Malaga, Spain

I'm in Spain with my friend, Kitty, who I lived with in Malaga in the early 70's. I had taught English to teachers and to perspective teachers for two years. Needless to say much has changed on the Costa del Sol. The sky was mostly blue, the sun was warm, and I went to the beach and swam several times. We were staying on the coast west of Malaga at a lovely resort, but the first day we drove into Malaga to check out El Palo in the eastern part of Malaga where we had lived. There were many new high-rises, shops, restaurants, and bars. Our favorite old restaurant, a large popular place called Casa Pedro had closed this year. Before water used to splash against the windows, now the ocean was a block away. There are now lovely beaches with trees, benches, children's playgrounds and a sidewalk running all along the beaches. Needless to say there are lots of restaurants with seafood there, especially in the summer. We found the dried up creek where our building stood. It had been painted and looked quite nice. We could almost see Matias, the doorman, in his white underwear with his bulging stomach.

We spent another day and evening in Malaga which has become a lovely tourist town with clean walking streets and buildings in the downtown area and open plazas with many cafes and restaurants. Most of it seemed quite familiar except for the new areas which stretch on and on. The provincial town has become a real city. The old Moorish castle on the top of a hill is a lovely tourist area with panoramic views of Malaga.

Before there was one coastal highway connecting all the towns and beaches, now there are several and not always well marked, at least in our opinion. We repeatedly missed out turn offs and our favorite sign became ¨Cambio de Sentido¨ (change of direction). There are no longer open spaces between the towns because there are so many housing developments.

We spent a day in Ronda which has always been a lovely white Andalucian tourist town up in the mountains. Now it´s even nicer. The bullring, built in 1785, is beautiful, and is the oldest in Spain. It´s still used once a year. There's a very impressive high bridge over a gorge from the same period. The Moors lived there, and there are lovely churches which once were mosques. Streets are narrow and winding with restored houses and plants hanging from the balconies.

It was great being back and especially being with Kitty since we have so many good memories of our days there. After Malaga we went to Barcelona where we´re having fun exploring.