Rosona'sTravelogue: Spain! Málaga: birthplace of Picasso.

(Day 6, continued) Arriving in MALAGA!:

My impression was that Malaga was pretty, and warmer than Barcelona.

Our hotel/apt in seemed rather tropical from the outside, although inside was chilly and kind of damp.

our tropical courtyard

The decor was prison-themed, which was a bit weird:

A.'s pic of part of the apartment. That's me drying dishes in the kitchen.

Around the corner from our apartment was a vacant lot (clearly, demolished building, due to it being a gap between two buildings, and also the tile on one of the walls:)

We went for a walk around town, to get the lay of the land and also find some food. The main square of Málaga was very pretty, with one side taken up by a yellow building, looking very nice in the late afternoon sun:

We immediately walked by a vegetarian restaurant, which was mentally bookmarked for later (as two of the others are vegetarian).

Walking across the square and down the most conspicuous street (here:)

...C. bought (and shared) some roasted almonds off a nice old guy who claims his family have been selling these roasted almonds around this square for generations, with the same recipe, and thus these would be just like the almonds which Picasso himself enjoyed.

First dinner in Málaga was at El Trillo, which apparently has a Michellin star. Perfectly cooked cod, and amazing Manchego cheesecake.

This was C.'s bizarro salad:

Their foreign-language menu had the front half in English and the latter half in German:

Only one anomaly to me, which was that they used a different (but apparently also correct) word for "cod" than I was used to. I'm used to "Dorsch"; they used "Kabeljau".

Day 7:
The next day (8 am phone call day), we lazed about as it poured rain all morning, then mozied in and around to the Picasso museum (cum archaeological site) -- when they'd built/renovated, they found Roman and Phoenician ruins underneath and just built them into a basement exhibit. Yet another garum factory, of course. :)

No pictures were allowed, sadly. There were some interesting pieces I hadn't seen before, and I caught the edges of a tour for a school class. They mentioned that when Picasso had painted a portrait of the same person more than once, the portraits had some common elements, a certain way in which the face was depicted, e.g.

The afternoon was lazy and uneventful. Dinner was at the vegetarian place on the square which we had spotted. We braved the cold to sit outside (next to a heater thing). The food was quite nice.

Afterwards, we wandered around a bit.

I could not get this picture to turn out as wanted, but I'm including it anyway. It's a fountain of people jumping off of a rock/cliff-face:

From 2013-March-Spain

We ran into Málaga's medieval-era city wall:

From 2013-March-Spain

Also one of four churches in Malaga that date from a religious-divided time in the city:

From 2013-March-Spain

Day 8: from Malaga to Granada!

Last day in Málaga started with a slow walk up the mountain fortress-y thing. At the base were Roman ruins. Garum factory and amphitheater. In the following picture, the 'garum' factory lies underneath the pyramid of glass in the upper right quadrant of the picture, which is under the thing that looks like an overpass.

Amphitheater

View up at the fortress from the Amphitheater:

From 2013-March-Spain

It had a nice view of Málaga, looking back towards the main square (which you can't see, as it's behind the buildings):

And a view of Málaga, as a whole, including the mountains:

From 2013-March-Spain

So, back to the fortress (the Alcazaba, which is just the word for "fortress"), which was just past and above the Amphitheater.

The fortress thing was built somewhere before 1000 AD, but underwent major renovations and reinforcements around then. Also, clearly incorporated pillars and other things from the Roman ruins.

What I learned from the Wikipedia page:

"Ferdinand and Isabella captured Mālaqa from the Moors after the Siege of Málaga (1487), one of the longest sieges in the Reconquista"

We passed by a niche with a headless saint-thing inside:

From 2013-March-Spain

Here's one of the first views as you walk in and up, then look back:

And some clearly repurposed Roman ruins:

From 2013-March-Spain

Here's the view through the Roman-column-flanked archway:

From 2013-March-Spain

Roughly about then, came across a nice floor:

From 2013-March-Spain

Malaga, like Barcelona, is also a coastal city. Here's a view of the harbor:

From 2013-March-Spain

Or, harbor, now with ruins:

While walking sedately around, we passed a group of Germans and were passed by a Scottsman. Or, at least, a guy hiking around in a kilt:

The fort was really two buildings, one more palace-like. There were some really nice fountains and water-ways incorporated into this secondary/higher up part of the fort/castle complex:

And a pretty ceiling:

From 2013-March-Spain

And the beginning of crazy arches (arches being a big thing in Moorish architecture, it seems):

When we get to Granada, this will look familiar:

From 2013-March-Spain

Very pretty column arond the corner:

There was a mini-museum inside. Apparently Malaga was known for (working with) a certain shiny glaze on their pottery (at some point in time). Here's a replica of the relevant sort of pottery: