To Antoon and Hentie in Mijas, visit to Mijas Pueblo

At 8 o’clock Magriet knocks on my door, dressed and in her right mind: “Ta daaa! I’m well again!” How great was my relief! We paid Mari-Carmen the €20 she charged us each, thanked her profusely, had a little chat through the language barrier, and started our descent to the car.

Magriet and Mari-Carmen – I heartily recommend this guesthouse!! Top quality!

We left our stuff in the boot and went for a walk to look for churros and chocolata.

There is a Friday market on in the street next to the square, on the square and in the municipal market building. We ask where we can find churros, and they direct us to the market churros kiosk. But somehow we don’t trust this kiosk and wander through the streets looking for another cafe that serves churros for breakfast. At long last we return to square one and buy excellent freshly fried churros with chocolata. We sit at a table in the atrium amidst smells of fish and flowers and have a go at this very unusual breakfast. The chocolata is like a very thick soup, so you can dip your churros in it without getting spattered. The churro was squeezed into the oil bath like a curled up snake and presented on the plate as such. What an experience!

Churros and chocolata

Now we look up our car to leave Salobreña, but not so fast, Bucky! We have a flat tyre!! Two heroes from the nearest market stall come and help us change the tyre, but it turns out the crucial spanner is missing. Thank my Guardian Angel that we are parked right in front of a motor cycle workshop. The owner comes and takes off the tyre, fixes it in his workshop in a jiffy, charges us €15 and off we go.

Tyre fixed and ready to go

Magriet wants to see if she can find a certain shoe shop where she found very comfortable shoes one year. We drive down the boulevard to the end and up again, and she tells me “Go down the street again, I think I saw the shop.” There is a parking spot in front of the shop, and will you believe it, it is the exact shop where she got her shoes years ago! Instinct guides Magriet everywhere, astounding!

Now it’s time to find the freeway. Not too difficult if you remember how you came in, so soon we’re heading for Malaga. After 2 hours of concentration in heavy traffic we can start following directions sent by Antoon to find their lovely new home in Mijas. They live on a golf estate among expanses of green lawn and beautiful gardens. We drive around a bit before we find their apartment and them – in fine fettle!

Antoon and Hentie live on the Mijas Golf Estate

One of the first things they let us hear is a YouTube clip of the beautiful Maria Dolores singing “Vaya con Dios, Nikita” at age 87. We are both in love with this woman’s voice and personality!!

Lots of chinwag before we leave on a wonderful excursion to Mijas Pueblo, a quaint “white village” typical to the area high up on the mountainside towards the sea. We drive through narrow alleyways and touristic lanes agog with bright colours

Colourful Mijas Pueblo

and then park the car for a stroll through some worthwhile corners of this Andalusian gem. The lift takes us to the 10th floor where we alight and immediately see and hear the donkeys for which this town is famous. Donkey cart drivers asleep or chatting to cronies make for wonderful pictures.

The donkeys of Mijas Pueblo

The logo of Mijas even uses a donkey as the M!

Míjas stands for Donkeys

We take in the views from a lovely village square with bright flower beds and a typical Andalusian water fountain.

Typical Andalusian water feature

Then we visit the hermitage of the Virgin of the Rock (Hermandad Virgen de la Peña), the patron Saint of Mijas Pueblo. It is overly decorated with wrought iron curls and coils and real flowers, of which the carnations gave off a strong scent! But as behoves a sanctuary, it emits a spirit of peace.

Santuario de la Virgen de la Peña

Now we walk back through the town to a street café where we have some liquid sustenance. After a while we walk back through the charming village, past the donkey rank

Donkeys at the rank

to our car and drive slowly home. An outing well worth making if you are in this neck of the woods!

Now Antoon takes to the kitchen. He is an accomplished cook and soon we sit down to a sumptuous meal. Starters: Vol-au-vents with beef, liver, onion and cashew nut stew!

Vol-au-vents filled with a liver and cashew nut stew

Main course: Home smoked trout with lemon wedges, a wonderful assortment of salad items, including avocado, jamón, black tomato slices, olives, etc., plus a bowl of pickled green beans, boere-style (from Kook en Geniet!). I have resolved to try home smoking, because this fish was incredibly elegantly delicious!

Freshly smoked trout with salad and pickled green beans

Salad platter

Meanwhile Hentie plied us with wonderful Rioja. Then came dessert apple strudel with ice cream and rum… And after that a tot of brandy. Nuf said.

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Salobreña

Magriet had business to see to in the morning, while I packed my suitcase and got ready, and then we took the road to Málaga. We turn left. Two blocks down we look at each other and laugh. Do we want to drive through the White Sea of plastic yet again????? NOOOO! U-turn is critically urgent. We have to turn to Almeria to reach the freeway easily.

Once on the A7/E15 to Motril Magriet drops off to sleep, because she has been very brave and over enthusiastic to make this trip to Salobreña. She is in fact too sick with flu to travel, but we are underway now. It is a busy freeway, but easy driving for the first half. Then the road takes to the coast with curves and bends that necessitate quite slow driving. And for the last small bit there is a piece of the A15 finished – a modern marvel of a road! The Spanish highways are mindblowing, maybe because I had no idea how advanced they are in road engineering! NO PROBLEM to make a tunnel through a mountain for one-way traffic! Viaducts one a penny.

Spanish roads and railways are among the best in the world

At last we come round a bend and see beautiful Salobreña: a high steep hill with a fort on top and houses all the way down.

Salobreña with moorish fort

Today there is an urban sprawl all the way to the sea. Magriet knows we are looking for Pensión Mari-Carmen, but has no other info. She relies on her instinct to find the place, but this place is pure one-way streets winding to hell and gone, and we are helpless. I get out and go and ask directions in another Hostal. I get a super map in the process, but the directions take it for granted I am on foot! Now we go forwards and backwards to find a place that is literally round the corner! At last a parking place at the village marketplace, and we schlepp our luggage up this steep hill to Pension Mari-Carmen. You see, it is a one-way coming down, and we have NO IDEA, not even with the map, how to approach it by car… Magriet has good reason to be proud of herself when we reach the pension and Mari-Carmen stands in the doorway!

Mari-Carmen

Magriet’s friend Retha in Cape Town who spends a lot of time here, has organised with Mari-Carmen that we will come for a night in May but M-C is not aware of the date yet. So her other guest house at the bottom of the hill is full tonight, but not to worry, she has two lovely rooms in this pension for us, and we are here now.

We each get a double room with shower. Magriet JUST makes it to the bed, flops down and falls asleep. After a while I check on her, and she says she is not going to leave her bed today, I should go and do the tourist thing in Salobreña. Poor Magriet!

I go down and I’m accosted by Mari-Carmen’s father who tries diligently to bring to my attention that I must remove my car from its current location, because tomorrow is market day, and the stalls need that space. If I leave my car there, the police will come and get me. In the end he offers to go with me and direct me. So we descend the hill, and he tells me to reverse 50 m in a narrow one-way lane with cars parked along the one side. OH BOY, I think! But I do as I’m told, and after 2 trial runs I succeed to park in front of a motor bike repair centre at the bottom of our road. Phew!!!

Now I go walkies, look around in the ‘flats’ neighbourhood (because it is built on flat ground, and it consists of apartment blocks). It looks like municipal housing in that they all look exactly the same, but the streets dividing them in a grid of parallel streets are all pedestrian zones (for children to play in) and lined on both sides by tall palms.

Flats quarter

After buying a few things in a large supermarket for supper, because I won’t be going to a restaurant alone tonight, I return home and spend some time with email and blog….

Here are some impressions of Salobreña. They might be typical of  Salobreña, of Andalucía or of España…

Beautiful house exterior

Very decorative street signs

Steep streets

Super excellent cured meats

Giant ripe sweet loquats

Awesome vistas

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