Murcia

I was glad to leave Malaga and head to Murcia. I got there pretty early having left Malaga around 9.00am. It was only a 3 hour drive and when I left it was still a pretty cool 27degrees so it was quite a pleasant trip. However as soon as I opened the car door and got out of the car, I discovered just how hot it was - 37degrees. I could feel the heat coming up from the pavement through my jandals. It stayed like this for the whole time I was in Murcia, so I spent 3 days seeking shade, air conditioned buildings or water. I found a busstop right outside the hotel and a city circular bus that stopped there so I hopped on it and went to explore. Fortunately, the buses are all air conditioned too so quite comfortable. What I have learnt is that the Spaniards are not silly - the siesta is a very necessary part of life, you simply can't function during the hottest part of the day (Actually, I haven't worked out how to function after about 9.00am and before about 8.00pm but that is just me). Everything closes down at about 1.30 - 2.00pm and doesn't open again until 4.30 - 5.00pm. Banks don't bother re-opening at all after 2.30pm - what a life!
Murcia is a big city with a few religious monuments and a reasonable commercial centre but really doesn't have much to recommend it. I did meet an English couple - Paul and Sammy at the pool. He's like your archetypal car salesman although he sells foreign real estate developments to English suckers. Sounded a bit like holidayshare developments and a bit dodgy if you ask me. She's the traditional dumb blonde type, but nice. We had a pleasant evening, drinking lots and eating although Sammy had a very restricted palate and Paul and I had to eat her gazpacho (she didn't know it was cold soup) and I had to swap my roast vegetable salad for her tuna salad when it turned up because it had raw tuna in it. Even my vegetable salad didn't really meet with her approval but at least it didn't have raw tuna in it. She ate lots of bread. Actually, I really like the fact that meals are so much later here. Breakfast is usually about 9.00am, lunch is about 2.00pm and dinner starts around 9.15pm. Many of the restaurants I have seen don't open until 8.00pm and children are very much a part of the evening dining ritual. (I wonder what time school starts?) It is a very relaxed lifestyle of which I heartily approve, although the temperature could be a couple of degrees cooler!