Malaga rendezvous

After breakfast Fr Geoff and I said Morning Prayer together, a rare pleasure for both of us these days when we work so much on our own, although he may get more opportunities that I, since he is Area Dean of Spain, and gets to make duty visit other chaplains and chaplaincies in his supervisory and support role.  He will soon be in a position where he is supervising three adjacent chaplaincies without chaplains. It's a lot of extra responsibility for someone of retirement age working only part time. But he's a guy who just enjoys the challenge of thinking originally about tackling difficult situations. The diocese in Europe is fortunate to have him.

 

We headed for Malaga airport at lunchtime for Fr Geoff and Carol's mid-afternoon flight to the Midlands, UK. Then, I had six hours on my hands before Clare's flight arrived from Cardiff, so I decided on a trip inland, to see something of the mountain range that runs south along the coast. It's rich in Mediterranean forest, much of it Parque Naturale, although in some places old villages have been expanded into small well heeled towns with the development of posh urbanizacions for rich Spaniards and euro-ex-pats. So, while some parts ar remote and wild, others are well populated and suburban.

I stopped at Lidl's in Churriana to do a big grocery shop for the week, then drove on to Alhaurin de la Torre, Ahlaurin el grande, Coin, and the scenic village of Mijas perched on a south facing mountainside fourteen hundred feet up overlooking the resort of Fuengirola on the coast. This is a popular holiday area with no fewer than seven golf courses in the vicinity, and some spectacular mountain walking in the sierras. I descended to Fuengirola for the final leg of the journey and drove along the coast road as far as Torremolinos in the direction of Malaga at a snail's pace in the traffic. 

I didn't mind, because it gave me an opportunity to see the golden sanded overcrowded beaches and hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers all having a good time. All along the beach road on the land side is a seemingly endless succession of 12-15 storey tower blocks of apartments or hotels. It's not my holiday of choice, but if you live in a drab high rise suburb in a huge conurbation anywhere in the world, to be able to look out in one direction and view only sky and sea for a couple of weeks in the summer is a change for the better worth saving up for. Many people love to holiday together in groups if not crowds - Spanish and Italians more so than northern Europeans - and for most, the sea is the place to go.

I had half hour to wait for Clare at the airport as passport control was again very slow, but we were back in Nerja by ten, and I cooked us a late supper of stir fry veggies with mixed salad wash down with beer at this late hour. A stimulating day, which may be why I don't feel nearly as exhausted as I usually do with so much driving in the sunshine. The sun has cooked my arms a bit while driving, however.