Today we are staying in town, well, sort of.  We are renting bikes from Kay Ferrell’s Malaga Bike rentals, the company we have toured with before – in hurricane force winds through a nature preserve. Fun, but sort of brutal.  Today though we are just renting the bikes and then riding the East coast to Rincon.  We arrive right on time at 6am. Needless to say, we don’t need to start that early.  The bike rental place doesn’t even open until 10 – so we can have a rather leisurely morning before making the trek down the pier, through the harbor area and into the town to the rental office. 

As it is (and you all know) our leisurely is not necessarily leisurely!  We are too antsy to hang around and are off the ship and making the 20 minute trek into town before 9am.  We scout out the bike rental office, which, lo and behold, is right next to Prima rentals – and oh, Prima rentals has bikes also – and they are open.  Well, good to know for next time.

Malaga Bikes is not open, so we take the opportunity to have a cappuccino at a café on the main road before returning to the rental office to pick up our rides.  A really sweet woman from Holland was there opening up, and we had the most delightful conversation about Den Haag (she is originally from a town very close to Den Haag) and Holland in general.  She’s a doll.  We finally get our bikes – seriously, we’re there for a while just chatting – and head out to the waterfront promenade to start our ride.

It is a great day for a bike ride. A little chilly, but with some sun peeking through the clouds keeping us just on the warm side of cold. We ride down the back side of the main marina – you are no longer allowed to ride on the stone promenade (although lots of other bikers do that).  We follow the rules and wind our way through the palm trees behind the restaurants at on the street side, finally coming out of the harbor onto Canovas del Castillo, where we have to ride on the street (horrors!) for a few blocks until we can safely go back up on the sidewalk and start down the wide beachfront promenade.

One of the great things about Malaga is that all the bike lanes are so clearly marked, and they take biking seriously.  There are signs warning vehicles about bikes, reducing speed limits and showing exactly where the bikes should be.  It makes riding there much more comforting, to be honest.

Because we don’t have a GoPro, and don’t want one, and we really have no way to keep our phone cameras out to take pictures without wrecking the bikes or dropping the phones, there aren’t going to be many pictures in this blog entry.  But suffice it to say, it was a lovely ride down the different beach promenades, passing all these “boat barbecues” where restaurants grill sardines (espeto de sardinas) on spits over wood fires right in the boats.  We at least stopped to get a photo of one of the little beach stalls.

We also stopped here and there for shots of the beach, a wonderful little marina area with lots of little fishing boats on the beach and other picturesque shots.

We loved the Penon del Cuervo, behind the Repsol gas station (yeah, some of the landmarks were definitely interesting!), with the big rock in the water.  Beautiful.

We continued our ride past the cement factory and through the little town of La Playa del Arana, a town built for the workers of the factory (not picturesque, but interesting), continuing on through tunnels to La Cala del Moral where we aren’t supposed to ride on the promenade but on the beach track next to it.  On the way out, we didn’t quite get that – oops – but on the way back we did!  Ok – our fault – dumb tourists.  But we have to admit that there were other bikes with us as well, and we sort of just followed them. So….excuse? Yep.  But it’s our story and we’re sticking to it!

We keep riding past Rincon de la Victoria, where it is now all beach riding, and we aren’t really keen to ride on a beach that isn’t all that hard packed.  Plus it is getting on lunch time, and there doesn’t appear to be anything around here or up ahead. We decide to turn around and head back – we’ve already come about 10K anyway, so might as well.  Fortunately, there are tons of restaurants in Rincon de la Victoria, and we stop at one of the first places we see with any activity – Taberna Marinera la Victoria. 

They are just opening, and after waiting for 2 Spanish ladies to make reservations for a large group coming later, we are shown to a table for 2 right on the promenade.  It’s a great location for a fresh seafood feast – which is what we have!  We order croquetas Gambas al pil-pil (because what is a day without croquetas?) and Pulpo flor entero – which ends up being a whole octopus fried to perfection.  Oh my!  The croquetas are ok – but that octopus? Amazing!  And only 9 euros, I might add.  For a whole octopus!  It is a fabulous meal, right off the beach with the ocean in view.  Just perfect..

And perfect fuel for our ride back into town!  Obviously we reverse our course, this time taking the beach track as we are supposed to, crossing over a little bridge then up onto the side road that skirts the highway to get through Playa del Arana, through the tunnels….

….and back along the promenade through Pedregalejo and El Palo, where we aren’t supposed to ride, but we just follow a whole bunch of other bike riders, figuring, well, if they’re doing it…..Yeah, I know. 

Anyhow, it is a lovely ride back.  We go all the way down the promenade through Malagueta beach, ending up on the Port promenade, riding down the roadside past all the expensive restaurants, and then retrace our route between the palm trees behind the harbor restaurants and on to the bike shop. 

Totally fun day!  We return the bikes to our sweet Holland friend, who can now lock up and leave work early (I think we were the one and only bike rentals she had today), leaving us with time to wander the streets of Malaga, snapping photos of the great architecture in search of an afternoon beverage. Because of course, bike riding makes on thirsty.  LOL.

We end up at Siete Cabezas (7 Heads, the name and the outdoor terrace appealed to us!) for lovely drinks but no wifi.  Sigh.  Oh well, we’ll back up our pictures later. 

Then it is back to the ship, walking down the harbor, and along the long promenade to the terminal at the end of the pier.  We manage to take a wide angle shot of the coastline where you can sort see where we biked.  All the way past the tower (the cement factory) in the distance.  Bikes can cover so much territory!  Looking at it from this picture it seems so far away, but it was a sinch on the bikes.

Then it is a beautiful sailaway in gorgeous weather along the coast of Spain. 

And another lovely evening ensues on the Dawn – gym, drinks, dinner, show.  Then balcony.  The norm, which suits us just fine.