Malaga - Tuesday 3rd

We had originally planned to visit Granada and Alahambra today.
It didn't work out that way. Aside from the fact that I had procrastinated about buying tickets, for months, we also totally worn out from our visit in Seville.
As a way of diminishing any disappointment I convinced both Tiz and myself that it is possible to absorb, and enjoy, only so much Moorish / Spanish mid-11th century p:30 alaces and architecture.
We were going to be better off for the rest day ahead. And rest we did.
We slept in until 10:30. It isn't always necessary to get up at he crack of dawn and cram in doing stuff for every hour of the day, when on holidays.
I didn't want to begin my holidays as a tired hack, as we so often do, but I also don't want to get home from our holiday completely exhausted either.

We walked over to the San Martin coffee shop, over the road, and had another round of some of the best coffee we have had in Spain.
This is a peculiarity about Spain that I would not have believed before coming here - Spaniards are not coffee drinkers. At least not in the quantities or with the passion that Australians and Italians are.

We finally had the opportunity to visit Mercado Atarazanas which was open today.
Here are the pics from the web and below are the pics we took.

The Malaganos, and Spaniards in general, prepackage prepared ready-to-eat fish, such as white anchovy's, octopus, cod etc. 

It was nearly midday, and without doubt midday somewhere in the world, which made it perfectly acceptable to have a beer at one of the market stalls.

These Spaniards are so civilised with their liquor laws. 

A plate of marinated white anchovy's, garlic marinated olives, a basket of bread and a beer.

Beats muesli for breakfast, hands down! 

The high leadlighting is beautiful

 The following shots show how meticulously they display there food

Finally, as the Spaniards are real sweet-tooths one rarely sees anything bitter.

73% cocao chocolate is rare, but was sold here.

We had enjoyed the market and now it was time to "get about and do something".

The hop on / hop off tour bus looked like a good option and that's what we did.

It was as always, despite my criticism of these sorts of "touristy" services, a great way to see a lot of the city.

From the city beaches past the cruise liners in the port up the mountain that overlooks Malaga and down and around its elaborate and history filled churches. 

We enjoyed it all from the top desk and front seats!

It had been a very exhausting day. Hardcore resting can be quite exhausting, so we decided to head back to our room for some "real" rest.

As the day wore out we had a major decision to make - Where to eat?

This is not a decision to be taken lightly and much discussion followed. 

Being the forward thinker that I am, I suggested that we could try El Pimpi again.

Even if we didn't get in we would be ideally placed to see the Roman amphitheater of a night, which is quite beautiful, or so we were told by a Swiss man we had met.

We took a casual stroll weaving our way through as many yet untravelled alleyways to the famous eatery.

A quiet early evening in Calle Marqués de Larios

We entered through the smallish, unassuming Calle Grande doorway, past the myriad of century old bars, up and around several sets of small steps and finally out to there rear courtyyard.

Thankfully it was not packed. We should not have been surprised as it was ridiculously early for dinner.

It was 20:40! Not even kids eat dinner this early in Spain!

We sat at a table and ordered some house wine, which in place is pretty damn good.

Tomato salad (with a good drenching of oil), a plate of jamón (which is national obsession) and manchego cheese and finally a bowl of ajoblanco. 

That should do, for starters.   

Ajoblanco (the El Pimpi version) is made of bread, crushed almonds and their milk, garlic, water, olive oil, salt, apple, raisins and pine nuts. 

It's served cold, as gazpacho is, and it is wonderful!

 Our waitress also doubled up as a sherry pourer.

The pouring of sherry is done with a cup on the end of long handle and swung in a big arc 

before being "long poured" into a small glass. Lots of show-person-ship.

My main was slow braised pork cheeks.

God eats this dish on special occasion, so it'll be good enough for me.

This is what I called the McEl Pimpi.

The top part simply reminds me of an American chain, with all its plastic and easy to clean surfaces.

I guess when you've been surrounded by centuries old wood and gorgeous ceramics and beautiful oil paintings by the like of Pablo and Salvador, for generations you pine for something different, even if it is crass white plastic.  

There is always a good reason to have a Fiesta di Cerveza.

This one is because more beer needs to be drunk between 6th and 15th of June, I think.

I will have already done my part for the beer consumption in Spain for 2014, and cannot attend.

After a long slow dinner, which we purposely made long and slow as this was going to be the last time we were going to eat at El Pimpi and we wanted to "savour the moment", we walked to the Roman amphitheater. Here are some pics.

As we walked through the back alleys we came across this view. I can't remember which church it is but it was a nice sight in the night sky.

We were soon home and into bed for an early night, as it was before midnight, as tomorrow was to be our last full day in Spain and we still had Cordoba to do