Malaga, southern Spain

Mike is a long-time friend from my childhood (we were next door neighbours from age two), and runs a company called “World on Wheels”, leading motorcycle tours of several countries around the world. Yesterday we met Mike for lunch in the Malaga marina – he is here to finalise his tour preparations before Monday’s departure. As he lives in Sydney, we don’t get many opportunities to catch up, so it was crazy to greet each other in a city in southern Spain. Right now he’s also our tour lead, and you will no doubt hear more about him in coming weeks.
After lunch, Mike and I both fulfilled a long-held goal. We rode a Segway. We each hired one of these electric-powered two-wheeled marvels and “drove” around the streets of Malaga for an hour, lead by a pretty young guide called Gabi. These machines are amazing – it was as though we were as one with our Segway. We only had to think of direction and speed and it obeyed, when in actual fact it was the gyros simply responding to our subtle manipulation of the handle bars. In Australia they are banned from public places and on public roads, but here we ducked in and out of people on Malaga's footpaths. I can’t see me ever owning one however – my Segway cost 8,500 Euros, more expensive than a motorbike.
As we prepare to leave Spain after a very short time, it strikes me that these adventures are meant to be crossing things of our list of life-long goals. But our four days here have only made us determined to return and explore Spain proper. This place is too alluring and beautiful to cross it off the list after only four days. The departure from our rented apartment was a fine example of what we’ve experienced in Malaga. Our host Filippo insisted on driving us to our hotel, instead of us catching a taxi. His flat was in a perfect location, walking distance to the beach and the city centre, on a bus route, and with a million-dollar view over the Med. His kindness was an added bonus.
So tomorrow we leave for Morocco with a dozen other Australians and Kiwis, and our Spanish driver. We will finish that tour in three weeks by returning to this same hotel.