It has worked out well. I don't think that we'd have been as impressed with Spain, had we toured counter-clockwise and shorted the time in Barcelona, which was certainly a highlight. The bustle of Barcelona softened us up for Tangiers, and just driving in Barcelona, parking nearby vs at the hotel, has gotten us used to hotels that you-can't-get-there-from-here (or anywhere !), finding parking close and then finding the hotel.
Yesterday was a mix of all that -- we are able to drive by the hotel but we didn't even try and find it from the road. We found parking nearby, diving below ground at a big blue "P" when we seemed very close and then walking above ground to find the hotel. Yesterday that worked out perfectly; the hotel provides the parking pass, we pay them. We couldn't have parked any closer; it was perfect.
We are also right at the main pedestrian / car free zone and the main square/oval/circle. Since we were headed for the city, we chose "distance from city center" as the sort criteria looking at hotels. What the heck. This "Internacional Design Hotel" is very cute albeit tiny rooms (that's what you get in the center of a European city) but we at least have a Queen bed.
We took the longish way here from our last night's stop, seeing the countryside and skipping the A-roads for the most part. Sometimes we were in view of the Atlantic coast, but not often, whereas the Autoroute/Highway (don't know what that's called in Portugal) would have come more through the center of the country. We were more on what they term the "national roads" those designated with N.
We hadn't eaten anything by the time we got here, which was after 3pm, so once sorted out, which was then close to 4:30/5:00, we headed out to the aforementioned pedestrian street/mall and found an outside restaurant, having some too-big appetizers, which kind-of spoiled our dinner. Oh well. We are/were spoiled. Later on we went out for dinner and had just one course, not counting a half-bottle of wine, since we'd already been drinking !
Sandy is getting into Sangria, tasting and comparing, but the one in Malaga still holds the best-of award.
Sandy's octopus salad which was even larger than it looked. These are large plates. That's all meat that you're looking at, flavored with veggies & olives. It was perfectly prepared.
My roasted veggie plate was huge. I've eaten more aubergine (sounds much more interesting than eggplant), than I've had in some time. We need to eat more of same. Aubergine and zucchini with a sprinking of corn kernels, red cabbage, tomatoes, carrots for colour.
... and we found another plastic cow; picture sent to Sheryl. As I said to her, those damn plastic cows all look the same !
Today we'll do the hop-on-hop-off thing ...
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