Torremolinos

First stop on our winter holiday has been Torremolinos, near Malaga on the “Costa del Sol” along the Mediterranean coast in extreme southern Spain. We found a fairly priced package of a direct flight from Nottingham’s East Midlands Airport to Malaga, along with seven nights in a beach-side hotel, as well as two meals (breakfast and evening) each day. We flew out very early on Sunday morning, December 18, and will return to Nottingham on Sunday, Christmas Day.

View from our hotel deck.

The south coast of Spain is not as far south as one might imagine (it’s still Europe, after all), so temperatures here are not exactly tropical. It’s been in the 60s Fahrenheit, which feels quite warm when walking briskly in the direct sunshine, but rather cool when sitting in the shade. Still, the days are longer, and it’s much warmer than England, which has been hovering on either side of the freezing point in recent days.

Spain is not as far south as one imagines.

Our arrival day, Sunday, we checked into the hotel and then checked out the “Promenade” which is a wide, paved walk-way parallel to the shore, that goes on literally for miles with beach and sea on one side, and countless shops, bars, and restaurants on the other. So many Brits come here that we lost count of the number of English or Irish pubs on the strip. Your average Englishman need never be far from a familiar brew or home newspaper while on holiday here.

The Promenade

However, the tour company obviously caters to a wide range of Europeans. While we’ve encountered very few Americans, the hotel is a veritable United Nations (or perhaps better, European Union) with a lot of German and Dutch being spoken, along with a smattering of French, Italian, and Portugese. It’s amazing to hear the wait staff in the hotel dining room switching effortlessly between languages as they move from table to table.

On Monday we walked to a bus stop four or five blocks away and caught a regional bus to the village of Mijas, in the mountains overlooking this sea-side resort area. The fare was all of 1.40€ each, each way (roughly $7.30 round trip for the two of us).
Mijas (MEE-hahz) is billed as a traditional, rural Spanish village -- which it is, except for the hundreds of tourists, and the souvenir shops and restaurants there to cater to them. But it’s still a scenic town of narrow, winding streets weaving between whitewashed buildings, a bull ring, ancient churches, and a quaint plaza with fountain.

Church in Mijas

The village church featured a huge nativity scene, or Belen -- very common in churches in Spain at this time of year. Some of the figures were near life-size. Others portrayed daily life in and around the town, including a man whose mechanical arm ceaselessly beat an olive tree with a cane, just as is done at the olive harvest.

Just one small scene from the large Belen in the Mijas church.

We also spent some time on Monday at a nearby travel agent, booking day trips to the nearby Spanish cities of Ronda, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada, as well as a ferry trip across the Straight of Gibraltar on Saturday to visit Tanger, Morocco. As internet access is limited, we’ll write about them as we’re able.