day 12 london - malaga

1 june 2009 (editor 2010 - no pics from today in our collective photo inventory)
woke up earlier than the guys so i could wash a load of laundry on "the cut" (which union street becomes). cost 1 pound for detergent, 4 pounds for a wash and then 2 pounds to dry. would've been more economical for combined loads but the guys did theirs while i was at phantom.


also managed to sneak in a quick visit to the tate modern art museum and b-lined through to see works by monet, warhol, matisse, cezanne, dali and picasso.


met up with the guys at the marks and spencer across from the hotel and we switched things up by buying a 10 pound sandwich assortment pack which was really quite nice (especially with the french mustard that nusbaum found at luton airport).


train ride to luton airport parkway was straight forward, as was shuttle bus connection. all in all, about an hour to get there from london bridge rail station. ate the M&S lunch, plus about 4 mandarin oranges each and then tried to spend the remainder of my english pounds by getting an FHM, wired magazine and a copy of the da vinci code.


rich and steve realised they still had 2 tall-boy heinekens and gave them away vs shot-gunning prior to security gate.


once thru, saw that our original 3pm departure turned into 4:50pm so we walked around separately then played cards til 4:30pm. monarch has very little leg space. i was ok, but poor steve.


arriving in malaga, we were met by jason's sister, sherri, and her husband paco. back at their place, we had loads of great food (some kind of dark ham, chorizo, olives i actually liked, bread, cheese, pizza) and beer and wine. fantastic hosts. made a note that when we return to canada, we need to mail them a package with kraft chunky peanut butter, and ingredients to make smores! talked all evening about travel in europe, sports (no more football! ahhh!), food, movies, TV and other culture learning topics.


other:
- heard that an air france flight lost radio contact today...
- learned that picasso was born in malaga, as was antonio banderas (who i do not care too much for... nothing against him... he's just not picasso)
- was told to ask jason about "aruho" (editor 2010 note: nothing obviously related comes up with a google search of this word...)
- what i learned in spanish in high school was true! dinner is eaten at ~10pm, with lunch being main meal, all (or a lot) of businesses shutdown from 2-4ish pm!