Spain travel blog
G’day all and welcome to the Midlife Crisis Odyssey Podcast, where not all who wander are lost, but some of us definitely are. Whilst waiting for favourable winds for our onward journey, I decided to have a look around the Castillo de San Carlos in Palma, Majorca. I was to discover that the holiday playground of Palma was once a place of piracy, plunder and peril… If you would like to see the post for this podcast, you can find…
When I left New Zealand to fly to Turkey last year, the whole Covid-19 circus was a bit confronting (see Air Travel in the Covid Age). We were told to wear both a mask and a perspex face shield when boarding and disembarking the plane, and the shield had to stay in place for the duration of the flight. The airline staff who greeted us at the plane door were dressed top to toe in surgical ward safety gear. Now,…
In the morning I headed down to the hotel lobby and checked out for the second time in the past two days (see Leaving Spain, First Attempt ). I had spent the previous afternoon booking flights I hoped I could board, and hotels I hoped I could reach. I was tempted to joke to the bloke on the desk that I would see him later in the day, but decided not to jinx myself. With a unpleasant sense of deja-vu…
In Australia, vending machines are found in lots of places, like railway stations, sports clubs, universities and workplaces. If you need a chocky bar, bag of peanuts or soft drink to get you through ’til lunchtime, a few dollars in the slot and your refreshment is only an unwieldy door away. In Spain, vending machines are located in similar spots, but also in little alcoves or shop spaces were a number of machines can be found. The usual types of…
The catamaran had been my home for the past five months, and I’d been very fortunate to have some great adventures aboard. However with the good ship parked up at the marina in La Linea for repairs and upgrades, it was time for me to be leaving Spain. With inter-regional travel in Spain still limited, and Portugal locked down tighter than a chastity belt, it was time to move a little further afield. Well, at least across the Straits of…
In the hills behind Marbella, Spain, is a little town called Benahavis. And in the hills behind Benahavis, there are the ruins of a 10th century fortress: Montemayor Castle. Now that’s gotta be worth a look. Resplendent in wet weather gear, a daypack on my back, (and a song in my heart) I headed off on the 79 Bus west of Marbella to Guadalmina. From there I intended to change buses for the service to Benahavis, until I discovered I…
Sailing into Marbella, it’s hard to miss the towering presence of La Concha. The mountain which looms over the town is so-named because it looks like a sea shell, even though it doesn’t. Our first day in Marbella was rainy, and the clouds sat low over La Concha. However the second day dawned bright so I set off to climb the peak. I caught the bus north out of town, which wound it’s way up past the little hillside village…
When I was in Malta I was amazed to see how many eucalypts and wattles had been planted on the little island nation (see Australians Abroad). This was on top of seeing Aussie gums in New Zealand (which was not so surprising), Turkey (which was) and Greece (which was too). Since leaving Malta I have visited Italy and Tunisia, and have found eucalypts there as well. I’m in Spain at the moment, and once again seeing gums and wattles all…
‘The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?’ It didn’t take long for our illogical Corona quasi-lockdown in Malaga to become frustrating (see Not Welcome in Malaga), so I thought I’d sneak off and check out the Museo Picasso. Picasso was born in Malaga, and the Museum devoted to his life and work is in the Old City precinct. This area is a peaceful place to wander (in an off-season pandemic), away from the…
Our three and a half day passage from Mallorca to the city of Malaga on Spain’s south coast was our easiest yet. We figured we were due for some good sailing conditions after getting bashed pillar to post on our last voyage from Sardinia. We had a following wind for the entire passage, which gave us good speed and made for comfortable trip. As we sailed along the south coast of Spain, we got some great views of the mountain…