Josele: If anyone asks me about my diet in Spain, I'm afraid I'll have to lie. My excuse is that my culinary tastes were shaped by my childhood on isolated farms in North Dakota and Montana.

We were so far inland that we never had fish or seafood. I was 17 years old before I ate clams, somewhere in my 20's (and in Greece) when I first tasted shrimp.

Hi Peg, looking forward to your next installment. Almost 6 yrs ago we stayed in Cuenca on a whim and absolutely loved it! Thanks for the report.

After Cuenca I stayed the night in Madrid, so as to avoid a double-barreled train trip. Once again I stayed at Hotel Europa, which was once again entirely satisfactory. There's a little restaurant attached to it, where I had breakfast.

I was amazed once again by the number of people on the streets at all times in Spain. I live in a town that doesn't have a lot of street life, and the contrast with Spanish cities always impresses me. I wandered around among all those folks for a while but didn't do anything special.

I had lunch at El Corte Ingles, the big department store. I noticed the large array of hamburgers of one kind or another, but I don't eat burgers unless I'm desperate for quick and cheap food. I had a salad of some kind, since I'm a big salad eater. The next day (Saturday) I took the AVE train to Málaga, the big destination of this trip. The AVE goes amazingly fast, but has a smooth ride.

I arrived at the Hotel Don Curro, where I stayed last year, and which I liked. However, at first I was very dissatisfied. My room, a single, was very small, especially the bathroom. When one sat on the toilet, ones knees were only a couple of inches from the wall. I went downstairs and told the receptionist that I wasn't happy with the room and that I wanted a different one.

He was very uncooperative, telling me that it was Semana Santa and that there were no rooms available. I reminded him that I had made the reservation a full year before, and I also said I'd be willing to pay for a double room if they had no more singles. He was adamant, insisting that the the hotel was full.

I returned grumbling to my teensy little room, but the next morning I put on my sweetest smile and asked a different clerk if they had another room. He fixed me up with an entirely satisfactory single room, which even had a balcony. At the same time, I saw that my Kindle, which I'd been told would hold its charge for a month, needed to be charged again--six days after I'd last charged it. I was irritated.

So off I went to El Corte Ingles to see if I could find a charger, but in the meantime I bought 2 ($25 worth of) books at a bookstore near my hotel. Then at El Corte Ingles, I was very pleased when the clerk (a lovely, handsome Spanish gentleman) found a charger from some other apparatus--a tablet of some kind--that worked just fine.

The next day being Sunday, I wanted to go to Mass at the Cathedral. I had even gone to a parish in my town which has bilingual Masses and had bummed a missal from them. Well, maybe "bummed" isn't quite the right word, since I gave them a $20 donation to make up for taking their missal. I was all set. Not only could I follow the Mass in Spanish, but I could switch over to the English side if there was something I didn't understand in Spanish.

I set off for the cathedral and got hopelessly lost. I'd been to the cathedral before, but I just couldn't find it amid those winding little streets. When I realized I wasn't going to make it on time for Mass I even asked people how to get back to the Alameda Principal, but I follow directions in Spanish even worse than I do in English.

It wasn't until a couple of days later that I realized I'd gone off in totally the wrong direction, and that the cathedral was just around the corner from my hotel. Later I was...well...I guess the right word is "bemused" to learn that at the Málaga airport in terminal D3 in the vestibule is a Mass at 10:00 on Sundays.

To be continued...

Peg, did you maybe leave the wifi on your Kindle? That will eat up the charge quickly, and unless you are downloading things you don't need it on. The charge on my Kindle lasts a very long time.

Great about getting the room change!

Thanks Peg, enjoying your report.

When traveling alone in Spain I always reserve a double for single use. One time I had a similar experience with the tiny room. Not worth the savings.

Looking forward to the rest!

yes, Peg, I'm enjoying the ride too. we really liked Malaga - did you find your way to the market? It was really terrific.

We too had problems with finding our way round, but ours came when we tried to leave - first of all we couldn't find the bus to the airport, [where we were picking up our hire car] and when we'd got the car, we couldn't find the road to Granada. we ended up round the back of some workshops, and in desperation wound down the window and called out to some chaps walking along, thinking that we would have to ask for directions in Spanish, and just hope that we would understand the replies. Imagine our surprise when they turned out to be Irish! and we got to Granada eventually.

Toucan: I didn't have the wifi on, which is why I was surprised that it needed another charge so quickly.

Cruiseluv: I learned my lesson about those single rooms. In the future, I will reserve a double for single use also. I haven't written about Barcelona yet, but the room there was very small and a tad inconvenient also.

Cripes. I had a single room at a nice hotel at my last convention in Madrid.(Been there many times, always alone, and never got this type room before.) Boy did they hear about that! I believe these rooms used to be large broom closets on every floor. SERIOUSLY! Because several of us got stuck in them, all on different floors ..

It's hard for an American to even IMAGINE how small we are talking here.

I often also book a double room for single use when traveling solo. I've found single rooms to vary from tiny to the same size as a double but just with one bed. If there's a large price difference I'll email the hotel about the size of single rooms. Also, if I've stayed at a hotel in the past and liked my room I'll request the same room again - usually this request is honored. Good for you for being persistent and getting the room change!

I arrived in Málaga on Saturday, March 31, in the afternoon and didn't do much except register in the hotel and wander around the streets for a while, window shopping (shop windows filled with great-looking clothes in teensy little sizes)and having the occasional coffee and pastry--muy delicioso. The area where I stayed, the Alameda Principal, is very attractive, the Alameda actually being paved with MARBLE. Amazing! On Sunday, I did try to get to Mass, as I said, but that was a losing proposition.

In my search for the cathedral and the return trip to the hotel, I did see more of Málaga than I had intended to see, but that's the story of my life. I even brought a compass with me, but did I use it? Nooooo!

The processions began on Sunday. I tried to watch them, but without a reserved seat, it was difficult, since there were bystanders 10 deep along the route. At various times in the first few days, I would nab an empty seat and sit there until the legitimate occupants arrived. People were very nice about this, assuring me that the "owners" weren't there yet and it was fine to stay until the owners showed up. A nice man with a little boy was sitting next to me for a while. We chatted, I told him that we were both "illegales," which seemed to amuse him.

The processions were just fabulous. More tomorrow.

Sorry Peg, I thought I might be on to something re: wifi.

Paved with Marble?! amazing. Are you going to post pics?

Great trip report so far. Bless that woman who offered her spare charger. I'm awaiting your Barcelona segment as I'm going there in 2 weeks. Where did you stay? Any special tips? Thanks!

Just a couple of comments here that have nothing to do with anything. For one thing, I find many Spanish men to be extremely handsome, and that's surprising for an older girl such as myself.

The other inconsequential thing I'll mention is that once when I went to one of the two El Corte Ingles buildings in Málaga, I asked a clerk if the libreria (bookstore) was in this building. She answered in English "the othra builing," with a really strong accent, and I thought, "Is that what I sound like when I speak Spanish? Do I have that strong an accent?"

As I said before, the processions are just fabulous. There are different brotherhoods (cofradias) each of which has a group of Nazareños who lead the cofradia. The Nazareños wear very colorful, mysterious-looking robes with the pointed headgear that the Ku Klux Klan apparently adopted. Each cofradia has different-colored robes-maybe brown, or white with a red cape, or a brown robe with a black cape and a white hood, or a white robe, cream-colored cape, green hood.

In no particular order that I have been able to discern, there are often children in the processions. They are dressed in miniature Nazareño robes, sometimes with headgear similar to what the pharaohs wore. I think Spanish children are beautiful anyway, and in the robes they look very sweet!

There may be 100 or so Nazareños which lead each cofradia, followed by the paso (the float), which is carried by a large coterie of men--notice that I said "carried." The paso is a huge, ornately decorated float whose centerpiece is a statue of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. It looked to me like about 100 or so men carried each paso, their steps absolutely in coordination, so that the paso swings gently back and forth.

The pasos are difficult to describe, but in addition to the often ornately dressed statue of Jesus or the Virgin, they are covered with flowers and with candles, which are lighted at night.

Behind the paso is a band, often dressed in a fancy uniform of some sort. Somewhere in the mix are the very elegant ladies--usually four to six of them, wearing black dress, black lace mantilla, black nylons and black high-heeled shoes. What their feet must feel like after they walk 6 to 8 hours in those shoes! They carry rosaries, but I think the rosaries are just for show.

For a really good explanation of the whole process, I suggest that you go to Trip Advisor and find the report on Semana Santa in Málaga that I found before I took the trip. My report is really more of a collection of impressions and isn't as thorough as the Trip Advisor explanation. But be assured that seeing Semana Santa in Málaga is an experience you will remember all your life.

I'm going to jump around here a bit, since I don't have a careful plan for how this report is going to go. One important thing I did and that changed my experience was that I rented a seat. The route of the processions is lined with folding chairs, which you rent or lease. Behind the rows of chairs, the crowds congregate, jammed together, so that they can see the processions.

The seat was expensive (110 euros), made even more expensive in that I used the seat only 2 days/nights. It was in the first row, so I had a great view of the processions. If I hadn't been so cheap I would have rented the seat early in the week and would have had better value for the money.

Seat "owners" had left information at the hotel, which is where I rented the seat. They called the owner, and she came and showed me the whereabouts of the seat and helped me push my way through the crowd. She also warned me to bring water and a sandwich the next time I came, since it was so hard to get through the 10-deep crowd behind the seats. My neighbors were very friendly and helpful, so we had a nice time.

The second night, there were different people on my right--kind of snobby people who my neighbors on my left told me were from Madrid. The woman officiously asked if I had "una tarjeta," a card/ticket to sit in that seat. I felt very smug when I told her I did. The fact that I kept thinking that the husband was a dead ringer for an actor who played mad scientist types in the Charlie Chan movies during the 1930's and 1940's seemed to increase my sense of smugness.
Weird, huh?

I love your "impressions" type report. Hope you continue.
Any pictures?

hi again, Peg,

we haven't been in spain at the right time of year to see the holy week parades, but we did catch some of them in Seville last September; it was the brass bands that surprised me. Who knew? and the crowds, especially for the sunday parade from the Cathedral - it was even on TV! It was a window on a completely different culture for us.

Fabulous report from Semana Santa in Málaga! I was in the area a couple of weeks before it began, and the local newspapers had some 10 pages a day about the preparations. The major event of the year.

The actor Antonio Banderas is a very proud malagueño. His pregón (announcement) of the Semana Santa in Málaga in majestic Teatro Cervantes last year is said to go down in history as one of the most powerful ever. Even non-Spanish speakers should get an idea of why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpjeDKTnKQQ

Peg, yes, for some reason us Spanish men are just too handsome...sometimes we find it hard to cope with it, hahahahaaaaa!!

Just for info, Easter processions take place in many parts of Spain...we have many beautiful ones in Bilbao, too, for about 7 days during Holy Week. Different from those in the South, more solemn perhaps, but also breathtaking.

Bookmarking

the men? How about the women!!!

Egbert: I'll check out the men. You check out the women. I didn't pay as much attention to them except to see what they were wearing.

Kimhe: I listened to his speech but didn't get it all. I'll have to listen a couple more times before I understand it better, but one can easily see that Málaga and Semana Santa are dear to his heart.

My neighbor pointed at the window of a hotel (the Larios) across the street from our seats. and said "There's Antonio Banderos!" He was in a second story window of the hotel with several other people, but I couldn't pick out which one he was. The closest I can come is to say that I saw Antonio Banderas' window.

I knew the processions take place in other places, but I wasn't going to go to Semana Santa again after having gone for the past two years; however....Bilbao...hmmm.

I watched the processions from my rented seat for those two nights. It was quite cool, and I guess sitting for so long did something to my knees, because the next morning, they were in bad shape. Getting out of bed was a major deal, with a good deal of pain. It seems to me that the pain diminished once I walked around a little, but with the second day of this condition, I was getting a little worried. I have stainless steel knees, and I was beginning to wonder if stainless steel rusts. (Little joke there.)

I finally decided to spend a day mostly in bed, reading, occasionally dashing out for something to eat and then going back to bed. That did the job. The next morning I was without pain.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. There was one day when I decided to have a look at the Alcazaba, the old Moorish fortress/castle. I walked up the twisting pathways to the top of the fortress, where there were orange trees and lush plants in pots. The view of the bay and the city were very impressive. Coming down was a little iffy for me, since the walkways were mostly cobblestones and rough bricks. I scared myself a couple of times, once having to clutch a tree branch for fear that I'd fall.

Mostly I don't want to admit that anything age-related can hold me back, but on the walk down from the Alcazaba I decided that I needed to be more selective about sights with easy access. Notice that I'm avoiding the phrase "handicap access."