Birthday celebrations commence at the poolside grill at breakfast, with Mimosas (Buck’s Fizz) and alongside what we have ordered comes a birthday pancake with mixed berries and staff rapping a birthday jolly.
The Alhambra is the main reason for the port town of Motril, it doesn’t have much else to offer cruisers, but we were there only a few years ago so we don’t want to go again. Instead our planned walk is just into town and then out to the coast. In the distance the Sierra Nevada look majestic against the blue sky.
So we walk into Motril, look around a while and move on. There’s a lovely church, which was closed, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Head, the American People’s park, a pedestrianised centre and that’s about it. They do have good industrial sculptures everywhere, maybe there’s a story behind them? The primary industry is sugar cane, which we see growing everywhere.
Aiming for the coast West of the ship, we walk through some really classy places - first a run of big retail like furniture, hardware and supermarkets, then onto intensive agriculture, before we pass an enormous decommissioned factory, which had the feel of a rolling mill, but in the end conclude it was a paper mill - it’s been closed for a while anyway.
After all this industrial excitement (Sheffield boy here!) we return to agriculture until we hit the modern equivalent, golf and property - now we can buy an ice cream! From then, it’s on to the coastal route back to Sojourn.
Our stewards have made a lovely birthday display, and sent some excellent wine. Birthday news is around the ship like wildfire, Hubby gets congratulations from nearly every member of staff including Captain Hamish, and stacks of passengers too!
By this time it’s like a furnace, and with no wind the heat doesn’t let up all afternoon - shade is essential, and the pool, still cooler from yesterday is greatly appreciated.
Dinner is excellent, goats cheese and ratatouille / Dover sole goujons, mushroom minestrone / salsify and black truffle veloute, quail with foie gras stuffing, and finally birthday cake served of course by singing waiters.
The final part of the evening is the ship’s Company giving a poolside programme of opera and big show tunes, which is as usual, just wonderful. The first photo is not just an empty stage, it’s the balcony scene from West Side Story, the singers are on opposite sides of deck nine!
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