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Makes a change from beer 🙂 My quarterly trek up to Nervión to see my accountant has its compensations. It means I get to try new bars there or, in this case, visit an old favourite. Update on the fabulous Raíces coming soon…
11 Tuesday Jul 2017
Posted restaurants, sevilla, summer
inTags
Makes a change from beer 🙂 My quarterly trek up to Nervión to see my accountant has its compensations. It means I get to try new bars there or, in this case, visit an old favourite. Update on the fabulous Raíces coming soon…
24 Saturday Jun 2017
Posted food & drink, seasons, sevilla, spain, summer, tapas bars, weather
inTags
Well at least some things (besides my water supply!) remain cold during this week of 40º temps. My favourite beer (Estrella Galicia) – and my favourite beer pump – at one of my favourite bars (Bodeguita Romero). Cheers!
20 Saturday Aug 2016
I’ve been planning this since June and now it’s just one more sleep until #GaliciaGetaway! It will be my first visit to Santiago de Compostela and I’m really looking forward to it, as well as seeing Anna & Jorge again (on their home turf!). I’ll be arriving in Santiago at midday mañana… looks like it will be quite a bit cooler (and that Thursday might be a good day to stay in). But it will be very different from my recent getaways to London and Madrid. Stay tuned…
23 Thursday Jun 2016
Posted day trips, food & drink, friends, getaways, Malaga, malaga getaway, summer, travel, trips
inWhen I first made plans for this Málaga Getaway a few months ago, the idea was to take a couple of day trips with Victor (in his NEW CAR) to visit friends in Alhaurín de la Torre and Colmenar. It turned out I couldn’t have chosen a worse week as both friends were up to their eyeballs in work, so we came up with a Plan B, which was to visit Antequera and introduce Victor to the delights of Charo Carmona’s Arte de Cozina. But first Victor wanted to show me the stone monolith dolmens and the amazing rock formations of El Torcal. All went well until we got to El Torcal and Victor asked if I wanted to do the shorter “low effort” trail. “C’mon”, he said. “It’s easy”, he said. So like a fool I said “Okay!” and off we went.
Turns out it’s easy if you’re a mountain goat. Or Victor. Or at least NOT an overweight 59-year-old woman prone to tachycardia with arthritic knees and twice-sprained dodgy ankles. It also would’ve helped if Victor had warned me about proper footwear, if it wasn’t mid-day under a blazing sun (34º), and if we’d brought some water with us. The 45-minute trek ended up taking just over an hour – the thing was that by the time I realised just how impossible this was going to be for me it would have been just as long going back as keeping on. Duh. Also, I’m very stubborn, so I refused to give up. But every step of the way (seriously EVERY step) I kept envisioning another swollen sprained ankle and me having to be air-lifted out of the place by helicopter. Because there really was no path to speak of, just seemingly endless clambering up and down the rocks. I tell you, I was so happy to see the Fin de Senderos (end of trail) sign, and that cold beer was the best I’d ever had in my lilfe. And, once it was over, I was really glad we’d done it.
Then it was off to Antequera for lunch, and although arriving as a sweat-soaked bedraggled mess hadn’t been my intention, it was great to see Charo again. We opted for snacks at her Arte de Tapas next door instead of the full restaurant experience next door (since we were going to be having a full restaurant experience in the evening at Restaurante Amador). Everything was great – the croquetas, morcilla with mango, fried rabbit ribs – but that unassuming looking tapa (lower middle photo) is worth taking a trip to Antequera for. It’s lomo de orza, or cooked pork loin that’s been preserved in pork fat inside large clay urns (orzas). It was served over confit potatoes on toast and each bite was heaven.
Finally it was time to go home, rest up a bit, and get ready for our evening out. By now my hair couldn’t have looked any worse so we drove back to Málaga with the top down and I managed to get this great shot of Victor driving with the Peña de los Enamorados in the background. An amazing day.
21 Tuesday Jun 2016
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The latest Málaga Getaway got off to an amazing start yesterday when I walked out of the train station and saw the amazing Victor waiting for me outside with his trusty steed Rocinante, ready to whisk me away – top down of course – to the fabulous Casa de los Principes (my new nickname for Thane & Bob Prince’s Málaga apartment). After that we had a quick snack at Atarazanas market and I went off to do a bit of shopping and unpack.
I didn’t realise until I got here how much I really need a break, even just these few days. A “real holiday” probably would have felt too stressful, but here in Málaga I feel at home and things feel both familiar and different. Have really missed the sea air! Anyhow, heading out now for lunch with Victor and Andrew, so gotta run! xx
Casa de los Principes
08 Wednesday Jun 2016
16 Sunday Aug 2015
Posted summer, travel, trips, twitter friends
in04 Tuesday Aug 2015
Posted food & drink, sevilla, spain, summer
in03 Wednesday Sep 2014
Posted andalucia, azahartravels, Malaga, malaga getaway, summer, travel, trips
inTags
02 Saturday Aug 2014
I’m not much for cocktails but one of my most pleasant memories during the #SanlúcarGetaway was sitting at a beach bar on the Bajo de Guia at sunset. This cocktail is called the Sanlúcar and is made with manzanilla sherry, lime juice, olive oil, sugar, egg white, with hierbabuena & angostura bitters to finish. Delicious.