Fuengirola

I appreciated all your comments on Palmyra.  Have you noticed that this amazing city has actually been written about quite a lot,  so it seems the eyes of the world are turned anxiously towards it, and its significance for all of us.  I'm just hoping, and also stopping myself from checking the news too much.

Over the last week I've been in Southern Spain, mostly away from the news,  thank goodness. It wasn't a travel writing assignment, because we were attending a big wedding.  That involved visiting an old, small but beautiful church in the mountains about Fuengirola, in Andalucia. Here's the view from the terrace outside the church, down to the sea.



Inside, the church had the kind of ornate golden altar that you often see in Spanish churches. Unusually  (I thought) the Virgin Mary was at the centre of the altar, not Jesus on the Cross - which is much more usual in Northern churches.



I wish I could post loads of photos about the wedding and people, and indeed the whole experience, but with so many people attending, there wasn't a hope of getting everyone's permission. So I am afraid I can't tell you about any of that - but I'll write about where we stayed because it was a very pleasant surprise. In fact, I liked it so much that we're dead set on returning later this year or next.

We were in the the town called Fuengirola, which is about 20 miles down the coast from Malaga by train, just past Torremolinos.  As many English people will know, this area, also known as the Costa Del Sol,  was for some years the centre of the package holiday business, and it became associated with the idea of tower block hotels and noisy bars.  I liked Malaga, but I'd never considered going down the coast.  So what a surprise it was to finally get there! And even more of one to find good restaurants, interesting shops,flowers, and a general air of brightness and cleanliness.

True, Fuengirola has a big beach, lots of bars and hotels, and quite a large expat community, too, so it is not the fishing village it was 50 years ago when our relatives' family bought their house there. But the apartment complex where we stayed was so pleasant and central, that I realised it would be a terrific place to go with a family and still be able to stay sane.  Kids would appreciate the little funfair on the beach and the various attractions, but it doesn't take long to drive out into the mountains beyond, the town itself is a good place to hang out and our apartment complex was just plain amazing.

It's probably nicer at this time of year than in high summer, not only because it's less busy but because so many of the streets are lined with jacaranda trees in full bloom. Their lilac-blue blossoms seem almost ethereal because the leaves of the trees mostly come out a bit after the blossoms, and you get this lavender colour as a sort of haze against the sky.

We stayed in a holiday complex very near the centre just to the right of the road above.  It's called Puebla Lucia, and is a mixture of apartments and houses, set around gardens which are obviously maintained by a perfectionist.

They were just immaculate. More meticulously cared for than even Kew Gardens, I'd say. They were divided into several different areas, with fountains and swimming pools.

I think the Pueblo Lucia complex has grown when the owners took over and converted existing apartment blocks, so there is a variety of flats, houses and studios, and we kept discovering new corners. There is also a bar and restaurant on site, although we didn't try them.
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It's a few minutes walk from the train station and about another 10 minutes to the huge beach. That frankly is not my scene as it was already boiling hot and it's only May, and I just don't see the point of sitting in full sun for hours, even if the sea is nearby.  I wasn't that crazy on the children's funfair, family restaurants and all the other things English holidaymakers expect, either, although it was all clean and friendly enough.. 

Eating out is very cheap - in fact, everything seems ridiculously cheap from a British perspective (but then, we are not in the Euro).  We ate quite a bit in restaurants where there was very good fish of all kinds, as well as some unexpected dishes.  At first, we didn't quite know what to make of this, below, with the tomato in the middle. It's actually a fish pancake in a herb sauce. I was a bit dubious, but it turned out to be so delicious that everyone wanted one.  

We had breakfast each morning in the public market's cafe, where the twins (now almost toddling) were a star turn with the owners.   Then we'd buy fruit and veg for the day. I wish we could get great big  tomatoes like this in England.  Not that we can't get beefsteak tomatoes here, but after weeks of sitting in a chiller somewhere, they have usually lost all their taste by the time they get onto the supermarket shelves. 

Although of course part of the attraction for us was in having other people around, we were really sorry to leave our apartment, and intend to return.  This was the last sight of Spain, baking in the sunshine. 

Next time I visit, I'll  buy some Spanish tiles, bring them home and tile the inside of our back balcony with them.  Because, even allowing for the weather, I am already yearning for a bit more Spanish brightness and colour around the place.

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