A Long “Walk along La Playa”

Today is the day I was supposed to meet my friend Caroline (from Virginia) at the airport...she missed her connection, so I have decided to rest my blisters...until she arrives tomorrow afternoon.  But not until after I walked down the hill to the grocery store.  I LOVE entering grocery stores here, even though toothpaste is found in farmacias and long loaves of bread are found in panaderías.  But these grocery shelves make me feel like a child in a toy store.  Fun.

Everything on this table cost only 7,35 euros (about $8)

Below, is tinto de verano wine, salad dressing, mussels and garbanzos

After writing an email this morning to my friend, Steven Alonzo, who loves Spain and knows Miguel Alba, I thought I’d copy the contents of the email for my blog as it tells of my last evening’s adventure...

Hola, Steven,

I thought of you last night when Miguel picked me up.  I thought we were going to walk up the block or about six blocks to la playa to chat and eat.  I wore my flip flops.  He drove us about a half mile east, parked and he showed me the antique railroad station at La Cala.  At that area, I saw a beautiful beach that I’d never seen before, much prettier and more open than the little area I’ve been walking to the past week.  I was surprised because this one was deeper, cleaner and there were hamacas (thatched umbrellas above lounge chairs) to rent.

We kept walking...and walking...until he pointed out the first tunnel and then we leisurely walked some more as we chatted.  We walked on the long, stone walkway around the vista above the Mediterranean Sea in Rincon de la Victoria...and kept walking.  I enjoyed it all, but my feet were getting grumpy.  We walked all the way to the central area where cafes were strewn along the sea, children’s large play areas had been erected on the sand and many stalls were selling their wares.

Miguel said how much he enjoyed visiting with you and your family and that Isa loves the fact that you loved everything about Spain.  And then we stopped for a drink, more chatting and it was 9:30 already.  We started walking ;I use the word loosely). He was nearly trotting and I worked hard to keep up.  My feet were 😱 screaming...and we darted around others on the paseo.  I love the paseo and all the people.  If I could live here, I think it would be in this area...for all the wonders and...well, everything.  

We arrived at the car and we were dripping with sweat.  So humid here and hot.  It wasn’t a day for trotting.  I had to laugh because my smart watch popped up a message, “it looks like you are exercising” or some such thing.  That’s never happened before.  We made a plan to see each other for a bit on Sunday and I got back to the apartment with blisters on my blisters.  We’d made the fast walk in 45 minutes.  I googled the distance of 3.6 km and found we’d walked 3 miles each way...hence the blisters since I hadn’t worn my walking shoes!

So, today I babied my feet in preparation for tomorrow nights tapas and wine walking tour in Malaga. It will be lovely to see Caroline’s face at the airport.  She knows she is going to hit the ground running because I have a tendency to...well, have adventures.