Our new best friends

Our new bfs are our sturdy mountain bikes, think Don Quixote & Sancho Panza equipped for 2016.

One of the attractions of the location we have chosen as our base is the 'Paseo', stretching out in both directions along the coast. You can walk all the way West to Malaga or East to Torre, barely touching the road.  Spanish tradition is that, especially on Sundays,  the family parade up and down, eat, drink, socialise,  meet all the other families,  it is part of their way of life and there is a paseo of some sort in every town.

The beauty here is that it is almost flat, with a sea view all the way,  often smoothly paved with marble tiles & so provides a perfect bike track. It is lined with bars and restaurants, mainly the 'chiringuitos', which are the beach cafes specialising in skewers of sardines, called 'espetos'.  They cook  these over a barbecue fashioned from an old upturned rowing boat, and they cost the princely sum of 2 euros per skewer.

To make the most of this and to get some exercise to fend off the effects of all the aforementioned bars and restaurants, we have invested in 2 new bikes.  Carrefour supermarket''s finest proved cheaper than bike hire and hopefully we will pass them onto some good cause at the end of our stay, ( possibly other gastronomically challenged ex pats!).

I am proud to say after a couple of warm up rides we cycled right into Malaga and back on Saturday, 30 kilometres in all.  We took our time and I admit we did sample
the espetos along the way, well it had to be done.

The biggest challenge and all part  of the fun, is dodging all the other paseo life...........cyclists,  especially serious ones, prams & buggies, dogs of every breed and size, skateboards, roller skates, families who amble 5 abreast, waiters, abandoned toys, market stalls, footballers, heelys, toddlers, hover boards and what seems to be the latest craze here,  'fliker' scooters, which take up twice as much space!

The next plan is to put the bikes on the back of the car and take them up to some of the natural parks nearby, further inland and take advantage of this exceptional weather we are having, as long as there are some flat bits!