Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Three Kings Day in Malaga

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

Three Kings Day in Malaga - Spain

Malaga Cathedral main entrance

After 6 months in China - how in the heck did we end up in Spain?

Lulu had just finished teaching her graduate course at Beijing Normal University and was staring at a 3 week Christmas break at a place where they do not celebrate Christmas. It had just snowed and was down into the teens and very windy. She had a long face. To Lulu - nothing is sadder than Christmas without the kids. Last year we drove our camper up north - and were all together in Washington DC for Christmas. I thought - what would it take to do that this year?

Parade float - Three Kings

We already had tickets to fly home from Beijing to Tallahassee. But we would have lost a lot of money by changing those plans. We could do whatever we wanted over the Christmas break. And we did. We found round trip - nonstop flights from Beijing to Paris for $800. All we needed was to fit into the schedules of the kids. We did.

Son 2 lives and works in Paris. Son 1 lives and works in Richmond. We all ended up in Paris for the Holiday week. Paris was nice but the temps were in the 40s and 50s - we were looking for some warmth. I never heard of Malaga before - but it is supposed to be the warmest city of 500k in Europe.

A quick 2 hours flight on Air France got us here - we booked a really nice AC Hotel Marriott for a week - right downtown on the main drag and on the water. It is very comfortable living.

We are on the 14th floor - the Med Sea is outside our window. We can see the harbor - the ferry - the cruise ships - and the beach. We can see the Main Street downtown. The Melaga Cathedral is next door - the Fort Alcazar is on the cliff behind us. We are on quite a perch.

THREE KINGS DAY

In Spain - they celebrate Three Kings Day to honor the visitors bringing presents to Baby Jesus. I had no idea about this holiday - but it was yesterday! They had a big parade that went right by our window. It was to welcome the three kings into town. The story goes that kids get cigar boxes - and fill them with grass and hay. The camels come into their homes - eat the grass - and spread it around the house. They leave presents at the foot of the bed. On Saturday we tried to visit the castle - only to find out it was closed because the Three Kings were staying there. :-)

Malaga is 2800 years old. It was occupied by the Phonicians - Romans - Moslems - and Catholics. It is now the 4th busiest city in Spain. So far - two cruise ships have stopped here since we are here. Every day a ferry goes from here to Melilla - that is another story in itself - Melilla.

MELILLA

Melilla is a city-state across the Med Sea in Morocco. It has 76,000 people but Spain still claims it. A ferry carries cars - trucks - and passengers there every day. It leaves from right in front of our hotel. I am tempted - to set foot in Africa. It is 4 hours to cross. Melilla has been owned by Spain for 400 years! It is funny - Spain is all bent out of shape that England owns Gibraltar for 300 years - but sees nothing wrong with them owning Melilla. Crazy. Lulu and I were in Egypt last spring or we would go to Africa for the heck of it.

Gibraltar is only 60 miles away - but we have already been there.

We bought bus passes - 10 rides for 10 euros - around the city. As I type - Lulu has taken a bus 28 stops to a special shopping market. I hope she does not get lost.

The downtown shopping district is huge. It is made up of little alleys - cars were banned years ago. All the streets are tile. You can eat almost anything you want as long as it is not a Subway Meatball Sandwich that you crave. Subway was here but is out of business.

Malaga Cathedral is breathtaking and in excellent shape. We did the audio tour which reviews every piece of art. Simply - the cathedral is where the Bishop has his office. Lots of money was spent building and maintaining this place.

We were hoping for better weather - it has been sunny - but low 60s has been the top temp. Water temp is 61. We saw some people swimming - but they were probably from Norway. A lot of people from Northern Europe come here for winter break. It looks like the big season is February to May.

We fly back to Paris on Friday Jan 10. We will spend a couple nights there with the kids - then fly to Beijing Jan 13 - then pack up the apartment - and fly to Florida - getting home Jan 15. We will be taking the long way home - 3/4 the way around the world.