Christmas and New Year in Málaga

A Nativity scene created with flowers

Along with Tricia's sister, Jane, and brother-in-law, Sam, we took a train from Cartama Estacion into Malaga to see the Christmas lights. The four of us walked from the station into the old part of the city and did some window shopping as we waited for it to get dark. As darkness fell the lights were revealed and they were pretty spectacular.

The lights on a Malaga street

Instead of Christmas trees there were giant mesh cones covered in lights, trees were clothed in lights and the streets were hung with illuminated decorations. It was all very pretty and well worth the trip out to see. When we got off the train at Cartama Estacion we went for a meal in a local restaurant.

The tree in the Square

Christmas Dinner

Tricia and I were invited to have Christmas dinner with Jane and Sam and stay over till Boxing Day so that we could have a drink or three. The girls produced a magnificent spread which I would have liked to eat outside in the sunshine but was outvoted.

The Church Square as people start to arrive

Coin church square was apparently the place to be on New Years Eve so we headed up there about 22:00. The place was almost deserted despite having been told there would be people dressed up and floats and things. We all decided to go and have a drink in one of the bars until things started to get busy.

A whole Indian tribe

Sure enough, by 23:00 people were passing the bar in all manner of weird costumes so we joined them in a stroll back to the church square. People just kept pouring into the square until it was pretty crowded until, at midnight, everyone opened the bottles of sparkling wine they had brought with them, including us, shook them up and sprayed the fiz everywhere.

Tricia with some fishermen

Good job we had been advised to wear jackets with hoods. It was totally crazy but great fun and very good natured. When the festivities calmed down a bit we headed to the Olive Tree, a British run bar that had recently opened in Coin, and stayed there until about 03:00.

The crowd on the church steps just before midnight