Málaga

October 11, 2022

An short shakedown ride to the beach

Both of us slept about as well as expected. I had a few sleepless hours, but then managed to sleep in a bit, so then slept in, so I woke up well-rested.

We started the day with a walk around the city centre, including a visit to the food market, a Roman theatre that has been excavated, and up the steps of the Alcazaba (citadel) for a great view of the city. The temperature was perfect for our arrival, low 20's C for a high. Not a shock to our systems, since that's what we left at home too. The big difference is that the overnight temperatures stay much warmer here.

View from the alcazaba towards the ocean. The old bull ring is now surrounded by highrises.

Malaga's dry river bed - the first of many that we'd see this trip

We got geared up for a short ride, and exited the hotel via their car elevator. How cool is that! Then went for a test ride, and discovered that neither of us had tightened all the bolts on our handlebars. Whoops. Bars now affixed firmly, we headed for a bike shop to borrow a floor pump to inflate our tires to a known pressure.

Our next goal was to go for a swim, since we were near the Mediterranean. We biked to the beach via the city's bike paths. We had lunch at a beachside chiringuito, a restaurant serving grilled fish. We ate espetos (grilled sardines), which are a specialty of the region. Plus salad. I washed it down with a radler, aka 'clara con limon', which turned out to be beer and Sprite (or lemon Fanta) mixed together. Sweet and weird. Won't have another one of those!

Despite it not being a super-warm day, we felt obliged to enjoy the warm waters of the Med. The water temperature was just below 20 C - pretty warm by Canadian standards.

I'm pretty sure the beach isn't natural - it looks like it was created using bulldozers. We had a quick dip, but didn't linger.

On the way home, we took a different route, and ended up in the tourist area. That earned us a reprimand from local police for riding bikes on a pedestrian-only street. In our defense, there were no signs in any language. And the police were driving a car on a pedestrian-only street.

The reason for our different route? We were in search of our first ice cream (helado) of the trip. Helado and heladeria are two words that are firmly in my tiny Spanish vocabulary.

After a quick break at the hotel, we went back to the city centro for a pizza dinner, unfashionably early again. But being a tourist district, nobody seemed to mind. Having pizza meant that we had leftovers for our ride tomorrow. We also bought some empanadas for our bags. October 12 is Spain's national day, so we're not sure what will be open.

Early to bed, because we're off to the mountains tomorrow.

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 10 km (6 miles)

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