The day after Barcelona was schedule to a day at sea- and frankly, we needed some downtime after walking all of the city! Now, the night before, the captain popped onto the loudspeaker to announce that we were no longer going to Gibraltar. Despite not being too excited to go there, I was really bummed to not being able to go. For one thing, when we last passed through the straights of Gibraltar, it was between midnight and 2 am. Meaning, I didn’t experience it because I was sleeping. I was SUPER excited to see it. But, alas…it would not be.
Now, the captain had good news- while the wind wouldn’t allow us to dock in Gibraltar, Valencia wanted us! Wow! Talk about a bonus. We were never supposed to go there. Cool!!
So, a few hours later, Valencia changed their minds. I guess our reputation preceded us. We would not be going there. But- aha! More good news. We could now go to Malaga! Again - for the first time! Woohoo!
Cue the grumpy people in line at the shore excursion desk. Sigh.
The crew really hustled to try to get excursions together- but it just wasn’t working to see them in the app, the computer, the big screens around the ship. We tried a little bit and then decided - who cares? We’ll just walk around! We’ve had really good luck with this- even including the missed excursion in Barcelona.
We enjoyed our day at sea. It’s nice to have quieter, less busy days. We don’t have to jump up and get going early. You just do whatever, whenever. But on purpose. There is almost always an art auction on sea days and we love these. Oddly, my dad got me into these years ago. I say oddly, because my dad and I have always had the same view on art. We like what we like, which isn’t everything. We don’t like art museums. Unless you count us standing in the back making fun of everything. Which is pretty cool, if I’m being honest. But, for my high school graduation, I chose a cruise to Hawaii over a computer (remember when they were THAT expensive? I’m old.) on the boat day one, we heard there would be art auctions. I was surprised when my dad was like - oooh, those are great! For one, you seem to always get free Champagne. It’s fun. Have you ever been to an auction? Man! There is cool stuff that happens! Anyway, that is what started it for me.
These days, there is no art auction I don’t go to. Also, I buy art. Really, who am I? I don’t know. I’m not buying art from the classical artists. The masters. Oh, no. I buy what I like - which is actually what “they” recommend.
This brings up a great story about one of my favorite painters. His name is Michael Goddard. I first became familiar with him when I lived in Las Vegas. Makes sense because he lives in Las Vegas and he makes splashy, sexy sort of paintings - usually with olives in martini glasses. That type of thing. He’s the rock in roll guy of the painting world.
One particular year, the Australian casino gaming company I was working for commissioned him to create the artwork for new slot machines. Imagine them in all their olive greatness. SO COOL! And, even better, he showed up at our Christmas party. With Vince Neil. And I met him. Which was SOCOOL. But the best part of the evening was, for whatever reason, my parents were in town and I asked if I could bring them and was told yes. So, we went to enter the party and all the sudden, they had to sign in and there was a column asking what casino they were from. In a panic, one casino came to mind. The funniest name I’d ever heard (no disrespect to any tribe- I’m just a 12 year old boy inside). Ho Chunk. That was the night I escorted two members of Ho Chunk around and met Michael Goddard.
Flash forward a few years (plus 10. Plus more). We go on our first sabbatical and take a 31 day cruise. I see the art auctions and to Jason’s shock, I said, “we have to go to those!” And we did. Every single one. And, the day we arrived to auction #1, I see Michael Goddard art. WHAT??? I didn’t expect to buy art. Or even like art. But, there we were, a captive audience in the South Pacific. Buying art.
Flash forward 5 more year. Somehow, I’m on a cruise across the Atlantic on another long sabbatical cruise. And, AND, this time, inexplicably, I own an olive ranch. And Jason works in a wine cellar making wine. Oh, did I mention that Michael Goddard’s other main figure in paintings beyond the olive is…a grape? WHAT?
Needless to say, I love this artist.Take my money.
But, back on track here - we arrived in Malaga sometime while we were sleeping. Oh, this reminds me. Our room can’t get cool enough. We’ve been trying to figure out a way to be comfy sleeping when it is always 70 some degrees and we have a down comforter on the dang bed. Who came up with the idea of that? And why did every hotel, cruise ship and whatever offering a bed decide to follow? A) it is hard to clean. Have you ever washed a duck? Or is it a goose? Who cares? You can’t wash water fowl. And b) it is hot as hell. This is only appropriate 3% of the time and I’m not traveling on those days. Anyway, we have started sleeping with our balcony door left wide open. This provides a tremendous, cool breeze. So much so that one night we ordered wine to the room and when I attempted to open the door, the entire tray of stuff, minus the wine glasses, blew off and littered the hallway. HAHAHAH. I said - one moment please…slammed the door in her face (as though there was any way I could control it), ran back to close the slider, ran back and opened the main door again. And we both burst into laughter.
This is also when I began having nightly nightmares of rats crawling up the ship walls and into our room. But, I digress.
Our plan for Malaga was the new usual- walk off. Walk around. Get lost. Eat, drink. Walk back before the boat leaves. Bam.
As we walked off, there was a hop on hop off bus right there waiting. We briefly considered it. But the town seemed small ish. Walkable. So very not Barcelona. On we walked. It was about 10 am and the city was almost, just barely, waking up. Imagine any city in North America on a work day at 10 am. Everything would be open. Nothing here was open. Even some coffee shops were just opening up! Clearly, I was not born to be a Spanish person. I’m living the wrong time of the day.
We quickly got into town and followed our eyes through garden after garden. We were inspired with ideas for our front yard back home - citrus trees, wild flowers, a small fountain. So beautiful.
We made our way around into the bustling alleys and cobblestone streets with the restaurants and bars. This is now forever sealed in my mind as a quintessential Spanish city vibe. I LOVE IT. Sort of spur of the moment, we decided to go to the Picasso museum. Why not! (Unless it was too expensive - which it wasn’t at 12 euro for the entire museum, special collections and all).
After, we set out to find a place for tapas and wine. This became oddly difficult because nothing was open yet for lunch…at almost 12 noon. And, what was open were the bars (I’m pro-bar, don’t get me wrong) but they had the most uncomfortable looking seating you can imagine, and I was planning to sit there for hours. This mattered. We went round and round. Past the same homeless dog three times (I love him.)figured out the streets, revisited the menus. Finally picked one and as we were sitting, we were told they weren’t doing food that day. Well. Ok. Round and round we went again.
Finally, we found a place! When the waiter came, I asked about local wine and he apologized and said he didn’t speak a lot of English. Well! I’ve trained my whole life for this - I happen to know Spanish.
In a split second of time, my brain did this really marvelous thing. Like seriously, fist bump to my brain. First, it went straight back to Senora Falk’s 10th grade Spanish class when she taught us how to “circumnavigate” language. The idea is you will get into a conversation and not know how to say what you need to say. But, what CAN you say? How can you circumnavigate around to it? Honestly, I’ve learned a lot of great things in my studies- through two master’s degrees…but this is one of the best. Back to the tapas restaurant in Malaga. Do I know how to say, “What wines do you have from this region?” Well, nothing came to mind. What did come to mind was, “what wines are near to here?” Did that work? Heck yes it did. BAM. GRACIAS, SENORA FALK!
We ordered up our tapas, cracked open our wines that were near to here and enjoyed sitting in a quieter alley in Malaga Spain on a cloudy day. What’s not to love??
After, we started to meander back toward the boat, because I’d seen another bodega near the water I wanted to visit. We passed by an amazing cathedral just at the right time when the bells started to ring. We enjoyed more local wine near the water before walking back to the boat. A wonderful day in Malaga. A beautiful, clean, charming little city on the south coast of Spain. Highly recommend!
We were pretty tired back on boat and didn’t want to risk another 2 hour dinner in the dining room so we, hilariously, ordered 2 hot dogs to the room for dinner. They showed up just that - hot dogs and buns. No condiments. No nothing else. Well then. Ok!
Today was a sea day. Another quiet day to attend the art auction, relax. Catch up on writing. Not hustle. This is the last one for awhile. Tomorrow we hit France, then immediately off to Italy and we’re really off to the races from there. I’m looking forward to every minute of it.
But first, we have another wine maker dinner tonight. I think half the crowd are our usual group of friends. We’ll see who else we’ll get to meet! Pray for my liver.
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