Weekend en España

This weekend we kept the speed up. Friday evening we went to Torremolinos. The initial plan was to eat grilled fish but we ended up having the fish eating us. We ouldn't resist the call from the fish spa so we put our dirty sweaty feet in a basin and the small fish started doing their work, nibbling at our feet. It was tickely and a bit gros at the same time. All of the fish swam gingerly when we left so it couldn't been that bad for them. Ten minutes for 10 euro but we were the only customers for a long time so the woman let us sit in peace.

Saturday morning the quest was to find the bus station and take the bus to Ronda. But we gave up the search and took the bus to Mijas instead. A lovely little village with burro-taxi, horse carriages with jingle bells and white mended houses. We did some good sight-seeing and had some great tapas; potatosalad, porc casserole, pickled vegetables, some salad and of course beer. Then we took the bus home to Arroyo de la Miel, some siesta and then tada! we found the most lovely plaza, just around the corner. We just stumbled upon it  when turning left instead of continuing straight forward. Some good music, more tapas and more beers. Lovely evening.

Sunday we had breakfast at a restaurant run by the owner of  our apartment, Carmen. We had a sturdy full English breakfast with eggs, bacon and sausages; lucky us! We asked our way to the bus station, in Spanish of course and this time we ended up, in the bus to Ronda. Ronda is originally an medieval castle, built by the Arabs on top of a huge canyon. The numbers of stairs we have climbed this weekend; countless. Awesome place, well worth the 2 hours busride each way.


Toremolinos was final stop so we had a stroll by the sea back home to Arroyo. In a small shop I found this dress, at full lenght, peacock pattern  with a laced backside. I haven´t had a long dress in decades! Together with my new shoes, with black flowers;  watch out!

Friday 27th June

Hóla, yesterday was a treat. School at 9.00-13.00, just a quick snack and then off to malaga. It's so easy to travel when at Costa del Sol. You take the train or accually it`s more of a metro, monorailed. Easy to get a ticket and the trains leave at short intevalls. We arrived at Malaga, at about three o' clock and spend the afternoon visiting the Picasso museum, with sketches, small statues and  paintings from early to late work. It was also a temporary exhibition, of Lissinsky an russian artist of early 1900 -ish. We ate at a bar, gaspachos and calamares and a huge bowl of sangria but had to refill with a roll kebab and falafel, before returning to Arroyo de la Miel. Really nice!
Friday today and after siesta -  welldeserved! we're planning on taking us by foot to Torremolinos and try the grilled fish on skew - pescadora asado.

25th of June

This morning`s wake-up call came as a surprise. Why is my phone buzzing at this hour, in the middle of the night? Well, accually the night was long gone and time to get up,07.30. We had a good breakfast, eggs mayonnaise and tuna, a combo made in heaven! and went out for school. But the sleepiness hasn't left me yet, I could kill for a lie down. Class was intense and two hours just rushed by. Today's lessons started with repetition and went on with prepositions and more verbs.
 Yesterday evening, we went out to orient ourselves and ended up behind the village, not exactly in the mountains  more likely at the feet of the mountains but all the same, we had a splendid view.  Overlooking the area we could tell that the village is bigger than we initially thought. It's a bit confused what part is called what, we have Benalmandena, Benalmadena Port and Arroyo de la Miel. I think we're staying at Arroyo de la Miel but every paper and e-mail we got from the agency said Benalmadena.
Christine and I decided on a trip to Malaga tomorrow to visit the Picasso museum and to do some shopping. Today`s activity will probably be a short stroll down to the beach.. The weather is a bit windy and clouds block the sun occasionally so the bathing will be in the sun, not in the sea. You can feel the heat when facing the sun so the wind and clouds makes it really enjoyable.

Diá segunda

We entered a  high speed class, my dear companion and I. There are the two of us and the teacher Elena. No way of dodging the question, you have to stay focused and on your toes all the time. We start at 9 and finish class at 11, with a short break between. First day we took our time during the break and ordered coffee, sat down and chatted away some valuable minutes. Back in the classroom our techer scolded us and we got the message: we are here to study not drink coffee. Today we ran out, bought a cup and took it back into class again. At this stage, we are handling the regular verbs, how to express time, building the vocabulary and exercise pronounciation. Maj god, it`s been 30 years since I studied Spanish back in the gymnasium and most of it is buried and long lost. Now I have to start all over again, from the beginning  but we keep good speed. After class we spend two hours at the computer, with selfstudies; exercises, reading and listening comprehension... you know the drill.
The weather today has been a bit windy and cloudy and in the afternoon it started to rain. After the rain the temerature fell at least 10 degrees.

Here we go again!

¡Buenos dias, mes amigos!
Here we go again and this time EN ESPAÑA. My very dear collegue Christine and I decided after our success in Munich 2013 that we wanted to do it again; a combined holiday/studying trip. I voted for England but Christine insisted that we study Spanish so Spain and spanish it is! For two weeks 22th of June til 4th of July we are going to refreshen our idiomas and palabras.
We contacted "our" agency Avista and they recommended us to go to Malaga, not in the very heart of Malaga due to our lack of  teenagerness but to a small city outside the coast, Benalmadena.  After our first day at school we are muy contentas; Christine and I form a class of our own, with a teacher, Elena for two hours, between 9-11. After that, it¡s two hours of selfstudies, at the computer.
The weather is sunny and windy and for lunch we had spanish hamburgers  and viño verano, aj loove viño verano.  It took us 45 minutes to get back to school after lunch and it wasn't the shopping that delayed us but more likely a slight touch of we- got- lost.
Yesterday when we arrived at Benalmadena, at approx 22.00 we asked a police man for directions to our street, Calle del greco 27.  For sure,  if we had followed his directions we wouldn't have found the apartment yet. He wanted to send us out to the coast, 5 kilometres from the center. When we asked the taxidriver he just looked at us and pointed over his shoulders " it is 50 metres that way". It is a lovely apartment, three bedrooms, fully equipped kitchen and bathroom and access to a great terrace on the top. We celebrated our journey there, with a beer mixed with lemon juice before we went to bed. I had this dream I was sleeping on a doctor's guerny and every time I turn around, it felt as I was going to hit the floor.