MALAGA, SPAIN, Friday, Mar. 23rd

Bright green parrots zoomed from tree to tree in the city park. They surprised us! We wanted to see green parrots in Africa but only managed to see one once fleetingly at sunset in Liwonde. But here they were in downtown Malaga – lots of them, plucking twigs from one tree, swooping to another to build a nest, then raucously squalking at each other. I guess the she-bird didn’t like the building design! The bright yellow weaver birds in Africa would argue about nest-construction, too.

Malaga is a picturesque city, extending several miles along the coast. We walked along the docks from the ship to the cathedral, taking pictures all the way, visited the Malaga Museum, enjoyed expresso coffees, of course, with dozens of other visitors on the square between the Cathedral and Cheer’s Restaurant!

 

It took us a while to find stamps to mail postcards, then to find the bright yellow mailbox, shaped like the columnar “boxes” in Portugal that we used to use. The Visitor Information Center pointed us to the stop for the shuttle bus back to the ship. We ate lunch, took a nap, then dove into the hot tub and swimming pool.

Sometimes we watch TV in our stateroom. We like BBC World News and were surprised by a new items about Portuguese young  professionals moving to Mozambique to get jobs because the job market in Portugal is so tight. The report interviewed a couple of them in Mozambique. We recognized the restaurant where they were sitting – Costa do Sol – in Maputo. The report spoke optimistically about Mozambique. It was good to hear.

Another news item concerned a newly found work of Wolfgang Mozart, performed  by a professional on Mozart’s piano in Saltzburg.

I wore a red blouse and colorful satin scarf to supper this evening in the Pacific Garden. It was fun for us to notice that the scarf was, in fact, a signed print by Picasso! Ironic -- he was born in Malaga. His birthplace and museum are there. Several of his works are still in the art gallery on board to be sold at the art auction tomorrow. I (accidently) dressed quite appropriately!

Jon and I want to make note of the excellent menu items we have had to select from all these days. He took a picture of the menu so we can try to reconstruct a list of the good foods.

Can you imagine a low-lit dining room with six double-sided counters of chocolate desserts, decorated with chocolate sculptures and ice sculptures?  That’s what the staff produced for the guests on the ship tonight. What a spread! It’s called “Chocoholic Buffet”. Up until then, I’d avoided most sweets, but tonight was unavoidable! We took lots of pictures and tried several little desserts.  

The show tonight was a variety show presented by the staff of the ship. They were fun entertainment, singing, dancing, doing magic tricks. The finale was the funniest – called “The Fountains”, 8 staff persons draped in white, Roman style, carrying chrome pitchers of water on their shoulders, slid onto stage to music, then preceded to drink water from the pitchers and spray it like fountains in several ways, making us laugh every time. Good show!

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forevermore. Amen.” (Jude 24-25)