Day 4 - Fri 12/08/18 - Malaga

I slept a bit longer today waking up around 5am. The Captain brought the ship in so smoothly we never felt the docking process. After a nice Lido breakfast, we went to the World Stage which was our assembly point for our HAL shore excursion to Mijas (pronounced Meehaas) which is a white village built on a hillside about 45 minutes out of town. Once there, our guide, Antonio took us on a 35 minute walking tour before turning us loose to wander around on our own.

Four high points of the trip stand out: First, we could see the north coast of Africa. Second, we toured the town's very small bullfighting ring. Third, they have cute donkeys which are used as a means of transportation. Fourth, it's a cute, neat, and very walkable little town.  

We returned to the ship where we ate a quick lunch to be able to go back for more ( which we did ).

The long pier was stocked with many vendors and we saw all of them. Then on the main drag we walked at least a mile away along the main road next to the port. On the west side were all sorts of food vendors (very crowded with loud music) and on the east side of the street were primarily dry goods vendors. In between visiting each side of the street, we strolled downtown to view the cathedral. Since there was a fee of around 5€ and we visited the interior on our previous visit, we didn't go inside. I also picked up an 8 pack of Pepsi Max so now we have enough soda to make the crossing. HAL didn't have their soda cards, so we did it the old fashioned way.

Back on board, we watched the string quartet, Atlas, perform a set of movie show tunes. It was really good! And around 6:15 we pushed off from the dock, rotated 270° clockwise and sailed past Mein Schiff 2, a former Celebrity Century Class ship, out into the Mediterranean to join the traffic separation lanes. Following a really tasty Asian dinner anchored by mussels and shrimp, and tuna, we watched a flautist, Suzanne Godfrey, who was really good. Sometime after 11pm we passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and out into the open Atlantic Ocean. There's a bit more motion to ocean now but it's not much.

I forgot to mention that yesterday morning in Cartegena, we got to meet and chat a few minutes with Captain Albert who also does an excellent blog about his time on ships. As he left us, he had a twinkle in his eye as he was leaving to plan and execute the next crew drill.

Tomorrow is a sea day with not much scheduled except for a special Tamarind Dinner with friends, so I hope to update my Facebook and Cruise Critic picture postings. Until then, stay tuned.

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