Egbert,

If ever back in Nerja, you should have a glass and a tapa at some or all of these places some five-ten minutes walking up in the Casco viejo from Balcón de Europa. All within some 200 meters:

La Puntilla: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur...Andalucia.html
http://11870.com/pro/la-puntilla-nerja

El Cangrejo: http://www.nerjatoday.com/barsandres...s/el-cangrejo/

Los Bilbainos: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur...Andalucia.html

El Velero, excellent Carne con tomate: http://www.nerjatoday.com/barsandrestaurants/el-velero/

Los Cuñaos: http://www.nerjatoday.com/barsandres...ts/los-cunaos/

And of course, for a fish and seafood splurge you should go to La Marina in Plaza la Marina. On the top shelf when it comes to no frills freidurías in all of Andalucía:
http://www.guideofnerja.com/pages/gu.../marina_en.htm
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur...Andalucia.html

For an after meal drink, I can recommend Cafetería Cavana just behind the church. http://www.nerjatoday.com/barsandrestaurants/cavana/

Egbert & Kimhe: Thanks for great feedback and Kimhe you always give just great links.

So many places to visit and never enough time. We'll need to give some thought to Nerja vs Malaga.

If you had 21 days in Andalusia, how you would you spend them given that we need to fly into and out of Madrid?

High speed AVE train in no time between Madrid and Córdoba, Sevilla and Málaga. Then it would be best to begin and end in any of these cities.