1. The rainclouds have really broken up over Spain over the past 24 hours, leaving wonderful flying weather for the next few legs of my Microsoft Flight Simulator journey. 
2. Late last night (dawn, European time) I prepared to depart Malaga, bound for Granada.
3. A few hours before, I had flown into Malaga at night, under somewhat foggy conditions.
https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1328122171273711618?s=20
4. Today, though, dawned clear and bright over southern Spain.
5. Preparing for takeoff from Malaga, Spain.
6. Wheels up.
7. Before heading northeast to Granada, however, I'm going to fly west and check out the Costa del Sol.
8. And rather than doubling back, I'm going to make a loop, climbing inland to the west, then descending through some mountains to the south to reach the coastline again.
9. Malaga is receding in the distance behind me, as I climb.
10. Leveling off at 7000 feet, heading west. The GPS map is certainly helpful.
11. I'm going to turn left (south) through that valley with the narrow lake, before I reach the mountains ahead.
12. Descending rapidly through that valley, from 7000 to 1500 feet in a few minutes.
13. At 1500 feet, turning to fly back east along the Costa del Sol.
14. Flying over Marbella. This Spanish resort town was a favorite among Saudi royalty. King Fahd built a replica of the White House here, as a vacation home, pouring many millions of dollars into the local economy.
15. The entire Costa del Sol, west of Malaga, is littered with villas and resort hotels across the entire price range.
16. Fuengirola is another resort town that was once a quiet fishing village, before Spain's tourism boom began in the 1960s.
17. I myself spent no small amount of time in Torremolinos, during college, soon after my mother passed away. It looks like it's been built up quite a bit, since then.
18. Spain's Costa del Sol is popular not only for sun-seeking tourists, but also retirees, particularly from Britain. But I'm reading that it's falling on hard times right now due to COVID-19.
19. I've made a loop around back to Malaga. There's the airport I took off from, on my left.
20. Watch out for the wind turbines below, as I approach Malaga from the southwest.
21. Flying over the heart of downtown Malaga, with the port and bullfighting ring to the left, and the Castillo de Gibralfaro atop the hill.
22. Turning around for another pass over Malaga, Spain.
23. Malaga's Plaza de Toros, just below the hill, brings back a lot of memories. This is where my father and I watched our first bullfight, that winter after my mother died.
24. It was a novice local tournament, and one of the matadors just couldn't seem to kill his bull. The crowd started jeering "Get him a pistol!" and cheering for the bull. We laughed and laughed, for years afterwards.
25. Flying over Malaga's main cathedral. Just above it, below the larger hill, is the Alcazaba, a medieval Moorish palace.
26. Okay, finally time to start climbing and heading north and the east to Granada.
27. This is the area I descended over the previous night, in the dark, and the highway from Cordoba that I followed by its lights.
28. Quite a different view of Malaga in the daytime.
29. Versus the night before.
https://twitter.com/prchovanec/status/1328118805084725248?s=20
30. Following the highway north and climbing to 7500 feet, to get over the same mountains as last night. Nice to be able to see them, though.
31. I think this is close to the same view, looking towards Malaga, today and last night. Shows you what you can see, and what you can't, in the dark.
32. This time I'm following a branch of the highway northeast, towards Granada.
33. Granada is at the eastern end of a plateau surrounded by hills, like a bowl, at an elevation of 2000 feet.
34. Gradually descending towards Granada. Passing its airport up ahead.
35. I'll be coming back to land here in a bit, but the weather is to nice to pass up a closer view of Granada itself.
36. Granada was the last Muslim kingdom in Spain. It was conquered by King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile in 1492 - the same year that Columbus sailed to the Americas.
37. The true gem of Granada is the Alhambra, a Muslim citadel which Ferdinand and Isabella turned into a royal palace.
38. Here are some photos of the Alhambra in real life:
39. That square building with a round hole in it, which you can see in my MSFS screenshot of the Alhambra, is a neo-classical palace built by the Holy Roman Emperor (and Habsburg King of Spain) Charles V.
40. The cathedral of Granada to my right, with the Alhambra on its hill further right.
41. Another flyby of the Alhambra, a little bit further away this time.
42. Alright, time to find that airport just west of Granada.
43. Coming it to land at Granada, Spain.
44. 27 degrees Celsius in Granada? Hmm ... I'm not sure they have the seasonal temperatures factored into the real-time weather model on Microsoft Flight Simulator. The high today, in November, was more like 21.
45. By late afternoon, I'm ready to depart Granada again for Almería, further east on Spain's southern coast.
46. Taking off from Granada, Spain.
47. Flying over farmland in the Vega de Granada, a fertile bowl-like plateau at 2000 feet.
48. Skirting the mountains to the east of Granada, heading south towards the coast.
49. Flying over some wind turbines in a valley leading from Granada down to the sea.
50. Looking down on the Rules Dam, south of Granada.
51. Back to the coast of southern Spain, heading east.
52. Passing over the small port of Adra, founded by the Carthaginians on the southern coast of Spain.
53. When I first saw this stretch of coast, called the Poniente Almeriense, west of Almería, on Google Maps, I thought all the white must be salt pans ...
54. In fact, it turns out this small part of Spain is a major center for fruit and vegetable production, and these are all plastic tarp greenhouses covering the fields. The small region is known as the "mar de plástico" (sea of plastic).
55. If you view it on Google Earth, you'll see what they mean.
56. Past the "sea of plastic", I'm now approaching Almería.
57. Looks like an oil drilling platform in the port.
58. Flying back for a better look at Almería.
59. Almería is named for its medieval Moorish castle overlooking the port, called al-Mariyyah ("the Watchtower") in Arabic.
60. Flying out over Almería, Spain. Note the reddish pier jutting out into the port, next to the marina.
61. This structure is called the Cable Inglés (English Pier). It was built in 1904 to transfer iron ore, copper, and silver produced by British- and French-run mines in Granada from trains to waiting cargo ships.
62. The airport is just east of Almería, and I've been given permission to approach straight in.
63. Landing at Almería, Spain.
64. Taxiing past some commercial airliners at Almería (now that I've downloaded those nice liveries).
65. Parked at Almería for the evening. Any food recommendations (if I were really there)?
66. Apparently there is a Spanish TV crime series called "Mar de Plastico" about a series of murders in the agricultural region around Almería which I just flew over. It's even on Netflix. netflix.com/title/80127464
67. Apparently the "mar de plastico" in southern Spain is also one of the subjects of an Austrian documentary called "We Feed the World", about intensive farming methods. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Feed_t…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
