Mijas, Spain

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that our trip to Granada and Córdoba was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

So, we had a bit of a surprise this past Sunday morning. I went to the beach at about 6:30am as usual but it started to rain a bit so I headed back to the apartment. I met Ruth outside the hotel and she informed me that our trip to Granada, etc. which we thought was Monday - Wednesday, was actually today through Tuesday! The bus had come and gone, so we had missed the trip :-(

Donkey taxi in Mijas, Spain

As we were trying to figure out how we might catch up with them or take a bus to Granada on our own and meet them there Jean Wheeler came to our place and said the bus was there waiting for us. The bus had actually left to pick up some folks nearby, without informing Ruth, and then returned to get us - hence Ruth's conclusion that we had missed the trip. So we scrambled to get stuff together - a bit of a tizzy you can imagine! We threw stuff into bags, got cameras and associated paraphernalia, etc and, grateful but embarrassed, we joined the 13 Canadians patiently waiting on the bus.

Sunday was a long day on the bus through the eastern Algarve, Portugal, into Spain around Sevilla then east and south to the Costa del Sol (on the Mediterranean) near Torremolinos where our first visit was the small pueblo of Mijas where we spent a few hours. The reason Mijas is on the tour is interesting.

In recent decades the Costa del Sol has become an extremely popular tourist site and, this has led to an enormous influx of people, businesses and money. In the process, all of the characteristic small fishing towns have been swept away and replaced by cities with large modern buildings.

Somehow, the village of Mijas (now an official heritage site), possibly because it is not on the coast, managed to maintain much of the past ambiance of villages in this part of Spain. I say "much" of the ambiance, because the character of the village now, while freshly painted and quite lovely, is a pretty typical tourist town, densely populated with restaurants and small shops selling over-priced goods that seem to appeal to tourists like us :-) - leather, ceramics and donkey taxis seem to be the main attractions.

Sadly, as the tourist numbers are significantly reduced, business is hurting and one has a sense of some desperation in the shops here. We took this same trip a few years ago in a large bus with no empty seats - this year they seem to have reduced the minimum number required for the trip to go as we were on a small bus with 15 people.

And to add to the problem of reduced visitors, the weather this winter has not encouraged touring to places like this.

In any case, we spent a relaxing few hours here in Mijas and contributed a few Euros to the economy before departing for Granada where we arrived shortly after 7 pm.

We checked into our hotel, had a pleasant dinner with a couple from Ottawa then retired hoping that the weather for our visit to the Alhambra the next day would be excellent. (When we were last at the Alhambra a few years ago the visit was marred and abbreviated by a temperature high of 6° C and continuous rain!).

Left are the ruins of an old Muslim fort which has been converted to a chapel dedicated, I think, to Mary.

Leather items seem to be everywhere here and all shops claim that they are definitely selling "leather" - signs claiming "No plastic here!"

Left is a house/home in Mijas.


From Mijas we went to Granada to visit the Alhambra but I have quite a bit to sort out - both photos and comments - for the Alhambra,  so the next post will be about the very large and photogenic Mosque in Córdoba which we visited on Tuesday.