Feb 5, 2020

We left Casablanca on Wednesday, Feb 5. It’s a short flight to Malaga, so we weren’t concerned about checking in. We did not get seats together, Dave sitting in the window seat and I was also in the window seat in the same row. Beside me was a lady with a baby and beside Dave was a lady. Before we took off, the pilot announced that the Spanish airspace was so busy there would be a 1 hour and 15 minute wait before we could take off. Shortly after that, the air steward moved the lady sitting beside Dave forward 1 row, which is business class on Air Morocco. I told the lady beside me that I would move to that empty seat and she could have my seat for the baby. She was grateful, but before that could happen, the steward parades an African guy from the back of the plane and puts him in the seat beside Dave. I don’t understand this because all the seats are the same size and spacing, although I did notice the same thing happen on the way to Casablanca. For some reason, they want to move to the front of the plane. I asked the steward if I could move to that seat after take off and he said just wait, lady. Later, the woman with the baby asked if she could move forward so she had some space for the baby and he said no. She started asking him why he could move the lady beside her into a seat of her own, but not her. No explanation was given. There are only 4 rows in business class. When I looked up front, I see the only row that is empty is the first row and that is an exit row, so I told the lady that I would ask because she can’t sit in an exit row with a baby. The steward said no. Of course this got us talking to each other. She is a judge in Casablanca. She works 2 days per week there and lives in Malaga the rest of the time. I could understand her outrage. As it turned out, the baby slept the entire flight.

We had a driver pick us up in Malaga and drive us to Nerja where we will spend the next 10 days.

We desperately needed to do some laundry, so that was the first order of business. We had laundry spread across the patio chairs and table and every conceivable place inside the apartment. It was very windy, so we had to be careful that our clothes didn’t blow away. We were also tired from our whirlwind tour of Morocco.

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAURIE!

We’re thinking of you today and will call you later today.

We did some exercise on the rooftop of the apartment this morning. We set off afterward to find Ayo’s restaurant. This is a famous restaurant here, known for their paella.

This restaurant has been featured on Spanish tv a number of times. If you go at lunchtime, you can watch him make up this seafood and rice dish. The dish looks like a giant shallow wok and holds 30-40 portions. Here it is cooked over an open fire. Fernando tells us we should order paella here and sit on the beach, which is across the street, to eat it, but since we had paella yesterday, we opted for prawns and rosada fish. It was quite good.

We slept late today. We were planning on doing some exercise today, but the sun was too hot. By the time it cooled off, we were already showered and out and about. We had a delicious lunch of grilled cod, tomato salad and some snails.

We walked around the townsite and then did some beach combing. It was a relaxing day.

We walked over to the plaza today to do some exercise. It’s a hot and sunny day, so we needed to have some shade. We had a light lunch and headed out for a walk. There’s a path along the ocean here, so we followed that. We were thinking of walking to Torox and having dinner there, but once we got to Ladera del Mar, we talked to some cyclists who said it would be another hour’s walk. We weren’t sure how we would get back, since we haven’t seen a taxi since we arrived, and the erratic bus finishes at 6. We decided that it’s better left until we have a car. It was a perfect day for a walk and we really enjoyed it.

Took it easy today. Went to the plaza to exercise in the morning. Since this is the off season here, so many restaurants are closed for renovations or vacation. We chose an Italian pizza place for lunch and ordered something that we weren’t likely to get at home-a seafood pizza. We \240asked for 1/2 and 1/2 with the other side being Italian. The waitress brought us 2 pizzas, one Italian and the other seafood. She took the Italian pizza back and we kept the seafood pizza. It was kind of weird. It came with very little topping, just tomato sauce and a thin layer of cheese. \240A mussel in the shell was placed on each slice, a cluster of clams in the shell in the middle and a couple of prawns. It was pretty tasteless.

We hung out on the beach in the afternoon.

We went to our favourite little plaza to exercise this morning. The same guy is sitting on the same bench every day with his dog. I think he homeless. He has a couple of friends who visit him and the all use the trees in the plaza for a toilet.

We were going to go to the beach again today, but there was a chilly wind, so we took the opportunity to read a book instead.

Beautiful sunrise this morning with the sun peaking through the palm trees.

We went to the rooftop today to do some light exercise.

In the afternoon we explored the city center here in Nerja. From what we’ve seen, we are the youngest people here by a decade. 😳 Most tourists are speaking French, the rest, the queen’s proper English.

We stopped for tapas and beer in the afternoon and then watched the waves crashing on the rocks.

Dave cooked dinner tonight.

We rented a car today. It came with 2 paragraphs of damages and dents on the vehicle. It wasn’t clean and there were some dirty socks in the cubby in the door. 🤔 Lets hear it for Europcar!

We drive the looonngg way to the Nerja Caves. At the last roundabout before the caves, we went \240straight instead of turning. That took us on to the highway and it was quite a distance before we could turn around. The map app was just a little too slow.

We saw a nice bridge and also the Eagle Aqueduct along the way. The aqueduct was built about 1880. It was used to carry water from Nerja town to the sugar refinery in Maro. It was restored in 2011.

The cave was discovered in 1959 by a group of locals on a late night walk looking for bats. It took us about an hour to walk through. It is the largest cave we have seen. It houses the largest stalactite in the world 32 meters in height. This holds the Guinness world record since 1989. It was an impressive sight. There were numerous types of formations in the cave, the names of which I don’t know.

There are 259 rock paintings that have been discovered so far. This area of the cave is not open to the public.

We drove to a few small towns around Nerja today. The first stop was Maro. It’s a quaint little town with white washed houses built on a mountainside. We thought it was a sweet little town.

Carrying on, we drove to La Herradura to go to the Friday market. It wasn’t much of a market, maybe it’s bigger in the summer.

We had a seafood lunch and drinks at Bambu restaurant, which is right on the beach. It was a really good lunch with a beautiful view.

We drove on to Almuñècar. It was an interesting drive, twisting and winding through hairpin turns up a mountain and then down to sea level. There were some beautiful houses with gorgeous views of the surrounding hills and the sea.

We are moving on from Nerja to Murcia today. It’s a 4 hour drive or a 9 hour bus ride that has 19 stops along the way. We opted to rent a car.

As we leave Nerja and head east along the coast, we see an odd sight along the roadside. The mountainside is terraced and for as far as the eye can see there is a sea of makeshift polyethylene greenhouses. This area was one of the poorest in Europe. It is so arid and dusty that it was used as a backdrop for westerns. Now it’s enjoying an agricultural gold rush. This is Europe’s winter market garden spread over 135 square miles! Immigrants come from Mali, Colombia or Ukraine to work here. Billboards in this area advertise seeds. The plants grown here have no contact with soil. Instead, plants grow in oven puffed grains of white perlite. Huge vats of chemicals feed water and chemical fertilizer such as potassium nitrate, magnesium and potassium sulphate, calcium nitrate and phosphoric acid to the plants. It’s 45 degrees inside the greenhouse. Tomato plants grow out the sides of plastic tubes. They grow everything from squash to tomatoes.

Residents of the south slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the adjacent valley are complaining about the destruction on the mountain sides and blocked dry river valleys, but since these are built with government grants, authorities turn a blind eye.

There’s also growing concern over pesticides showing up in umbilical cord blood.

The biggest consumers of this produce is France, Germany and Britain.

We have a nice apartment in Murcia. The only complaint is the sewer smell inside the apartment. Nothing can be done about it.

We are meeting Sensei Nuñes today and going to one of his students’ home for lunch.

Sensei Nuñes runs a class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7 am for people who want to train and then go to work. We opted to meet them for breakfast afterward and train in the evening. Everyone was friendly and the group has quite a sense of humour.

We walked to the old town and visited a number of sites from the cathedral to the university. We stopped for lunch at Cosafina restaurant. I tried a very common appetizer here, a butterflied sardine marinated in vinegar. Quite delicious and similar to pickled herring, but not as harsh. The waitress suggested a squid croquette. It was actually squid ink. The center was creamy and delicate tasting, a good choice. I had red tuna tartare with avocado and tomato and several little dollops of different sauces. Dave had cod with quail eggs and it was phenomenal. We will definitely pay another visit to that restaurant.

The streets here are very narrow and parking is very difficult to find. Our apartment is right around the corner from Sensei’s dojo and walking distance to old town.

We went to train at 7:15 and trained until 10:30. Had a quick shower and met the group for dinner afterward. The beer and food just kept coming and coming. We were so tired and dragged ourselves home.

We were up early today to meet Sensei. He was taking me to the dentist to get my front tooth repaired. It was a pretty simple, but temporary fix. The dentist said it will need a crown when I get home. He is Sensei’s karate student and refused to let us pay even though we have insurance that we can claim it back. Super nice!

We all went to breakfast together after that. We were finally allowed to pay for something!

From there we walked to the Salzillo museum. He was a famous wood sculptor here in Murcia in the 1700’s. No photos allowed inside. Don’t know if anyone would have cared because we were the only people in the museum. What was most interesting about this is these life size, if not larger, figures are taken out of the museum at Easter and carried through the streets on the shoulders of 8 or 10 men. We were surprised that something so old and valuable was allowed to leave the museum and be paraded through the streets, but they explained that’s how they were meant to be seen by the public.

From there we went to Sensei’s home. He lives in an area designated as agricultural. His house is a work in progress. It’s an old home and needed to be renovated and he is doing the renovations mostly by himself, but sometimes his girlfriend Linnea is here to help.

He explained how the irrigation system works here. They still use a waterwheel and a series of channels to direct the water from the river to area farms. The water wheel also deposits water to the top of a brick wall where there is a pipe that can deliver water to areas that are at a higher elevation than the river.

Lunch was next. It was another karate student who owned the restaurant and we ate so much. Homemade potato chips sprinkled with salted, skinless almonds and fried peanuts. They eat a lot of appetizers before they get to the main course. Bread with something similar to tuna salad and also a potato and egg pie. Then some shaved ham, roasted nuts, and paella with rabbit. All of it was excellent.

We trained again at 8:30 for 2 hours. Sensei is teaching me Seipai kata. 🤔😁👏

We had one of those days that seem to happen once on every vacation. We wandered into a mall and decided we each wanted to look at different things. We chose a meeting time and spot. Five minutes past the time we were supposed to meet and Dave did not show up, I start to feel there’s a miscommunication somewhere. I stand in the designated spot for 30 minutes and still no Dave. I don’t want to look for him because I’m assuming he’s looking for me. I decide to ride to escalator to the top floor and back down again, since we’re supposed to meet at the escalator in ladies wear. Nope, nowhere to be seen. I don’t have a phone, but Dave has data on his. In hindsight, if I would have taken my phone with me, I could have connected to the mall wifi and then contacted him. We had no idea in the morning that we would end up in a mall. In the basement is an area that looks like online order pick up or customer service. I ask a guy if they can page Dave, but he doesn’t speak English enough to help. I wait for his colleague and she says they have no access to the PA system. This guy tells me that he’s taking English classes and he has a 2 hour session tonight. He wants to help but doesn’t know what to do. An hour has gone by now and I think maybe I should go to the main floor and see if he could be there. I see the same guy that tried to help me earlier and I shrug my shoulders. He comes over and I tell him where we were supposed to meet and give him a description of Dave. He says, “this is good” and marches off. A few minutes later he comes with Dave. Hallelujah! He saved the day. The problem was that I was standing at the bottom of the down escalator in ladies wear, right where we agreed to meet, but how the hell was I supposed to know there are 3 escalators in that department? I was not at the correct escalator. It did not even cross my mind that there was more than 1 escalator. Dave took me and showed me where I was supposed to be. Aaaaagggghhh!!🙈🤬🤪

We went to karate class in the evening.

Sensei’s student who is the dentist did a great job fixing my front tooth. I decided that I would get a night guard made here. The dentist has his own lab right in his office. We went there this morning to get the impression done.

We did some more exploring on foot of Murcia.

We had a nice tapas lunch on a patio looking at the cathedral. \240

Antonio told us last night that there would be protests in Murcia today. The farmers are unhappy with the price they are being paid for their products. They have organized a caravan of tractors and protestors to march from one government building to the next. Since this is close to where we are staying, we decided today would be a good day to take the tram to one end of the line. We can see what there is to see from the tram. Turns out, nothing! There is a mall at the end of the line, so we spent some time there. We spent a lot of time in a huge sports store called Decathlon. The products there are quite inexpensive.

We also spent time in the large grocery store. We purchased a couple of things we needed.

From there we walked over to Ikea to have a look around. The appliances are much smaller than at home, especially the cooktops. Single burner, double burner or smaller 4 burner stovetops are available. The prices are much cheaper than at home.

We went to train again tonight. I have a sore back from doing a stretch. You sit on the floor with left leg straight out and right knee bent. Put your left elbow on the outside of your right knee and turn to the back. Suddenly I had a sharp pain between my shoulder blades and I had a lot of difficulty turning back around.

Dave had complained about having a pain in his hip again. Sensei said he has a student who can help. She is a chiropractor and I think practices homeopathy. She helped Dave with his hip and then gave me a treatment. She said all the muscles in my back are so tight, I need to relax more. I think it’s because I’ve been carrying my camera and my backpack around every day. She was also surprised to find that my diaphragm is blocked and does not move up and down. That’s odd because one of the katas is designed as a breathing exercise to move the diaphragm.

After class we went to the local hangout with the group for drinks and tapas. It was a lot of fun.

At 10 am this morning we could hear music being played super loud. It seemed like it was coming from across the street and a few doors down, but we weren’t sure.

We are having Sensei and his girlfriend over for Chinese food tonight, so we did some grocery shopping at the local produce shop. That’s when the music caught up to us. The dance schools in Murcia were having a parade with their students and some parents dressed in costumes. In front of each dance group was a vehicle pulling a trailer, each trailer carrying 3 enormous speakers and each playing different music. It was so loud that it hurt your ears. There certainly are a lot of dance studios in Murcia. What was odd is that the parade circled the hospital. I’m not sure the patients wanted to hear that.

The streets were taped off for pedestrians only and at one point a lady came driving down the street. The dance group leader told her she couldn’t go through, it’s for pedestrians only. She started throwing a hissy fit and we got the message that she had an emergency and needed to get through. They decided it best to try to herd the kids to the curb and let her get through.

We had a nice dinner in our apartment.

It was beautiful weather for a walk today. I like to walk around the square where the old cathedral is and the surrounding tiny streets. When Sunday church service ended, the streets were filled with people dressed in their Sunday best. The sidewalk cafe’s were filled with people. It was a good people watching day. One thing I’ve noticed in Spain is that people like to walk arm in arm or hold hands. It was pretty sweet to see so many old people holding hands as they were doing their a Sunday walk.

It looked like a homeless person who was making huge soap bubbles in the square in front of the cathedral. He was using a rope and a big plastic bottle for the soap solution. Everyone enjoyed the kids running around trying to pop the bubbles.

We went to Monteagudo Castle today. The castle is thought to have been built by Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Mardanis, nicknamed the “Wolf King” approximately 1160 ad. A large statue of Christ was placed atop the castle in 1926. It was subsequently destroyed in 1936 during the Spanish civil war, as well as parts of the castle. The current statue is a replica of the previous statue and was placed in 1951.

When we were at the bus stop, Dave asked this young guy if this was the correct bus for Monteagudo. He said yes and then his mother made him tell us they were going to that stop and to just follow them. Perfect! When we got off the bus, we walked a couple of blocks with her and she showed us the pathway and also said there was a museum there that we could visit as well. We hiked as far as we were allowed to go before the pathway was closed for restoration work. There’s a beautiful panoramic view of Murcia from there.

We went to karate class in the evening.

It was a great day for a walk. We wandered through the square at the cathedral and past city hall. I bought 2 mojito chocolates and they cost €4!

Sensei picked us up this morning and drove us to La Union. It’s a small town that sprung up due to the mine that is located there. One of his students has a karate center there. His wife works for the city and it was arranged that we could take a look at the public market there. She was waiting for us with the keys and showed us inside. In an effort to revive the economy of the town, the market has had some restoration work done. They are making it attractive to hold various events there. For 10 days in August, famous flamenco dancers and musicians perform there. It is a popular event and tickets sell out early.

From La Unión we drove to The Mina Agrupa Vincenta mine. This was in use from 1869 and 1957. It was used mostly to mine pyrite and lead. It covers 5,000 square feet underground. There are 5 levels in the mine, the deepest being 240 feet below ground. These caverns were all dug by hand and the debris carried out by children. The roof is supported by columns that are 8 meters high in places. The lifespan of the miners was 35-40 years old because of lung disease from inhaling dust. In places, Epsom salts \240formed on the roof of the chambers. This is a result of pyrite and magnesium mixing together in the rock.

From La Unión, we drove to Cartagena for lunch. We had a seafood lunch in a Michelin starred restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. One of a sensei’s students joined us for a coffee. We drove back to Murcia.

Sensei picked us up this morning and drove us to Alicante. We’ll be staying here for 2 weeks. We dropped our luggage off at the apartment and then picked up his student, Lisa. We were going to watch a karate demonstration put on by some of Sensei’s students, but it was finished by the time we got there. A group of us went for Chinese food. The dumplings were pretty good, but the other dishes were not.

We all went together to Santa Barbara Castle. Lisa is a travel agent, so she gave us a little information. The nice thing about visiting a castle is that it’s usually situated on the top of a hill, so the views are panoramic. The fortress originated in the 9th century. It was quite a steep walk up to the castle. It was a pleasant walk around the castle.

We left the castle to go for ice cream. The route took us through the old town of Alicante. This was interesting to see and we would like to return there when we have more time. It was quite a walk back to the car afterward. Sensei drove us back to the apartment and then he headed back to Murcia.

One point of interest about Alicante is that this is ground zero for measuring elevation above sea level. There is very little rise and fall of the tide here and the water is usually fairly calm.

We went down to the beach this morning to investigate the sand and water. The sand is fine and soft, more to the taupe side in color. \240The water is colder than I would want to swim in at this time of year. In the summer, I’m sure it’s refreshing.

Our apartment is on the 4th floor, across the street from the ocean with an amazing view!

We need to get some groceries today, so we walked over to the local grocery store. It is only open in the high season. We went next door and had a delicious pastry for breakfast and decided we would ride the bikes that are provided with the apartment to the grocery store in Campello city center. The bikes are very old and crappy. The gears on the one I was riding didn’t work and both pedals were almost rusted off. To make matters worse, it’s exceptionally windy today and we were getting sand blasted from all the sand that was blowing off the beach. Time for plan b. We took the tram to the grocery store instead. Maybe we’ll try the bikes on a calmer day.

We spent the day on the beach....walking on the beach in the morning, had lunch in a restaurant right on the beach and read our book in the afternoon. It was a relaxing \240day.

We spent the last couple of days on the beach. The weather has been beautiful. We did get chased off the beach late in the afternoon today because the wind started to whip up the sand.

We had a disappointing lunch at a beautiful spot on the beach. Casa Julio is right on the beach with a lovely little patio. Too bad they are so resentful of English speaking tourists, because they are in a location where they will attract a lot.

For my birthday, we decided to take the tram into Alicante. The tram costs €1.45 and takes about 20 minutes. We explored the small streets of the old town. Old town is located on the hillside leading to Santa Barbara Castle. Some streets are so narrow that you can’t extend your arms from your sides. It reminded me of Chefchaouen, except the walls of the buildings weren’t blue.

We walked to the pier and hand lunch in a sea side restaurant. A delicious tomato salad, a bun with some ?boiled veggies that we weren’t fond of. Next was seafood paella and the ice cream and meringue for dessert. It was very nice.

We walked around the pier, looking at some of the big yachts and sailboats. There is a walking area along the pier where many shops and restaurants are located. There’s also quite a wide set of steps that lead from the boardwalk down to the ocean. There was a man seated in the corner the steps and he was feeding the pigeons. He was very gentle and talking to them. Eventually they landed right on his hand! There was one white egret amongst all these pigeons. Some of the crumbs he was using to feed the pigeons landed in the ocean, attracting some small fish. The egret leaned over and plucked a fish from the water. It was something to see.

We caught the tram back, getting off a couple of stops early to pick up a few groceries at the supermarket and then walking home.

It was a fun day!

It looked like there were some surfing lessons taking place this morning. This would be a good place to learn because the waves are so small.

We took the tram into Campello today to walk around there. They have a nice boardwalk along the ocean that is lined with restaurants and bars. It was a nice day for a walk.

A family was feeding bread to the fish. There was quite a range of sizes, but they all looked like the same kind of fish.

We did some exercise outside this morning. Yesterday we had a chat with the guy we are renting the apartment from. We told him the bikes that come with the apartment are not good and he offered the use of a couple of others. They aren’t much better, but at least they’re more suited to our size. We went for a bike ride to the grocery store and picked up a few groceries. My butt is sore now. 😜

The Coronavirus19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO yesterday. We are supposed to fly to Barcelona tomorrow and meet Dwight and Jan, flying to Barcelona from Calgary. Fernando was to be the 5th member of our group, but he has cancelled his travel plans. We are considering cancelling our return flight which was to depart from Madrid on April 10th. There were a couple of reasons for this decision. Since Fernando is not joining us, we do not need to depart from Madrid. We can alter our travel plans, if necessary, to follow a more logical geographical flow. We are not sure if we will be heading home sooner than planned because of the virus, or if we will even leave from Madrid. This would give us a little more freedom in rebooking for the return. Checking return flights online shows seating is wide open. We are in a wait and see situation for the time being and carrying on as planned until we need to make a change.

When I awoke this morning, there were some texts from my sister....There’s a travel advisory for leaving Canada! \240In Alberta all gatherings of more than 250 people are postponed. NHL season stopped. NBA season over. No March madness college basketball. Many cities have closed schools. Hasn’t happened in Lethbridge or Calgary yet. Yesterday Trudeau announced $1B for fighting this. Today he announced his wife is positive.

We talked to Sensei today and the Spanish government has mandated that sporting events be cancelled, so there won’t be a karate training camp in 2 weeks. Although he’s disappointed, I t’s the responsible thing to do. There are Sensei’s flying in from all over the world-Japan, South Africa, Peru, Sweden, Canada, to name a few. He’s uncertain whether he can recoup the monies spent on airline tickets, etc.

We are flying to Barcelona today and meeting Jan and Dwight who will be arriving today from Canada. We will decide whether or not to come home while we are there.