If I never see Malaga again...

How we ever made our train yesterday to Madrid, I will never know... We started off the morning fighting with the condo dryer. I had woken up early to put the laundry in the dryer and three hours later it still was not dry. The washing machine wouldn´t drain either and all of our clothes were sopping wet. Finally we got them dry enough for travel about a half hour after we should have hit the road to return the rental car. Then, I completely miss the exit for the car rental place and we have to drive another 5-10 minutes before I can exit and turn the car around. Then, we take a local train to the main train station and start off on the wrong track. We figure this out prior to getting on the wrong train (thank heavens) but I manage to suggest getting off at the wrong stop. Marianne blindly follows me (fool that she is) and we end up in downtown Malaga and have no idea where the train station is from there. We stop in a hotel and ask for directions then walk down the wrong street, ask someone else for directions, backtrack a few blocks and then finally make it to the station. I validate my ticket and we make it on the train with minutes to spare. How did we do this? An angel must have been looking down on us yesterday because I tried everything in my power to miss that stupid train...

Malaga Malaga

Yesterday we went back into the town of Malaga. I like that name a lot. It kind of rolls off the tongue and makes you want to repeat it, so I do: Malaga Malaga. I think Marianne might be sick of hearing me say it... We drove to the city and saw the Picasso Museum. Two museums in two days. We have already bypassed our score from the last month we traveled together. Here we come culture! The town is very pretty and we spent most of the day wandering around and looking in the shops. Afterward I got us ridiculously lost trying to get back onto the freeway. Marianne did say that if she had been driving there would have been a lot more curse words and yelling about the lack of signage in Malaga Malaga. I think I handled myself fairly well considering. So, by the time we got back to the hotel neither one of us wanted to leave again. A quick trip to the grocery store and we were set with two bottles of wine, pate, cheese and crackers. A low key evening to relax the nerves. Tomorrow we check out of this lovely place and head to Portugal!

Marbella, Spain

Today we drove up to Ronda. It is a pretty cool town and we were able to roam around a bull fighting arena. Apparently, the matador style that is seen today was created in that town. I´m still not so sure that I would like to see a bull fight but the history of it was fairly interesting. The drive was amazing. We rented a car for the rest of the week because it was too difficult to get around without one.

Marbella Spain

Marianne and I met up in Malaga as planned. We spent our first night in a hostel called The Roaming Bull where we met some cool Canadians and a Brit. Marianne was a trooper staying up after her flight until 3 AM or something like that... The next afternoon we headed down to Marbella where we are staying at the Marriott. Thank you Mom and Dad. It is beautiful and we just got back from a long walk along the beach. Is it really November? You really wouldn´t be able to tell from the weather around here.