Nerja Caves & ANOTHER Sociable Evening…

Nothing much to report for Tuesday – Dave & I wandered into Nerja & had a coffee in the main square, walked down to the beach & then The Balcon & listened to an excellent guitarist (see only piccie for Tuesday) then I had a little re-visit to the church & a meander around the shops followed by an early-evening swift one at La Cueva followed by dinner at Paul & Sue’s.

Wednesday – Nerja is famous for it’s caves which were discovered on the 12th of January 1959 by a group of young locals who were on a late-night walk searching for bats so – after being in Nerja TWICE before & not visiting – we decided to give it a go…

We were very impressed with the setup – excellent free car park with toilets, nice courtyard with ticket office & restaurant plus scan the QR code on the wall for a free audio guide…

€15 entrance fee was SO worth it – and once inside – it was awesome…

I was convinced it was going to be damp & cold underground so wore a cami, a top, a jumper AND my €7 bargain teal winter coat that I’d picked up at the Almunecar market a week last Friday – and I was BOILING 🥵

It was dry as a bone down there – and warm – I’m SURE they had the central heating on !!!

Anyway they claim that the largest stalactite in the world is down there – but when I tried to qualify it on Google – there were some discrepancies… I think maybe because it’s not freestanding – it’s a huge column about 32-33 metres high but it feels pretty massive when you’re standing by the side of it !!!

Experts believe that the cave was inhabited 25,000 years ago, although ongoing studies suggest there may have been humans there as early as 40,000 years ago. And they have discovered 589 “rock paintings” down there which (due to conservation issues) they cannot exhibit to the public but which they describe as “the first artistic representation known to humanity”…. And they were (apparently) mainly of goats and horses – see the representation on the second piccie below…

We took a few photos going round but we also (due to me) bought the “official” photo on the way out – which shows my bargain €7 coat !!!

We then had lunch in the restaurant and there were little birdies flying around which Dave (naughtily as was spotted by the waitress) kept trying to feed them. They were very tame & I managed to catch a couple of photies – first one with birdie approaching and the second actually taking the bread out of Dave’s fingers !!!

In the evening we “do as the Romans (well British ex-pats ) do – which is – as it is a Wednesday – go to “Hostal Allegre – The Barrel Bar”…

Caught with a couple of peeps we’ve met before – plus made some new friends – and then ended up chatting with the Swedish & Finish owners Yarn & Cecilia. They have a VERY successful bar/tapas establishment plus 6 rooms so we found ourselves talking shop !!!

What was hilarious was that Cecilia’s uncle (Anders Burman) is the found of the Metronome record label and when she was 12, she was asked to be “coat girl” at a party that ABBA attended 😳 – and (even though they were at the height of their fame) when ASKED BY ABBA if she wanted their autograph – she replied “No, it’s fine” 😳 😂 😂 😂 !!!

(See piccies of Dave & I with Kevin & Helen, then Yarn & Cecilia then ME with Yarn & Cecilia !!!)