Let’s Have Some of That “Junk” Wine

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First cab off the rank this morning is La Malagueta, the Malaga Bullring. Issy’s anti-bullfighting so she’s staying in to work on one of her artistic masterpieces. I’m anti-bullfighting too, the problem being that I can’t paint. I read that the first bullfight was held here in 1876, and the ring can seat a little over nine thousand spectators. It was used to hold prisoners during both the Spanish Civil and Second World Wars. I thought Spain stayed neutral during the latter so I’m not quite sure where those guys would have come from. Anyway, a renovation completed in 2019 meant that it could be used all year round to hold events other than bullfights, and if the number of posters around the outside is anything to go by more than the odd concert is held here. It seems unfortunately to be still in very active use as a bullring; the season looks like it starts to hot up next month.

The building itself is quite striking, and as one Google reviewer notes it’s an “Architecturally beautiful building”. Perhaps slightly worryingly the same reviewer then goes on to say “The only thing that bothered me was the man with red cloth, which he kept waving in my direction. This made me aggressive and I tried to run over him….”. Fortunately there don’t seem to be any guys with red cloths around this morning.

I was feeling guilty about paying to get in, but it seems entry is free. I wonder if the proprietors maybe do this so they can feel less guilty about the horror shows that they stage here, although on second thought maybe not. Anyway I "get in" to find that I can’t actually get into the arena or any of the seating, just a photography display under one of the stands. I briefly consider asking for my money back before remembering that I didn’t actually give them any. I think I need a coffee. I can see the inside of the stadium through some windows, and it looks like they’re setting up some scaffolding mid-ring for a concert ... either that or they’re going to have to find some very nimble bulls.

The photography exhibition is quite impressive. It features the works of Irish photographer Edward Quinn who was active on the French Riviera in the 1950s. It seems he was quite chummy with the celebrity set, and those featured in candid poses include Bridget Bardot, Pablo Picasso, Sir Winston Churchill, David Niven, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren and Aristotle Onassis, to name but a few.

On a side note we’ve noticed a few slight oddities of life here over the past few days. One major bank advertises itself as “el banco más solvente de Espana” - the most solvent bank in Spain. Huh? I'm not sure that's much of a vote of confidence in the rest of the country's banking institutions. Time perhaps to start thinking about putting your cash under the mattress? And then there was the elderly Muslim lady with full head covering offering to braid people’s hair …. Then there’s what we assume is the city's main square, la Plaza de la Constitucion. It’s massive, and it feels like it should be teeming with activity, but it’s empty, well sort of empty - it’s got a large fountain, but it’s not in the middle, but it’s not in one corner either, it feels like it’s just stuck in some sort of no man’s land. There are some cute palm trees along one of the square's sides, but the whole shebang feels like it should be surrounded by restaurants … only it isn’t, not even one. The smaller square next to it's teeming with life - overflowing restaurants, street performers, all the usual suspects. Possible the town planners just weren’t big fans of the Constitution?

Next stop is the Carmen Thyssen Art Museum, which houses the works of the Spanish socialite and art collector of the same name, who was Miss Spain back in 1961. She’s been married three times. Nothing unusual about that these days I guess, but it seems she specialises in being a fifth wife, something she’s achieved with two out of her three husbands … anyway that’s probably a bit off topic. The standout works for me are the very striking landscapes by nineteenth century Spanish artists, none of whom I’ve ever heard of, and probably should have. The detail and use of light in some of these is stunning, even to my very untrained artistic eye.

We need an early night so we head out in search of what may well be the impossible quest - a Spanish restaurant that serves dinner as early as 7.30pm. We’re both still struggling to get our brains around the times here. The whole country really is two hours out of whack with the rest of the world. ”Normal” here is going to bed at 2am and getting up at 10am, so why are we both still feeling like we’ve reverted to our teenage years when we’re just doing what the locals do. Anyway we do manage to find a nearly empty restaurant which seems happy to accommodate us, although we’re very much hoping it’s not just with reheated leftovers from lunch, which they probably just finished serving a few minutes ago. The menu isn’t filling us with a lot of confidence. Hopefully someone was just having a few problems with the Google translator when they decided to classify one of the categories of wine, the most expensive as it turns out, as “Junk” ….

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Marvelous Picasso
This looks like a great city to explore.