Real Spain

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costakid
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Real Spain

Postby costakid » Tue Aug 22, 2017 5:42 pm

In my opinion East of Malaga and malaga City are real. Marbella and Banus as nice as they are do not represent true Spain. They have just finished filming the only way is Marbs for goodness sake.
Marbella old town is nice but the Banus end is like so many other tourist places where billionaires go and the rest go to watch them play.

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firsttango
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Re: Real Spain

Postby firsttango » Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:54 pm

Totally agree Costakid....East of Malaga is far more "Real" than anywhere West of the Airport....Starting immediately with Torremolinos and onward to Marbella.
Particular favourites of mine are La Cala del Moral, Benajaraffe, and Almuñécar....the views from Restaurante Mirador de Cerro Gordo are amongst the finest you'll see IMO

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costakid
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Re: Real Spain

Postby costakid » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:30 pm

La Cala Del Moral is lovely. It is sometimes like going back in time. Obviously July and August are different but the walk along the front and through the tunnels to Rincon is a bit special.

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firsttango
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Re: Real Spain

Postby firsttango » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:32 pm

Indeed very special and on a clear winters day is magical.

markwilding
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Re: Real Spain

Postby markwilding » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:33 pm

In my opinion, it's all real Spain It's really down to preference. My Spanish wife actually dislikes the east of Malaga around Nerja and Torrox so we don't go there any more. My son dislikes the area to the west of Malaga so he tends to go with his Spanish mates to Cadiz. I have never been but half my neighbours and people I work with go there so I avoid it. He tells me the beaches are nicer, although a bit windy.

Inland in August is too hot. Madrid on Sunday evening and yesterday morning was scorching hot. Fine for 24 hours but I can understand why they want to escape the heat for the more pleasant climate close to the coast.

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costakid
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Re: Real Spain

Postby costakid » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:53 pm

I have just checked the reviews for www.restaurantecerrogordo.com on trip advisor. Not very good recently. The views are stunning. Any thoughts Sid as it is on your doorstep?

El Cid
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Re: Real Spain

Postby El Cid » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:58 pm

It used to be very good 10 years or so ago with the hot stone menu. It was then taken over by an English couple and it went down hill. We tried it a few times, but got fed up with the owner's wife continually trying to join in the conversation.

I have not been there since they left so I cannot comment on the new owners, however, no one I know locally has ever recommended it to me. There are now some first class restaurants in La Herradura so I don't feel the need to try it again.

The views, however, are stunning!

Sid

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firsttango
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Re: Real Spain

Postby firsttango » Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:22 pm

We have only eaten at the restaurant a few times back in the late Eighties when it was owned by a Norwegian Couple (sure they were Norwegian, but definitely Scandinavian) the wife sadly died and we have never been back to eat, we simply go there for the views and to take visiting friends who never fail to be impressed.....as Sid says there are some top class eateries in La Herradura. Also had some great meals over the years at La Barraca on Playa Cantarriján.....but avoid July and August as its very popular.
http://www.restaurantelabarraca.es/es/

elusive
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Re: Real Spain

Postby elusive » Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:22 pm

costakid wrote:La Cala Del Moral is lovely. It is sometimes like going back in time. Obviously July and August are different but the walk along the front and through the tunnels to Rincon is a bit special.
Agree.we really like it there.a lovely unspoilt front with the walk way around the rocks. Took us ages to finally visit after passing the signs on the motorway wondering what those places were like. Wish we had done it long before.

El Cid
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Re: Real Spain

Postby El Cid » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:05 pm

firsttango wrote: but avoid July and August as its very popular.
http://www.restaurantelabarraca.es/es/
Agreed, it is a lovely spot, but it is a nudist beach which seems to favoured by very fat Germans!

We have been there a few times and it is very good and it is a lovely spot. In fact the coastline between Almuñécar and Maro is one of the most unspoilt in Spain.

There is another beach a little further along towards Nerja with a good restaurant. Playa Cantarrijan. You are not allowed to drive down but there is a bus service down and back for €1.

The whole area is best avoided between mid July and the end of August as it is totally packed with mainly Spanish tourists and parking is a major problem. For the rest of the year it is relatively uncrowded compared to all year round towns like Nerja. To put into perspective, Almuñécar has a regular population of 25000. In July and August that increases to 200000 - enough said!

Sid

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firsttango
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Re: Real Spain

Postby firsttango » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:15 pm

Sid the restaurant that I have quoted La Barraca and put a link to IS the one on Playa Cantarrijan...and yes its a nudist beach but if you avoid July and August the Nudist tend to go around the rock to the larger stretch of beach...out of sight of the restaurant. The buses to the beach only operate from the middle of June until the end of the first week in Sept......all other times of the year you can drive down.

El Cid
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Re: Real Spain

Postby El Cid » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:38 pm

You’re quite right, I got my beaches mixed up! They all look the same to me.

The second beach is Playa de Canuelo which has the bus service. Cantarrijan is just before the Granada/Malaga border and the other is just after.

The best way to see these beaches is from a boat which is the way I saw them first sailing down the coast about 20 years ago.

Sid

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Re: Real Spain

Postby BENIDORM » Wed Aug 23, 2017 11:09 am

REAL SPAIN....often a term used by estate agents in an effort to sell an 'out of the way' property. :wink:

However ,my opinion is that 'Real Spain ' is everywhere,and it's important to remove the images of some uncouth expats from your view , but most I've found actually blend in quite well,wherever you go in the world there are unsavoury areas , that's life !...just avoid them.. :lol:
Regards,
Gordon

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Re: Real Spain

Postby Pamela1 » Wed Aug 23, 2017 12:03 pm

From a touristic view i feel real Spain in the cities and small countryside villages and towns but perhaps Benidorm has a point and real Spain is everywhere!
This subject made me wonder how native Spaniards would answer this post? I don't always feel that i am in the Uk when i go off to London or other large cities , mostly because there are so many nationalities on the streets, i often feel that i'm the foreigner and i probably am coming from the north. :lol: :lol:

markwilding
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Re: Real Spain

Postby markwilding » Wed Aug 23, 2017 12:26 pm

Exactly my point Gordon,
On our first night we walked from the lighthouse in El Faro to the other end of Fuengirola and back. I was just as likely to see Spanish families sitting outside full ice cream parlours than half empty English themed pubs.

Ironic really, it seems that August is not a favoured month by some who live on the CDS, I get that but on the other hand, Bilbao is quite a good place to be at this time of the year. Finding a parking place is easy, much fewer people and no waiting at the post office this morning.

To me, that's the real Spain in August, people leaving the cities to go back to the villages of their grandparents or escaping the heat of the inland cities to the cooler climes of the coast. The fact that international tourists head for the same destinations doesn't make it any less modern day Spain.

BTW,
Thanks to Olive for that link for the Mijas Pueblo video. Very fascinating and it shows how much it has changed over a relatively short period of time. The economics of not being able to buy a new bus was particularly interesting.
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news-sp ... 1957.shtml
The second link was also interesting. I wonder how the grandchildren ended up. Most of them would not even be more than 60 years old now so they must have seen some real changes. Some of the younger ones wouldn't have been at university until the mid to late eighties if they went.
This is another link for a different video about Pepe
https://archive.org/details/pepesfamily

olive
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Re: Real Spain

Postby olive » Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:12 pm

perhaps another way of looking at it would be to say what is Real Britain?

For me it would be rural North Yorkshire. However that wouldn't suit some. Not much of a club scene or mobile signal etc. Others might say Londonwhich I find interesting to visit but I cannot to get away from it. That applies to many Spanish places I visit.

A good yardstick does this real Spain place have menus etc in foreign languages?!

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firsttango
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Re: Real Spain

Postby firsttango » Wed Aug 23, 2017 2:55 pm

The definition of "Real Spain" will differ surely from person to person, an 18yr old will have a different visual image from a retiree. It would be interesting to see a pic from members here as to what image first pops into their heads when asked " what is Real Spain to You". A forum thumbnail linking to a larger off site image should very very small at around 10+ kb so won't overload the forum unless anyone knows different.....Sid if this is for any reason a technical or other issue for the forum/thread please delete comment. Any way here's my image to start with. (thumbnail is 12 kb)
Image

BENIDORM
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Re: Real Spain

Postby BENIDORM » Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:02 pm

It's very easy to describe somewhere as 'Real Spain' or 'Untouched Spain' or as Olive states 'Real Britain', but as they say 'Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder'.

I also appreciate what Mark has stated and I do understand his viewpoints.

My thoughts are that it is how the individual views it and even then peoples ideas do change and love turns into hate and so on.
I've mentioned before that in the early 1960's I walked alone from Gibraltar to Lisbon, my journey and the people I met changed me and my thoughts ,quite dramatically.
I have retraced this journey ( by car ) more recently, and was it all the same ?, well of course not, I recognised many landmarks, totally unchanged, but the people and their ways and attitudes were different, modern thinking but thankfully still retaining much of the old culture.
But most importantly I have changed, then I was probably quite a naive teenager and certainly much slimmer than now . :lol:
In the 1960's the people that I met were very poor but quite happy to share what they had, they were also very compassionate and caring, and I have to say that is how I still find most Spanish people, and I also learned a lot about myself on my lonely trek.

So , Is Real Spain about the place or the people or is it a combination of both, I Don't Know.
Regards,
Gordon

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firsttango
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Re: Real Spain

Postby firsttango » Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:07 pm

Welcome back Gordon, have missed your witty and enlightening posts over the last 3 weeks

El Cid
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Re: Real Spain

Postby El Cid » Wed Aug 23, 2017 3:48 pm

firsttango wrote: Sid if this is for any reason a technical or other issue for the forum/thread please delete comment. Any way here's my image to start with. (thumbnail is 12 kb)
No problem. Full sized pics are fine if you wish.

Lovely Paella by the way, where was that?

For "Real Spain" try a bullfight in Seville during the Feria de Avril!, or the Goya Festival in Ronda or just a visit to any major feria such as Malaga in August. No animal rights comments, please!

Sid


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