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Published: January 21st 2020
Day 1. Mon 20 Jan
Taxi came 10mins late at 7.40am, then hit unusually heavy traffic to airport so arrived at 8.20 (cost £19). No problem with bag check-in though and flight left on time at 10.
2.5 hour flight, seeing Cornwall from high up which looked good, and the snow-topped Pyrenees which looked fantastic. Sadly most of Northern and all of Southern Spain was shrouded in cloud, so didn’t see much until landing, which was quite exciting – zooming low over the Med to the airport.
Eventually found the train station at Malaga but had some trouble connecting my phone (which used to automatically locate a signal, but now I had to do it manually – what is the world coming to?). Eventually texted John with my eta at Malaga Center and after the 12min journey, he met me and we walked 10mins to his AirBnB apartment.
Great view from living-room (see pics) with El Castillo De Gibralfaro on the hill, and the Catedral de la Encarnación de Málaga (missing a spire as the money to build it was donated to the American War of Independence).
I have my own room with small table, lamp & a clothes rail and a bed of course, what more could I want?
John’s old friend Bob is staying too, a Scottish London Artist who I met back in 1980 in Bethnal Green and a few times since at parties. Great guy. He cooked us a nice vedgy broth which I’ve just eaten. Yum!
As usual here it’s rather cold at night and the air-con doesn’t do much, so we put the oven on too (& kept hitting shins on the open door) warm now though, so oven is off.
Rather cool and cloudy here at 8°C, rather like Leeds!!!
May get some rain in next few days according to forecast, so very like Leeds indeed….
There’s a soup kitchen over the road, run by the church, who feed the homeless, and they were making some noise earlier but have calmed down now, after hugging the priest!
Day 2. Tues 21
st Jan
Got up rather late (9am but 8am back home) John & Bob
up much later. After checking weather forecast I decided to head for the Castle(s) as next few days is due to be very wet. John & Bob went to find a market and art gallery and I went for the 35 Bus, which left from near the Central Station that I arrived at yesterday. Sadly only runs every hour & I’d just missed one so had a long wait. Tried to converse with an old Spanish guy but too hard with my extremely limited Spanish and his similar English. I’m gonna have to learn more Spanish sometime! But not this trip – have been trying to recall my school French and pick up a bit of Berber which I feel is enough this trip.
Eventually the bus came (1pm) and dropped me at Gibralfaro Castle. I paid €1.30 for the bus and €2.50 for entrance to Gibralfaro and Alcazaba (after reduction for pensioners).
Gibralfaro was a little disappointing, not much to see apart from the view. There was a small display in the one main building but nothing very Moorish, mainly Spanish from 14
thC. The little cafe/bar was closed (probably siesta) but had good
views from it’s large veranda. Luckily there were some toilets open!
I had a quick look around and a short walk on the little stretch of battlements that was open. Very narrow path along those battlements and hard to get past anyone coming the other way – with big drops if you fell – I went into a corner where there was more space for passing.
Then I walked back down the hill through the woods to the left (from apartment photo), stopping on the way to eat the sandwich and biscuit that I’d bought whilst waiting for the bus. Very quiet in those woods, although Malaga is not that busy as cities go, it was noticeably quieter in the woods. Didn’t see anyone until half-way down when 4 Segways came along – I stuck my thumb out and was told to jump on by the 1
st one, but he didn’t stop, and there’s nowhere for passengers on a Segway. The last one was a girl who thrust a leaflet at me, €15 for a short Segway tour….
I got to the bottom and across the road was Alcazaba looming up
above me and a gateway that said Alcazaba, so obviously I went through it and climbed many steps to the main door. When I got there the gate was obviously closed and hadn’t opened for quite a while, so I walked back to the Roman Theatre ruins (recently discovered) meeting an old English couple near the bottom on their way up who I informed of the end result. So we all walked to the entrance proper (the other end of the Roman Theatre) and I was going to enter there but was unwilling to climb more steps, even though the couple were. But luckily there was a lift (as at Alicante) so I walked around to the sea-front side and took the (free) lift right to the top.
Alcazaba is fantastic, intricate small cobbles in geometric patterns, tiny doorways with curved surrounds, lots of gardens with water flowing from small fountains and running into channels that seemed to go everywhere. Many flowers and tiles. A good display of finds from there (and from the Roman Theatre) including lots of pottery – nice white ones that I liked. After a good look around I started heading downhill past
many more gardens (and meeting the English couple again, on their way up). At the bottom I needed a break so had a coffee in a cafe & texted John to check he was back (which he was) so I walked back to the apartment feeling very tired and struggled up the stairs to the 4
th floor where it is located. Phew! Needed to sit down for 10mins to catch my breath.
I downloaded my photo’s and then started on this.
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Amy Friedman
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New Title
I now think this whole blog should be titled: "From Barber to Berber !" You are most welcome.