Almost gone

The countdown is on: only three more sleeps – and, sadly, one more hockey game – then it’s off to Spain. Karen and I leave Thursday for ten weeks away, four on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, six in Málaga on the Costa del Sol. It will be a departure for us in more than one way.

In the past, we’ve stayed in good-size cities: Sevilla, Valencia, Tucson, Montpellier, Lisbon. Even Syracusa in Sicily, where we spent our first year of snowbirding in 2009, was a city of 150,000. This time we’ll be starting in Punta Mujeres, a tiny beach village at the less-populated and less-touristy end of Lanzarote. The entire island has only 140,000 residents.

Lanzarote will be a quiet time, with lots of drives and walks in the wild, volcanic landscapes. We have a car for the entire time. We might visit some of the other islands in the archipelago, almost certainly the pedestrian-only Gracioso, which is only a 25-minute ferry ride away from a port just up the coast.

Apartment interior

Our apartment is right on the sea. Temperatures should be in the high teens, low 20s, with lots of sun – probably not quite warm enough to take advantage of the rock pools in front of our place. But maybe. I can certainly see us spending time sitting on the rocks with a glass of wine.

In front of our villa

Then we move to Málaga for our dose of city life. It’s the sixth-largest in Spain, with a population of 570,000. Málaga is also gateway to the heavily-populated beach-and-tourist mecca of Costa del Sol. Torremolinos, Fuengirola and Marbella are all just down the coast. We might even sample one, just to see how god-awful they really are.

Malaga

The main attraction for us is the city life, the art museums, and the proximity to nature parks and some interesting towns in the interior, including Ronda and Antequera. And the climate, of course – it should be similar to Lanzarote. Our apartment is in the heart of the city, walking distance to all the main attractions. We plan to binge on art galleries.

Malaga apartment