Day 10 - Life's a Beach!

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We both have colds! Not bad colds, but colds none the less. At least it’s not Covid. It’s been passing through the bus for the last couple of days, and it looks like it’s our turn now. Fortunately, I have the pharmacy of Jody to keep us feeling better soon.

Meanwhile, we’re also at the beach! Last night we arrived at the Melia Resort, while technically in Torremolinos, it’s just outside Malaga on the Costa Del Sol. Our room is across the street from the bridge and we can see the Mediterranean from our balcony. This morning was a “relaxed start” which means we were able to sleep in a little, as our tour did not begin until 9:00. So we got to bed early last night and were able to sleep in today, so we are determined that our colds are not going to slow us down.

At 9:00 Dominic turned us over to our local guide Luis who took us into downtown Malaga, to see what it was all about. Malaga is one of the oldest cities on the Iberian Peninsula, dating back to about 800 BC as a trading port for the Phoenicians. It was populated by Moors until about the 15th century when the Moors were conquered and the Christians took over. Most of the old city is long gone, except for the remains of the 12th century Moorish Fort at the top of the hill. The fort has been destroyed and rebuild so many times over the centuries, it is difficult to figure out what is original and what is a restoration. But the bets part of the fort are the views of Malaga from atop its walls. Luis took us up to through most of the fort so we could take pictures of the city from all angles.

There is also a 15th century cathedral, cleverly called the Cathedral of Malaga that still stands in the center of town. Most notably, there are 2 bell towers on the cathedral, but only one is completed. The story of the second bell tower is that late 18th century, the Spanish governor of the Louisiana Territory in the USA was sending money back to Malaga to pay for the completion of the cathedral. But the money for the second bell tower was diverted by the Spanish Governor to George Washington to help fund the US war of independence from the British - a very appropriate story for today as it is July 4. The money was never replaced, and the tower was never finished.

More recently, Malaga’s claim to fame was its sweet wine that grew on vines along the mountainside. But evidently, a merchant ship from the USA brought some sort of aphid called the Phylloxera in the late 19th century and completely wiped out all the vines and along with it, the economy of Malaga. Malaga does not seem to have a good track record with the USA. In the 1920’s Malaga reinvented itself as an Iron and steel produced, but this soon gave way to tourism.

Currently , construction is still booming, and the Costa Del Sol has become one of the most popular destinations for either vacation, summer homes, or retirement. It’s expensive, but beautiful! But downtown Malaga is suffering from the same problem we heard about from the locals in Cinque Terre and Venice on our Italy trip – Airbnb. All of the apartments in town are being bought up by invertors and rented out on Airbnb. There are no apartments available for the locals to rent, and the few that are available are too expensive.

Most of the city has been built in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the vineyards became apartment buildings. Their main downtown street was built in the 1920’s with the intention to exactly duplicate the downtown area of Chicago, USA. I’m not sure why, but it did look a little strange. This is mostly a modern city, with shops that a little more upscale. Back in the 1950’s, Malaga also annexed the little fishing village of Torremolinos, which is right next door. They demolished the fishing village, and built a series of high rise apartments and hotels along the boardwalk with restaurants and shops in between. The result is a really nice beach resort, similar to Miami Beach and all the other US beach towns. The sand is a little darker, but the waves are relatively calm with the water a little cold for us at 70 F. The shops are nicer, and the restaurants are way better than anything I’ve seen in the states, and nothing is older than the 1950’s.

The one disappointment on the visit to Malaga, and probably the biggest disappointment of the trip is that Malaga is the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, and while his birthplace is undergoing restoration, it is not yet open to the public. But there was never any of Picasso’s work in his birthplace, Picasso had a lifelong feud with Franco, dictator of Spain and vowed never to return to Malaga while Franco was alive. Unfortunately, Picasso died in 1973 and Franco lasted until 1975. So they built a bronze sculpture of Picasso sitting on a park bench in the square near his home so he can look out over Malago every day. After his death, when it came time to build a Picasso Museum, the only requirements that Picasso had were that it not be a religious building, as he also had an ongoing feud with the Catholic Church, and that it not be in a modern building. So a 16th century building was renovated and now contains the largest collection of the works of Pablo Picasso, and while we had lunch in the square in front of the museum, we just didn’t have the time to visit. So close and yest so far! We considered getting a taxi from the hotel when we got back, since we had a free afternoon, but it was our first free afternoon and we wanted to rest!

After the visit to downtown Malaga, we arrived back at the hotel about 2:00, with nothing to do until dinner at 6:45. It was just the break we needed. We started by getting on our bathing suits and heading to the pool. The water was great, and it was very relaxing to hang by the pool. But after a couple of hours, it seemed that a gelato would be perfect right about now, so we headed back to the room, got dressed and headed out for a walk on the boardwalk. We soon found a gelato shop, and sat down to cool off and enjoy the treat. We bought a couple of t-shirts and headed down to the water. We were at least able to dip our hands into the Mediterranean, even if it was a little cold to swim. By now, it was getting late and we wanted to head back to the room for a little siesta before dinner.

Tonight’s dinner was promised to be a treat. It was a place called Casa Florido, and featured a multi-course meal of seafood. Dominic introduced the owner Lucia, and she made a special showing of serving us. There was also an old man called Pepe, who was in his late 80’s but came around several times during the evening to sing an play guitar. His guitar playing was great, his singing, not so good. But it was all in fun, and he makes a few dollars in tips when he can.

The meal started with a salad, the pimentos and onions, baby clams, anchovies, calamari, battered fish pieces, each as a separate course. Finally she brought out the main course, sea bass cooked in salt. Evidently the sea bass is covered in a thick crust of sea salt, and baked in an over. The salt is not absorbed into the fish, rather the salt prevents the moisture from leaving the fish resulting in a very tender moist fillet. When Lucia brought out the sea bass, she made a big presesntation of cutting off the salt crust, exposing the fish within. The result was delicious!

After the main course, Lucia brought out a chocolate cake and we all sang Happy Birthday to Kim from Australia as it was his 63rd birthday today! So we all got to eat cake and ice cream! As we left Casa Florido, the bus was waiting to take us back to the hotel. But since the restaurant was on the boardwalk, we all decided we would rather take the 10 minute walk on the boardwalk back to the hotel to end a rather perfect evening.

Tomorrow is another “relaxed start” we don’t leave until 9:00 as we head out for Granada!



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