Malaga, Spain - Part I

"My Place" is sure a very good place for an exhausted traveller like me, to get recharged. I had had a perfect sleep that night until the wake up call rang at 5.30am.

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After taking a simple breakfast, the hotel people drove me to Frankfurt Hahn Airport to catch the early morning flight to Malaga, Spain.

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The flying time was 3 hr 15 mins by Ryanair. Frankly speaking, it's very boring to fly with a local budget airline. This is because no foods/drinks will be served (unless you pay), and no movie will be provided. Anyway, the fare is cheap, cost only €160, so I really shouldn't have complained here. When the plane finally landed Malaga Airport, I just felt happy.

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As soon as I walked out from the imigration, I started to feel Malaga is quite a different place from London or Germany. First, the people here looks very different, Latin look. Second, the surrounding looks different. Also, there is very little or virtually no indication written in English.

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I really felt lucky that my trip manager had prepared enough information for me and briefed me before departure. So, I could find my way to the hotel without many asking-around. The only problem I had was to buy a train ticket from the machine. I tried to guess what those Spain words means, but the man behind me got impatient and he started to touch the keypad for me, and he made a gesture of where I wanted to go, and I pointed Maria Zambrano station. Then, he asked me to put coins in it... Gosh, I felt terrifying as if I'm an illiterate !

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I arrived at Hotel Monte Malaga somewhere around 12.30 noon. When I saw this bed, I felt very tempted to slug in and continue sleeping. But I cancelled off this idea very soon. Instead, I decided to walk to the town area after gobbling 2 cups of noodle for lunch. Well, I simply didn't want to miss Malaga !!

Not a good map reader myself, I just followed the instruction given by the conceirge, and 20 minutes later, I found the old town area.

Málaga is located in southern Spain, a tourist destination due to its proximity to Costa del Sol (Coast of the Sun) on the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

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I don't know much about Spain, and there isn't many pictures in my mind of how Spain would look like. So, it's very interesting to see this place for the 1st time. The feeling is pretty much like when I first get to know a very interesting person.

Despite the temperature in Malaga was not much different from London or Frankfurt (around 12-15C), Malaga has lots of swaying palm trees, while the trees in London or Frankfurt are leaves-free.

Malaga enjoys plenty of sunshine throughout the year. In fact, the climate is Mediteranean-subtropical with mild winters and comfortable summers.

Walking towards the town area...

That's Spain...

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When I saw this stunning, tall building, I guess it should be the cathedral that the conceirge told me worth paying visit to.




Looking for the main entrance...

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Alright, this is Cathedral De Malaga...

Cathedral De Malaga is also called the Cathedral of the Incarnation on the wishes of the Catholic Monarchs. It is the city's most important monument and the spiritual centre of the diocese, where the bishop has his See or Cathedral.

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The cathedral was built around 1528, when the Emperor Charles I was on the throne. Although originally designed as a Gothic cathedral, it was built in the Renaissance style and major Baroque additions were made to it later.

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Over the centuries, the cathedral has borne witness to the religious devotion of the people, who have shown their faith here, petitioning God's favour in times of catastrophe and celebrating great moment sin history. The heritage you will now be able to admire during your tour of the various chapels is testimony to these sentiments, which transcend the cathedral's obvious artistic value.

Ornate Stonework on the façade of Malaga Cathedral.

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Santa Maria. I heard that Maria is a very common name in Spain.

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I think it's Mandarin orange.

I could only guess what does it implicitly mean?

The admission ticket is cheap, just cost €4. I bought a ticket quickly, without a single hesitation.

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My my, this is no doubt a magnificent church, a precious heritage for Spain people.

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There are many chapels in the Cathedral. This one is called "The Chapel of the Sacred Heart".

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"The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary"

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The High Altar

Absolutely beautiful. Whoever that built it, he was a genius...

The organs and choir-book stand

The Choir, awesome...

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"The Chapel of the Incarnation"

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One of the great paintings in the Catherdral...

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One last look to this beautiful church before exit...

There is a museum upstair, just outside the exit area...

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Collections in the museum...

Oh, the tear drops...moved my heart too.

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The painting does look very ver old...but is still kept very beautifully.

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Those antiques must be too precious, that they are priceless....

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Finally, I walked out from the Cathedral. Oh, I have spent 1 hour inside there to admire this beauty.

The other side of the Cathedral. From here, I continued my walk to the town area....

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A Short Stay in Germany

As a result of the strike launched by British Airways, I had been diverted to fly with their alliance, BA Cityflyer instead. Well, whatever, as long as it will take me to my destination fast and safe.

The plane looks small, and I need to go to London City Airport instead of London Heathrow Airport to catch it. Luckily, everything went smooth and the plane departed on time, at 1620.

At around 7.30pm, I arrived Frankfurt am Main Airport. The name of the airport at everywhere has became significant important to me, especially when there are more than 2 airports in the vicinity. Just got to watch out which airport I would land and leave.

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From this airport, I needed to catch the train to go to Mannheim as my hotel for the night is there. The train came on time at 1920, and I arrived Mannheim at 1953. (Germany time is 1 hour earlier than London time, and it's very important for me to tune my watch to local time whenever I arrived at a new place). The hotel in Mannheim isn't hard to find, just 200m outside the train station. Great!

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I felt really hungry after I off loading my burdens at the hotel room. Then I realized I haven't been really eating anything for more than 20 hours, and I haven't been sleeping well for more than 24 hours. Feeling hungry and tired, I just simply bought some foods from a small restaurant opposite my hotel and gobbled it fast in my room. And then, all I wanted to do was just to get some nice, long sleep for the rest of the night....

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I fell asleep very fast, but I was awaken by a sharp and loud siren (could be a police car, ambulance or fire truck) just before dawn. Then, the noise from the trams and the cars started to form increasingly frequent as well. I tried to go back to sleep, but I just couldn't as I felt like I was sleeping by the road side.

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Feeling frustrated, I called the front desk and demanded him to get me changed to the room which is away from the road side. But that guy told me all of the rooms were fully occupied. He did apologize for the noisiness, but he said many hotels in Mannheim are located just by the road side, so they are not the only one. I hang up the phone angrily.

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I stayed awake until 7am, then went to the hotel restaurant to take my breakfast. Breakfast is a pleasant one, except the facial expression of the guests (including me). Maybe the hotel is trying to make up with their frustrated guests, by providing them with at least a decent breakfast?

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The customer I would visit that day is in Stutensee, a small town near a bigger town, Karlsruhe. The most convenient transportation to go there is by train.

The train from Mannheim station to Karlsruhe station departed at 0936. Just a few minutes before 1000, I arrived at Karlsruhe station. (Their train is always so punctual, I like it !)

The fast train (long distance train) that I took, quite fast.

It's great to see my customers were there to pick me, save the troubles to find way to go to their site some more, which is about 30 minutes by driving.

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This was a very pleasant meeting. Both of my customers are from Asia country. One is a local Vietnamese guy, the other is a Vietnamese Chinese girl, who can even speak quite fluent Cantonese with me. There is another Germany guy, but obviously the 3 of us had dominated him.

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After the meeting, they took me to a nearby hotel for lunch. The foods over there are very lovely. It's good we all prefer to chat casually, instead of busines. I felt relax talking with them. *

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The only regret...I was not able to taste the black forest cake from Karlsruhe because I got to rush back to Mannheim soon after lunch. My friend, LY, who live in Germany for many years told me Karlsruhe is very near to Black Forest National Park. The famous delicacy is of course, black forest cake. In fact, Karlsruhe is the origin of black forest cake. What a waste !

I reached Mannheim station at around 1440. The express bus I would need to take to go to my next destination would depart at 1620. Still have a little time left, I decided to walk a bit to see what I could get from there.

The neighbourhood nearby my hotel...

I didn't have time to find out what this place is called...

At around 1515, I went back to the hotel to claim my baggage. The hotel is called Central Hotel, look how near it is from road side. I swear I won't want to check in to this hotel again.

The busy traffic out there...the trams are especially noisy.

From Mannheim, I took the express bus to Frankfurt Hahn Airport. The journey had taken me more than 2 hours time. It was quite cold that evening. Luckily, I didn't have to wait too long out there for the hotel people to come to pick me.

At around 1900, finally I checked in to this room. The hotel is called "My Place".

This is the cheapest hotel my trip manager had booked for me, cost only €51 per night. But I felt that the quality of this hotel is worth more than this. And the best thing about this hotel is its serenity. I was 100% sure I could get some good sleep for that night.

Feel very homely, just like "My Place"...

Soon after settling down, I went downstairs to its restaurant for dinner. The ambiance in this small restaurant is superb.

The setting of the table is good too...

The food is good too...

This tomato-sauce-spaghetti taste excellent, cheap too, cost only €6.9

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I enjoyed the peaceful moment for quite a while in the restaurant before I went back to my room. Thinking of my friend LY, I gave it another try to call her though I have failed several times before that. This time, she heard the ring. We chatted for a long time, the bill shown 43min. It's really great to talk to her after such a long time (I think 20 years)

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I slept like a dead-pig, at around 10pm that night.

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