Today we set off for my birthday trip to Malaga and Ronda.
Our flights were at sensible times today so it was a normal ‘rise time’ with the taxi arrived at 9.50 to take us the 5-minute journey to Teddington station for the train to Gatwick - we never seem to be able to get a lift to the station or airport despite regularly being a taxi service for others!
Surprisingly the train was only a few minutes late and the journey to Gatwick very smooth and we arrived in very good time so we had brunch at the terminal. Sadly the flight was fully booked so our cunning plan to reserve both the aisle and window seat did not work and I volunteered to move to the middle seat.
It was lovely to arrive at about 6.00pm local time in the warmth and sunshine and our driver Daniel (pre-booked with the same company we used in Athens) was waiting with a sign in the arrivals lounge. It didn’t take long to get to our apartment and Nikolay, our Russian host, was waiting for us when we arrived. The apartment is excellent - 2 bedrooms so one for the suitcases! - and is large, bright and clean. Nikolay was very thorough and gave us lots of hints and tips including a place for dinner tonight. He had also left some beers and snacks to start us off. Obviously I had bought teabags! We nipped to the nearby supermarket for supplies and had a mug of tea before heading out to the recommended tapas bar literally just 4 minutes away. A man in the local bakery had helped us to locate it on our first trip out but it did not open until 8.30pm - I love Spanish time.
The bar was exactly what we had hoped for, I put my limited Spanish into effect and we were soon sitting with two large chilled beers and an array of tapas. We also tried a fish called Rosada or Kingclip from South Africa which is a speciality in Andalusia for some reason and was absolutely delicious. I realised I had not taken a proper photo today so this is Gulliver Bear enjoying the chilled beer while we chose tapas!!
Positive - A lovely apartment and a great start to our break
