Epic Trip Part Eight: Mijas and Malaga

October 31 found us still in Andalusia, this time at the port of Malaga, Spain. This turned out to be a wonderful day.

To the left is the daily bulletin, slipped under our door each evening, outlining the details of the next day. The document has an official name, of course, but I can't tell you what it is because in deference to Joe's years in the Navy, we've never called it anything but the Plan Of The Day. Arrival and departure times are listed on the front in English, French, and German. The two inside and remaining back page each have all of the activities for that day, some nautical knowledge tidbit, important announcements, and one of Lord Nelson's toasts (such as, "To our wives and our girlfriends! May they never meet!"), one page for each language.

Malaga was a change-over day. That is, it was a good idea for us to stay off the ship for the day because the first cruise was coming to an end and the second would begin that night. We didn't mind at all because we'd scheduled what looked like an excellent excursion.

We were off to Mijas, a small village up in the mountains! Our first stop (after purchasing some tasty smoked almonds from a street vendor), of course, was to the church. This chapel, Our Lady of the Virgin of the Rock, was carved out of the rocks by a Carmelite monk back in the 1700s. It was excavated to honor an appearance in that place by Mary. It was tiny, dark, and fascinating!

One of the charming aspects of Mijas was the donkey cart rides about town.

We visited with the burros, but did not choose to take a ride.

Included in the excursion was a sampling of a sweet muscatel wine. Usually our taste runs to a dryer wine, and we were surprised how much we liked this. 
It was served with delicious Spanish olives.

Can't help myself. I'm just a fool for pots on a wall.

The larger church in Mijas.

After leaving Mijas, we had some time in Malaga.

 

Oh, yes, we met this charming couple in a chocolate shop.
We were happy to make their acquaintance; after all, it was Halloween!

The next day, November 1, started very early for me. Joe's custom was to rise before the sun and take his spot on the deck to supervise the rising of said sun. He was very good at this; it came up every single morning. However, on November 1, I was up well before dawn, too. We were scheduled to pass a very famous landmark somewhere around 6 a.m. And we did. Visibility was limited due to the mist and my pictures are indecipherable. Here's Joe's photo of The Rock of Gibralter.