Jan 11 – Paris, Barcelona, Malaga. Early start this morning, 5am. We have to get breakfast, get to the Gare de Lyon by 6:45 for the Barcelona TGV that leaves at 7:15. It's the only way to get to Malaga in one day.
Breakfast at the hotel did not open until 6:30am so we had to grab a quick bite and start the short walk to the station. It only took about 8 minutes but we're dragging a bit of luggage so it was a kind of a trek. The last 100 yards was uphill. Fortunately the morning was cool so it didn't get me too overheated.
The TGV was the first high-speed train and it remains among the fastest today, although several have passed it. The current king of operational trains is the Shanghai Maglev. At 267mph it zooms. The TGV tops out at about 180mph as a practical matter. I think it's capable of 200mph under ideal conditions. Paris to Barcelona took about 6.5 hours.
We had a two hour lay-over in Barcelona for the train to Malaga. It's not as fast. It's operated by renfe (they don't capitalize the name for some reason) and it's a fast train as well. We only got up to about we got to 300kph (180mph) several times during the trip.
It's amazing that with all the free borders and rapid transportation, the EU nations have thus far retained their individual personalities. In Germany, France and the UK trains are very orderly places. People are considerate of others and try to maintain a pleasant travel environment. Not so much in Spain. Here kids scream and yell, run up and down the aisles and the Spanish passengers don't seem to mind a bit. The French and English passengers take it in stride, that is to say tolerate it but at the end of 6.5 straight hours of being trapped in a small metal box with a never ending din from the kid herd, that tolerance was beginning to wear thin. It was a lot like being in a Central American bus minus the chickens and goats.
At 9:40pm we arrived in Malaga and were quickly on a taxi heading for the Palacio Hotel right at the harbor. It's really a nice place and the price was right as it seems that the town, as well as the hotel, is pretty empty of tourists.
The desk assigned us a room on the 11th floor overlooking the old city and the harbor. We're half a block from the Cathedral and can hear its bells. Nothing adds to the charm of an old part of town like the pealing of an old church's bells.
Diana is beat and I'm none to fresh either. She went straight to bed. I took a shower, read a few chapters and then off to sleep.
Jan 12 –Malaga, Spain. Not so early start this morning, 9:30am. Diana is still wanting to rest so I went down to the included breakfast buffet, had breakfast and borrowed a tray to take Diana's up to the room. The buffet is nice but no English breakfast, more French-German. I was surprised at the general lack of Spanish items. There was a salsa for use on your eggs and some little churro sticks but that was it. I think this hotel caters to international travelers.
After delivering Diana's breakfast I headed out for a neighborhood stroll. The Cathedral is closed on Mondays so I'll have to visit tomorrow. There are some interesting restaurants and cafés in the area, including one named 'Cheers' using the exact same logo as the long running TV show. I wonder if that's some sort of intangible property right violation. Maybe not in the EU although they seem to be very picky in that area.
I did find a pharmacy and bought some cold relief powders that you mix with water. They have absolutely no cough syrup. Fortunately I can read most of the ingredients because chemical names are almost uniform in the Western World. I just have to allow for the change in the last few letters. For example, dextromethorphan hydrobromide (the DM in Robitussin) becomes dextrometorfano BrH H2O. Usually if I tell the pharmacist what chemicals I want in the medication they can give me what I want.
Diana didn't want to go out so I went to a local café and brought dinner in for her and me.
We were supposed to meet up with some friends of ours who now live is Spain, but because they have small children and neither Diana nor I are in top form we decided to cancel the visit. I'm disappointed but we don't want to leave any critters behind us that might make the kids sick.
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