Our hotel was the Atarazanas which is on the western edge of the
old city and within about twenty minutes walking of almost everything. Importantly, there were five good bakeries
within about ten minutes of the hotel. The hotel was very comfortable and the
bathroom was modern albeit with a small shower. Much of central Málaga is pedestrian only and
has many restaurants. It was nice to sit
outside to eat and watch people. Málaga
is not overrun with beggars, but there are enough that if you do sit outside on
the perimeter of the seating area, you are likely to get approached. And of course we had to have churros and
chocolate one evening outside at the most popular churros place in Málaga. We also saw a protest for human rights in Venezuela
which was interesting. No one bothered
them. Additionally, the Málaga film
festival was to start soon and so the city was preparing by rolling out a long
red carpet on the main shopping avenue, Larios, and by setting up some displays
at the Plaza de la Constitución. In our
hotel room in the evening, we did enjoy watching one of the Spanish TV game
shows called “Boom!” which was actually developed in Israel. There are two teams and each team is given a
question with 4 to 7 possible answers. You then cut one by one different colored
cables that correspond to different answers and are connected to a pretend
black bomb. The idea is not to cut the
cable to the correct answer. If you do,
then you get sprayed with a colored slime.
Victor Garrido who owns “We Love Malaga” was our walking tour
guide the Monday evening of our arrival. We met near a bronze statue of Hans Christian
Andersen who loved Málaga. We walked
through the central mercado, several plazas, a tapas and wine bar with kegs of
wine, and other sites. Interestingly, we
entered one of the buildings of one of fraternal organizations that build and
maintain huge ornate floats that they carry around during the festivals during
Holy Week. The float had a lot of silver
on it and there is a tall handsome garage door to get it in and out of the
building. We mentioned to Victor that we
heard a lot of squeaking tires from vehicles, and he told us that this was from
the candle wax from all the candles carried through the streets during Holy
Week. We also viewed the Roman
amphitheater which is a semicircle built into the side of a hill. Regrettably, most of the stones had been taken
for other construction after the Romans left. One could also see some of the archaeological
excavation that exposed layers down to Phoenician times. Victor posed the question of how far does one
excavate because one is destroying the later layers. We also talked with Victor
about the economic situation in Spain. He said things are getting better and that the
24% unemployment rate was misleading in that there is a very large underground
economy. This irritates Victor because
those people don’t pay taxes. However,
the high unemployment rate for the young was a serious problem.
We took several day trips through Viator/Julia Travel to Ronda, Seville,
Granada, and Tangier, Morocco. It was
impressive that Jose, our guide to Granada, Paco, our guide to Seville, and
Damien, our guide to Ronda, spoke fluent Spanish, English, French and German. Paco also spoke Italian. Maria, our local guide in Seville, learned her
English in school but also from spending a year in Fort Madison, Iowa. When asked why she chose Ft. Madison, she said
there wasn’t any particular reason; she was just looking for somewhere in the U.S.
to spend some time. Our local guide in
Tangier, Hassan, also spoke several languages, Arabic, English, French, and
Spanish.
We did take a day trip to Ronda which is famous for its gorge and bridge. The city is split by a deep, narrow river gorge with a massive stone bridge stitching the city together. There are several restaurants and hotels on the rim of the gorge with great views of the bridge and gorge. One of the hotels with the best view is actually government owned. Our guide said that is typical for a government-run hotel to have the best location. We also toured the bull ring. Bullfighting is very important in that region and very famous matadors come from Ronda. Notably, to start our trip, we had to meet at a bus stop at 7:30 AM but then we stopped at many hotels along the coast west of Málaga. It was impressive to see all the development. There are miles and miles of posh hotels and condos west of Malaga along the Costa del Sol. On the way back from Ronda, we stopped at Marbella (Beautiful Sea) to have time to walk along the promenade next to the beach and to see all the nice shops and restaurants.
Our day trip to Tangier was very much an experience. The bus did take us by the Rock of Gibraltar. The view from the east is the most dramatic since that side has the sheer cliff face. Unfortunately, the highway views are very distant from that side. The view from the west is much better but that side is a forested slope. The Rock of Gibraltar and the Jebel Musa on the African side are the Pillars of Hercules. We had a great view of Jebel Musa driving back from Tarifa, which is where we took the ferry over to Tangier (Tanger in Spanish). In Tangier, we had a local guide named Hassan, who interestingly wore a silk suit. The central commercial area of Tangier had many tall buildings, but it looked somewhat seedy. There was a great variety of dress especially for women. Some dressed very western while others, especially older women, wore black robes and headscarves. Sadly, the dental care in Tangier appeared to be poor with many missing teeth, especially back teeth. Even our guide who seemed well educated was missing most of his back teeth. We drove to a park on a mountain overlooking the city and passed many very nice neighborhoods of expensive looking homes. At the overlook, there were several vendors of jewelry, belts, scarves, fossils, etc. We also drove to a spot where tourists could pay two Euros to mount a camel and ride a short distance. There were also vendors there who were quite aggressive in selling their wares. They would not take no for an answer and followed you around offering to lower their price. There was a young boy who was selling packs of chewing gum for two Euros who followed people almost into the bus. We drove back into town and walked through the casbah (or kasbah) to a restaurant to eat lunch with a detour to watch a snake charmer with a live cobra. Casbah is just Arabic for a fort or city. (Medina also means city in Arabic). After lunch, we went to a large building that sold artisan products that were part of a cooperative. They gave us a nice tutorial about Moroccan carpets and then proceeded to try to sell us one. One lady did pay $1,000 for a beautiful large one. From there, we walked through the bazaar and were assailed by street vendors following us and trying to sell us watches, shirts, jewelry, belts, etc. They would follow people for a long way trying to get people to buy. And there were so many street vendors that you had to fight your way through the very narrow alleys. Also interesting was that we saw many cats. Hassan told us that cats were somewhat revered and that killing one was very frowned upon.
Another day trip was to Seville where we saw the Plaza de España which is a large beautiful semicircular building and plaza constructed for an exposition. It was also used as the set for the British HQ in Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence returns from the desert with his Bedouin friend. It was also the set for Naboo in Star Wars Episode III “Attack of the Clones.” We also toured the main cathedral and saw the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The remains were verified as his by doing DNA testing and comparing with the known body of this son. And we got drenched from a downpour even though we had umbrellas. On the road to Seville we saw so many olive trees. In the U.S.’s Midwest it’s horizon to horizon corn and soybeans. But in Andalucía, it’s mountain to mountain olive trees – some are centuries old. There also so many white villages – i.e., all the buildings are painted white. One village is unique in that the cemetery is laid out in the same pattern as the town. So where you are buried depends on where your house was.
Our third day trip was to Granada to see the Alhambra Palace. The palace and the gardens are quite beautiful and any travel program on Spain will highlight it. The history, of course, is that this was the last area conquered from the Moors and was accomplished by Ferdinand and Isabella who are buried in a chapel in Granada. There were extensive gardens with fountains and pools and running water features, e.g., arching jets of water and channels and cascades in the walkways. There were also intricate stone fretwork and characteristic Moorish arches all in a white or reddish stone. Unfortunately, we were told that most of the original tile work on the walls had been stolen and that any white tile one saw was a reproduction. One fun part of the Granada trip was going to a small antique and coin shop called Juno. We bought a 19th century Spanish silver coin and three 1966 coins with Francisco Franco’s image. The owner spoke no English but it was fun communicating in our broken Spanish. He kept trying to point out little stars on the Franco coins that had a number inside them. He kept saying “estrellitas” which we didn’t understand until he drew a picture of a star. We also browsed a long line of kiosks selling books. The kiosks were on a tree filled center of a broad boulevard and went on for a block. We then enjoyed sitting at an outdoor café and having a pastry and Coke.
We did meet a very nice couple from Inverness, Scotland, on our Tangier trip. They were not in favor of independence and were afraid that the leaders of the movement were now trying a back door approach. The couple’s opinion was that they were much stronger united. It was also funny that when we told them we were originally from Iowa, they immediately said “American Pickers” – one of their favorite shows. They also loved “Pawn Stars.” We also met several other nice people including a Grant Kelly and Pat from near Orlando, FL. They were both retired and had both lost their spouses. They lived in the same community and met and found that they both loved to travel. So they do travel together although they aren’t married. He was a civil engineer from Toronto that worked for the U.S. Corps of Engineers and actually wrote many of the permits for the “Big Dig” in Boston. Pat was from the Bronx. Unfortunately, she had just developed hip problems and was having difficulty walking. We also met a Peggy from Denver who had worked as a prison warden and was interested in retiring soon and then volunteering in anti-human trafficking work. When asked about the new legal marijuana legislation in Colorado, she thought it was working fine and she had bought some herself although doesn’t really use it.
On our last day we visited a glass museum. The museum is actually a large old house owned by three fellows. Our guide was an older gentleman originally from Lancashire England who had lived in Málaga for many years. He is descended from minor aristocracy and has been collecting works of glass for decades. Some of their earliest pieces go back thousands of years and were produced by making a clay form and then dipping the form in molten glass. The clay is then removed. He gave an interesting history of making glass products and they had beautiful plates, bowls, glasses, and pure artistic objects. Interestingly, the glass business was hit hard in WW I when many of the skilled artisans went off to war and never came back.
Another site in Málaga that we visited was the Alcazaba on the east side of the old city. It has been a fortified area for millennia but the Moors build a palace with courtyards, Moorish arches, and water channels and cascades running in middle of walkways. It was like a mini-Alhambra.
We did take a day trip to Ronda which is famous for its gorge and bridge. The city is split by a deep, narrow river gorge with a massive stone bridge stitching the city together. There are several restaurants and hotels on the rim of the gorge with great views of the bridge and gorge. One of the hotels with the best view is actually government owned. Our guide said that is typical for a government-run hotel to have the best location. We also toured the bull ring. Bullfighting is very important in that region and very famous matadors come from Ronda. Notably, to start our trip, we had to meet at a bus stop at 7:30 AM but then we stopped at many hotels along the coast west of Málaga. It was impressive to see all the development. There are miles and miles of posh hotels and condos west of Malaga along the Costa del Sol. On the way back from Ronda, we stopped at Marbella (Beautiful Sea) to have time to walk along the promenade next to the beach and to see all the nice shops and restaurants.
Our day trip to Tangier was very much an experience. The bus did take us by the Rock of Gibraltar. The view from the east is the most dramatic since that side has the sheer cliff face. Unfortunately, the highway views are very distant from that side. The view from the west is much better but that side is a forested slope. The Rock of Gibraltar and the Jebel Musa on the African side are the Pillars of Hercules. We had a great view of Jebel Musa driving back from Tarifa, which is where we took the ferry over to Tangier (Tanger in Spanish). In Tangier, we had a local guide named Hassan, who interestingly wore a silk suit. The central commercial area of Tangier had many tall buildings, but it looked somewhat seedy. There was a great variety of dress especially for women. Some dressed very western while others, especially older women, wore black robes and headscarves. Sadly, the dental care in Tangier appeared to be poor with many missing teeth, especially back teeth. Even our guide who seemed well educated was missing most of his back teeth. We drove to a park on a mountain overlooking the city and passed many very nice neighborhoods of expensive looking homes. At the overlook, there were several vendors of jewelry, belts, scarves, fossils, etc. We also drove to a spot where tourists could pay two Euros to mount a camel and ride a short distance. There were also vendors there who were quite aggressive in selling their wares. They would not take no for an answer and followed you around offering to lower their price. There was a young boy who was selling packs of chewing gum for two Euros who followed people almost into the bus. We drove back into town and walked through the casbah (or kasbah) to a restaurant to eat lunch with a detour to watch a snake charmer with a live cobra. Casbah is just Arabic for a fort or city. (Medina also means city in Arabic). After lunch, we went to a large building that sold artisan products that were part of a cooperative. They gave us a nice tutorial about Moroccan carpets and then proceeded to try to sell us one. One lady did pay $1,000 for a beautiful large one. From there, we walked through the bazaar and were assailed by street vendors following us and trying to sell us watches, shirts, jewelry, belts, etc. They would follow people for a long way trying to get people to buy. And there were so many street vendors that you had to fight your way through the very narrow alleys. Also interesting was that we saw many cats. Hassan told us that cats were somewhat revered and that killing one was very frowned upon.
Another day trip was to Seville where we saw the Plaza de España which is a large beautiful semicircular building and plaza constructed for an exposition. It was also used as the set for the British HQ in Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence returns from the desert with his Bedouin friend. It was also the set for Naboo in Star Wars Episode III “Attack of the Clones.” We also toured the main cathedral and saw the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The remains were verified as his by doing DNA testing and comparing with the known body of this son. And we got drenched from a downpour even though we had umbrellas. On the road to Seville we saw so many olive trees. In the U.S.’s Midwest it’s horizon to horizon corn and soybeans. But in Andalucía, it’s mountain to mountain olive trees – some are centuries old. There also so many white villages – i.e., all the buildings are painted white. One village is unique in that the cemetery is laid out in the same pattern as the town. So where you are buried depends on where your house was.
Our third day trip was to Granada to see the Alhambra Palace. The palace and the gardens are quite beautiful and any travel program on Spain will highlight it. The history, of course, is that this was the last area conquered from the Moors and was accomplished by Ferdinand and Isabella who are buried in a chapel in Granada. There were extensive gardens with fountains and pools and running water features, e.g., arching jets of water and channels and cascades in the walkways. There were also intricate stone fretwork and characteristic Moorish arches all in a white or reddish stone. Unfortunately, we were told that most of the original tile work on the walls had been stolen and that any white tile one saw was a reproduction. One fun part of the Granada trip was going to a small antique and coin shop called Juno. We bought a 19th century Spanish silver coin and three 1966 coins with Francisco Franco’s image. The owner spoke no English but it was fun communicating in our broken Spanish. He kept trying to point out little stars on the Franco coins that had a number inside them. He kept saying “estrellitas” which we didn’t understand until he drew a picture of a star. We also browsed a long line of kiosks selling books. The kiosks were on a tree filled center of a broad boulevard and went on for a block. We then enjoyed sitting at an outdoor café and having a pastry and Coke.
We did meet a very nice couple from Inverness, Scotland, on our Tangier trip. They were not in favor of independence and were afraid that the leaders of the movement were now trying a back door approach. The couple’s opinion was that they were much stronger united. It was also funny that when we told them we were originally from Iowa, they immediately said “American Pickers” – one of their favorite shows. They also loved “Pawn Stars.” We also met several other nice people including a Grant Kelly and Pat from near Orlando, FL. They were both retired and had both lost their spouses. They lived in the same community and met and found that they both loved to travel. So they do travel together although they aren’t married. He was a civil engineer from Toronto that worked for the U.S. Corps of Engineers and actually wrote many of the permits for the “Big Dig” in Boston. Pat was from the Bronx. Unfortunately, she had just developed hip problems and was having difficulty walking. We also met a Peggy from Denver who had worked as a prison warden and was interested in retiring soon and then volunteering in anti-human trafficking work. When asked about the new legal marijuana legislation in Colorado, she thought it was working fine and she had bought some herself although doesn’t really use it.
On our last day we visited a glass museum. The museum is actually a large old house owned by three fellows. Our guide was an older gentleman originally from Lancashire England who had lived in Málaga for many years. He is descended from minor aristocracy and has been collecting works of glass for decades. Some of their earliest pieces go back thousands of years and were produced by making a clay form and then dipping the form in molten glass. The clay is then removed. He gave an interesting history of making glass products and they had beautiful plates, bowls, glasses, and pure artistic objects. Interestingly, the glass business was hit hard in WW I when many of the skilled artisans went off to war and never came back.
Another site in Málaga that we visited was the Alcazaba on the east side of the old city. It has been a fortified area for millennia but the Moors build a palace with courtyards, Moorish arches, and water channels and cascades running in middle of walkways. It was like a mini-Alhambra.
