Torrox revisted

Got a nice email from Jenny which I talked about in my blog yesterday, so I will do an update to it.  Jenny and her husband are from Glasgow and Meg (her niece) is the one from Aberdeen. They have been here for 9 year. Even more lucky that I was thinking, that is living 2 more years in paradise that I first blogged about. The funny thing is the more you drink, the shorter the memory gets. I think I might need a dicta-phone as I get older too.

We went for our jog along the beach morning. A little bit hazy this morning.  They were cleaning and moving sand on the beaches.  

A bit hazy this morning, hopefully it will clear up

The start of our jog. The pathway to the beach with 6 or 7 restaurants on the left about 100 meters from our place

Working the beach, moving sand around

Yoga time

After breakfast we did a load of laundry.  Hopefully it will not rain today.  Worked on yesterday’s picture and blog.

For lunch, I made Spanish garlic soup which we had a couple of times while we have been here.  I added onions to it for a bit more flavour which I don’t believe is the tradition here.  It turned out nicely according to Wendy’s compliments.  Wendy then made a small salad.  I think she was afraid I did not get enough rabbit food yesterday.

Spanish garlic soup

Rabbit food

After lunch we walked to the Boatyard bar and restaurant where there was supposed to be some type of market.  Same as last time I had gone. Nothing was happening.

Waiting for business

More sand moving

For my weekly photo challenge, rule of thirds 

One of the beach restaurants cooking sardines over an open fire.

Purple flowers for my mother in law

Roses at one of the beach cottages

How can I not post a picture of a fishing boat?

Lots more of these in the last few days.

Around 3, I headed to the information center, just to find out it was closed.  I then walked around town to take a few pictures.  I also decided to go into this place which is always busy.  It is a tapas bar, so I sat in front of where the food is and ordered a beer and clams.  The clams were cooked on the griddle with a cover on top to keep the steam in.  They were served with a wedge of lemon since they were served natural.

Good sign the food was good, when it is done before the beverage

El Pulguilla

Another one of my stops, was the Verano Azul Park. In there they have the boat that was used in the filming of a TV series from 1981. It was only taped one year but it has run many years as reruns. 
Here is the info from Wikipedia:
“Verano azul (Blue Summer) was a famous Spanish television show directed by Antonio Mercero which first aired in 1981. It tells of the adventures of a group of youngsters between ages 9 and 17, while on summer vacation in Nerja”
There a EU project to fix the boat as it is in bad shape but like many EU projects we have seen, this one looks like it is on hold as well.

From the TV series Verano Azul

This was a 20 foot tree full of these. Beautiful

Statue of me near the park

Serious game here, quiet please

Fountain that was done when Spain joined the EU.  Each country donated one stone block.

Got home in time to take in the laundry and then we headed out to Torrox.  Wendy wanted to see the crazy streets we were in a few weeks ago.  This time we found the parking lot outside town and walked the town on foot.  What a beautiful small town place.  Many little streets with most of the houses having flowers outside.  We explored the town for about 1 hour and then decided to head home. This town is not very touristy at all.  The most would be the main square which might have 5 restaurants and 1 bar. That is it. A big difference from Nerja where there are tons of tourists.

Wendy showing how wide the streets we drove on last time are.

Most house had some flowers, some more than others

town square, one of 2 we found

Water delivery.  All the house have some type of tiles like this or just painted

Valley view from the edge of town

View of Torrox from the edge of town with the sea in the background

Chicken can fly, down that is. Disclaimer, no chicken was harm in taking this picture.  The chicken did it on its own.

square in town with church in the background

I suggested we take the shore road via Torrox Costa.  Torrox is inland and Torrox Costa is at the beach.  There a lighthouse there so we stopped to take in the views and a few more pictures.  Very pretty but a lot more built up with high-rises than Nerja.  The beach looked beautiful with a very long boardwalk with many restaurants lining it. Must have been at least 1 or 2 km long.

Lottery ticket seller in the street

Torrox Costa lighthouse

The nice long beach

Long boardwalk on Torrox Costa beach

Brick ovens from many years ago

We then drove home following the shoreline.  Much nicer than last time we did it as today there is almost no wind.

If I lived here, I would have one of these, maybe not a pink one.  Easy parking for this person, only need 1/3 of a spots.

We went out to supper around 7 and found an Indian restaurant called Haveli that had a menu of the day that looked interesting.  I forget the names of the dishes. Wendy had something like a deep fried onion ball and I had mouton samosa. Wendy had the brightest red Chicken Tikka we ever seen and I had lamb with lentils.  The meals were served with rainbow rice and Nan bread. The meals were really flavorful and tasty.  Wendy’s chicken was a little tough but still very good.  The desserts were only so so.  Overall it was a good meal and the bill came to about 26€ with tip with a glass of red wine each.

Chicken Tikka and Lamb Gdansk (??)

We decided to go for a drink and tapas next.  We went looking for a bar we had been to Pepe Mesa.  We did find it but it was very busy, so we opted to find somewhere else.  When we got to the round bar, we saw the people from Manchester were sitting outside with another couple.  The man introduced us to them and we talked for a couple of minutes.  The other couple left and we asked if we could join them. We stayed for a glass of wine and chatted. The couple had been to Cypress many times, so we talked about that as well.  It is an Island that belongs to 2 countries, Greece and Turkey). He says the bar bill are twice as expensive there as they are here. It was fun to talk to someone else about doing tapas and Nerja. We were served a plate of ham on bread and also cheese for our tapas to share for the 5 of us.  Lots of excitement coming up for them as their first grandchild is expected in November, I see a lot of shopping in the next few months.  We told them how much more fun it is being grandparents than parents.  They leave here tomorrow, but I am sure they will be back many more times than us as they are lucky to be so close with many airlines to choose from. Thanks for the wine and a pleasure chatting with you folks. Have a safe trip home. We probably said "No Gracias" to the many street vendors who came by while we were there.

At home we had another glass of wine with my luck at cribbage getting worse and worse.  Did not win a game last night again and I got skunked also.