First Road Trip - Madrid to Malaga

Last Day in Madrid

The time difference has us up late each night so we spent most of our last day in Madrid sleeping, eating and riding the tourist bus.  The tourist bus was unfortunately full of tourists so we were ducking from cameras and we had to ride in the lower, air conditioned section of the double decker bus due to the sun and resulting heat.   The historic section was incredible and the modern neighbourhood of Salamanca was full of beautiful people and expensive shops.  The castle was definitely fit for a king or many kings….big, ornate and jaw dropping. 

We recorded and watched many travel shows prior to our departure and of course the kids remembered the famous Spanish dessert of churros and hot chocolate.  Turns out that it’s a local Madrid tradition to end the night with hot chocolate and churros in one of the cafes around Plaza del Sol and as we are on a mission to explore the cultures and traditions of Spain….it wasn’t too hard to convince Calvin and I.  The Chocolateria San Gines is hidden down an alley off of one of the Plazas and its open all night.  We arrived at 10:30pm for a heaping plate of churros and some cups of hot chocolate.  

Now this is no normal North American hot chocolate….Bill Cosby would be proud of this pudding.  You can rest your spoon on it.  We ordered four before we knew what we were in for – Noah was the only one to finish.  How is it possible that these people can be so thin? We took a leisurely route home through a few plazas and watched some street performers including the Peruvian pan flute band that seems to follow us on every trip we have ever been on.

The next day, Calvin and Noah took the metro to the train station to pick up our rental car.  There’s a reason life seems leisurely here….everything takes a long time.  Noah helped navigate the metro system and asked for many directions to get them to the train station.  He even helped Calvin interpret the GPS system that led them through the maze of one way, narrow 15^th century streets.  They managed to find our hotel and our car’s trunk was able to store all our backpacks – a good day. We were worried they wouldn’t fit.

Getting out of Madrid was easier than we expected.  The infrastructure here is very impressive.  Great roads and drivers.  We drove to Toledo to determine if it’s true that the expression ‘HOLY TOLEDO’ originated from a battle in and around their large Cathedral.  We were told that when you looked up at the celling of the cathedral you would see many, many bullet holes, therefore the expression ‘Holy Toledo’ was born.

We found a parking lot and began the search for this mysterious cathedral.  We saw a group of Italians on a tour and decided to blend in and follow them.  What are the chances a group of Italians would be seeking a Cathedral?  The original church was built in the 6^th century and the cathedral around it began in 1226 and was finished in 1493.  The kids were shocked and awed by the enormity of the structure and the beauty of the carvings and paintings throughout.  We spent a couple of hours absorbing the various sections including the robes of the Cardinals dating to the 12^th century and some of the most amazing wood carvings we have ever seen including a large carved section for the choir that was carved in mahogany with each member having his own personally carved seat and head rest.  There were a dozen or more El Greco paintings scattered amongst the Cathedral’s art gallery as he had been commissioned by the church for this Cathedral and decided to move to Toledo to live out his years.  The cathedral was a mixture of styles and religions with a beautiful mosque in one section.   It was the boys’ first introduction to Arabic architecture and they were most impressed with the intricate details in the carvings and ceramic tile paintings.  Turns out we were unable to disprove this urban myth as we did find a church with many holes in it but our guess is that the ‘Holy’ refers to the significance of this cathedral and the cardinals that it has produced. 

We were back on the road and on our way to Grenada for an overnight break on our way to Southern Spain.  An hour in to our drive we decided to find a grocery store to get some picnic supplies.  We pulled off the highway to Linares which turned out to be a beautiful detour full of olive groves and vineyards.  We picked up some food and found an olive grove where we could stretch our legs and enjoy our ham sandwiches…did I mention how plentiful and delicious the ham is here?  We walked around the olive grove for a while and got back on the road to Grenada.   We found a great cheap hotel for 42 euros per night ($58cdn).

On Our Way to Malaga

The next morning, we ran in to our first traffic jam with many Spaniards heading to Southern Spain to enjoy their weekend on the beach.  We arrived at our Villa a couple of hours later than planned.  I should clarify that almost everything is classified as a Villa in Europe including most bachelor pads.  This was a bit more of a traditional Villa than a bachelor apartment – we did want to enjoy some warm weather vacation time after all the rain this past fall / winter / spring / summer in North Vancouver.   We spent 20 minutes searching a neighbourhood in Malaga for our Villa which had the same address as our Villa in Fuengirola – 30 minutes outside of Malaga.  Once we determined we were in the wrong city, it was smooth sailing. 

Monique, Jay and the kids (friends who are vacationing in Spain as well) arrived before us and had the house open and ready for fun so we changed into our bathing suits and hit the pool to cool off.  Damn, we love the warm weather.  Had a great time, great food and plenty of laughs that night.   

The view here is great - we can see the water and the city below.  

We explored the town the next day and wandered around the beach at night.  The boys managed to sign language their way into a football match (that’s soccer folks) with a group of Spanish kids.  NO wonder they won the World Cup.  An 8 year old threw in the ball from the sideline which was headed in by a 6 year old….all the kids high fived the goal scorer – a ridiculously good play for a six year old.  After an hour, we gave the boys a 10 minute heads up and the game went to next goal wins status.  Devin made the save of the game diving across his goal to catch a shot that was targeted for the corner of his net – Aidan and Noah remind him of his great save every day.  A very proud moment for our little man.  The boys managed to recruit a few of the Spanish boys for support and after a nice passing play; they scored the next goal and won the game.  Not sure how true this is but the boys tell me farto means foul in a football match.  One of the six Spanish words they can remember…..anything with a ‘fart’ is hard to forget.  It was 10:30pm when the match ended and it was time to find dinner – seems as if we have slipped comfortably in to our new Spanish lifestyle.  Tapas on the boardwalk.  We asked our waiter to feed us and he did!

Just passed our first month anniversary – time seems to be moving slowly.