Castle, fort, tapas and tea

Thursday 6/4 The ship tied up in Malaga before 8am and the first tours were away by 0830, some were going all the way to Granada and the Alhambra which is a full day. There had been some disappointed customers apparently, the ship had been allocated XX entrance tickets to the Alhambra and had taken bookings, but then Alhambra management took away twenty places. Such a shame. Also heard one of the buses that took the same tour we did yesterday (it was included in the cruise price, a ‘freebie’), the guide was very poor and several of the passengers wouldn’t continue with her after the visit to the Roman theatre, and the ones who did go on got a very basic commentary.

So that’s very unfortunate, and we were obviously lucky with Carlos, so it will be interesting to hear further comments as the trip goes on.

As for today, we’ve done a four-hour tour ‘A Fortress, a Palace & Breath-taking Vistas’ which included tapas and traditional singing in a bar, thoroughly enjoyed the time. The guides did a good job considering this was a very special public holiday, a holy day where the police and Legions (a kind of lodge as far as I can make out) in the city join to take a statue of the Madonna from the port, where she is brought in on a boat, along the waterfront into the city, rests there and on Palm Sunday the statue is paraded through the city.

So there were road closures and people were lined up 4 – 6 deep along the roadside from the cruise terminal right round the waterfront for a couple of k’s, and when we got into the city it was pretty much empty. Guide Victoria told us that Antonio Banderas comes back to Malaga every year and takes part in the procession, he’s a very staunch Legion member and loves his home city, has an apartment in the centre. Some of the floats in the parade are pulled or carried by 200 people.

First stop was 14th century Gibralfaro castle (means mountain of light) built to protect the Alcazaba fortress below though in fact the area had been known for almost 3000 years and pretty much every conqueror had a piece of the action from the Phoenicians (they probably called it Malac ‘to salt’ as this was the fish-salting industry on the river), Romans, Moors and everyone in-between. It dominates the skyline above the city, interesting to look at different architecture of the houses along the winding-upwards streets which reflected investment in the city by various industrialists in the 19th century I think – some came from France so French architecture, Germany and German architecture etc, very well kept and with great views too. We had a look in the small museum but the main thing was the views. We could see our ship and the crowds of people below waiting for the statue, there’s the bullring (big bullfights coming up this evening), huge cathedral and the Alcazaba fortress, the city spread out on the flat and on the hills. Back in history the hills were completely bare of vegetation, a safety point to deter invaders. We walked around the walls (the photos show it all), I saw a couple of squirrels but they didn’t stay still for a photo, they’re so cute. Also saw green parrots in the palm trees at another spot, lots of noise. One quite open area against a slope has what looks like a stone stage and in summer is used for open air concerts, there are trees around it and gardens so it would be a lovely venue.

Second stop was the Alcazaba itself, sprawled below the castle and built between the 11th and 14th century. Walked from the bus through what will be very pretty rose gardens in a few weeks, fountains, perfume of orange trees. We took a lift up to the Alcazaba, came out in one of several peaceful courtyards open to the sky, small pool in the middle, sheltered areas on four sides, small gardens. The design apparently came from towns being settled by traditionally itinerant people who had to be safe so by having open courtyards, water, nature in their houses they were trying to mimic freedom.

We walked through gardens, high stone walls, pretty doorways, all the time going gently downwards to road level, very easy – and a pity about the people coming into the fort who had to climb up the hill rather than take the lift. We were told that the fort had been ‘restored’ and settled by civilians from the 18th century but in 1933 a proper excavation and restoration began, the archaeology investigated and has become a major tourist attraction – though it’s not really original now and little extras have been added here and there like early Roman columns at either side of the entrance to one of the courtyards, and marble shields with a water fountain ‘just because we can’.

At the bottom of the hill we stopped briefly at the Roman theatre, built in the 1st century BC and ‘discovered’ in 1951, eventually excavated via demolition of buildings on site and opened up in 2011 – performances are held regularly and it seats 220 people.

By this time the statue had obviously been brought ashore and stored safely because the town was heaving, really busy, we traipsed through the narrow streets to a tapas bar and just as well the ship had reservations because every bar, café and restaurant was full inside and out. We had two tapas (ham and cheese croquette and a delicious mix of potato, tuna and mayonnaise), one drink and then…..wish I could upload videos because entertainment was a group of uni students dressed in costume, playing and singing several songs. Unexpected and very good especially a small young man who opened his mouth and a full opera voice came out, amazing.

We had 20 minutes free time back at the main town square so we walked down to the outside of the cathedral which is huge (you can see it in the panoramic photo), and had lines of people waiting to go in with it being Holy Thursday, and even the hospital had decorations above the door (nothing like that at Nelson Hospital, though maybe the annual Christmas tree in the lobby does the same thing).

Back on board Pete did the washing and drying, I had a pedicure which I think was a fair division of labour, we forced ourselves to have high tea again, late dinner then 9.15 went to the second show by Britt Lenting, equally good with a bit more about her career and she finished with ‘This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman’, I love that song (and Hugh Jackman……) https://brittlenting.com/

We got back to our room just after 10pm and in time to see the Rock of Gibraltar on the horizon, the moon and lights were perfect. What more did we need to end another great day, and to say goodbye to Spain as we head north towards Portugal and an afternoon in Porto on Saturday?

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