Last Day in the South

View from the Balcony of Europe toward the sea ...

After a domestic Sunday morning at home, we finally drove down to the beach town of Nerja and parked the car and got out. On our previous forays, we had driven through and found it underwhelming. This was Sunday when most businesses are closed so we thought maybe it would be less crowded. We parked on the street and walked down toward the Balcon d'Europ. a lookout point that is above the beach and provides a vista back toward the mountains.

... and then back toward the mountains. Note the kids
getting their toes wet in the surf.

A beautiful day, a stunning  location, the whole town,
young to old.

We found a crowd, a swarm, a mob of people on bicycles, milling around getting ready for something to start. There was a DJ on a bandstand, representing some radio station that was sponsoring this race or whatever it was.  The people on bicycles ranged in age from about two (no pedals, just pushing along with their feet) to about 82. Lots of children, lots of families. Everyone had a number on (the highest number was in the 1900s) showing that they were eligible for the bike raffle, or maybe for a hot dog, who could tell. Clearly it wasn't a real race but it was hard to tell what was going to happen.  The sign said it was starting at noon but it was already 11:55 and there was no clear movement toward a starting line. So we wandered up the street to start looking for lunch.  After we had walked about a block we saw police putting up barricades to block traffic and then about two minutes later a flatbed truck with loudspeakers and the DJ and two teenage girls on stationary bikes facing backwards came up the street, leading a parade of bicycles.

They were of all sizes and types. Note the small bike in
the crosswalk has no pedals, just her feet on the ground.

It appeared to be a local celebration of an annual festival in Andalucia.  It was a grand parade of all sorts of bicycles, some with training wheels, a few sturdy tricycles, several tandem bikes, one reclining bike that was custom built to hold a family of four, only one road bike (with skinny tires), lots of families riding together, watching over their little ones. As Jon said, it was clear that people get on wheels at a very early age around here. It is very hard to ride that slowly without crashing into each other, but we saw no tipping over at all.  Very jolly. At the very end there was a bike with 7 seats and 7 elderly gentlemen pedaling along, looking like they had done this before. After it was over, we saw a lady pushing her toddler, strapped to a wheeled toddler vehicle, bumping over the cobblestones, and the baby was fast asleep, tipped back with her mouth open.

We left the densest tourist area and had lunch in a small cafe.  The food was real and fine -- I ordered the vegetable soup and found that it was chicken based, but it was tasty.  We got to use the internet there and Jon satisfied himself that he had all the maps we needed to get to Madrid the next day.

Back home for another quiet evening of trying to eat all the groceries before we give up the kitchen. It was a heroic effort involving garlic green beans, a mountain of cauliflower, more chicory salad and store bought flan.

From our balcony, the sea just barely seen
above our heads.

Today Jon got caught up on all the accounting (unlike his father, he does not set a budget before the trip, but like his father, he tries hard to keep track of all the expenses).  He even calculated the mileage on the rental car (between 40 and 45 mpg). And while he was hard at work with the calculator, I tried to make a better fingerless mitten using double pointed needles.  It came out much better.