photographs, they watched them with intense interest when ever they looked like snapping, I suppose it is frowned upon.

She was not in the room as I was alone now, I decided to take my chances, I typed the password in to unlock the screen, I took aim and the old fashioned shutter click quickly reverberated around the room, I had a second chance as her rapid footsteps gave away her position, she was closing fast as the second shot rang out. Then, as she entered the room, a look that could turn men into stone was fired my way, a delicate smile failed to disarm her and I wandered around with retinas burning from her stare.

I decided to wait for Noriko outside, I noticed free WiFi was available and I logged on, I was in front of the window and then the WiFi symbol on my tablet disappeared, I'm sure those miserable bastards switched off the modem when the saw me browsing - a final indignity was fired my way.

Picasso Museum

Our Malaga accommodation was immediately next the the Picasso museum, there was no way I was going to miss this.

While not a great fan of Pablo, I understand his work is very influential, it isn't every day you get to see his artwork up close so a few hours was going to be spent gazing and scratching my head asking myself what was going through his head.

Downstairs was an archeological site, this could be viewed internally and was worth a ten minute look.

Express service

We decided to wander in, the place looked good and the prices were excellent. I was placing my order, no sooner had the words passed my lips and coffee was tamped and the coffee holder twisted into position on the machine; the water flowed through the densely packed coffee grounds and a double espresso and cappuccino awaited us. I was sure I was unable to see her hands moving, her vigorous movement had the potential to create a sonic boom as she worked. My coffee was so so, still, it was worth watching this speedster at work.

Casa la Pepa

Tucked in down a laneway, Casa la Pepa is a little more difficult to find than the rest of the restaurants in the square. I am glad I took the advice of one of the waitresses out on the street flagging down potential customers with a first drinks free offer.

We ordered a bottle of wine, a second bottle of lessor quality came as complimentary to take home, the wine was oak aged and well structured. We ordered a collection of food including tuna steak, paella and crab salad.

The service was excellent, she was very good and very friendly. We were glad we were tempted to eat here, a fun night was had.