Malaga

We drove to Malaga and spent a day and night there, May 9th. The part of the town we visited, the old center, close to the harbor and cruise ships, was beautiful, especially the parks and landscaping. Malaga is trying to become a museum town, with its own art museums, and outposts from the Thyssen, the Pompidiou, and others. They are mostly modern and contemporary art, and we were just not in the mood for art that hasn't stood the test of time. Rather we took in the Alcazaba, the Moorish fortress/palace, and the Roman amphitheater, and just wandered, partly in search of a regional dish I wanted to try, and partly just appreciating the great beauty all around.

The Alacazaba

 

I was pretty smitten by all the vegetation

Overview of Alcazaba; note Roman amphitheater at bottom

Nice Moorish ornamentation

Harbor view of the Alcazaba

A bit of new Malaga

Meanwhile, back in the palace

Giant rubber tree

The amphitheater was discovered only in 1951 (sort of like
Paris' Roman coliseum)

Roman theater museum, artifacts plus another really good
CG video on the construction and uses of the theater

Street after pedestrianized street of beautiful buildings, mostly
residential

The usual wonderful tile work

18th century palatial residence

More recent

We circumnavigated the 18th century cathedral but were
feeling Baroqued-out

One of the contemporary museums, featuring an exhibit on
post-contemporary art (art of the future?)

One of the regional specialties is a garlic/almond cold creamy
soup, topped here with apple chunks (but sometimes with grapes);
ajoblanco de almendres; interesting, good, but not to die for

Vicki had the artichokes

We'd just congratulated ourselves on limiting the eats above to
an afternoon snack only when we encountered the Amorino's;
so much for good intentions; these guy were performing outside
and attracting an appreciative crowd

More color

Outside the city museum (we did visit the gift
shoppe)

Outside the city museum

Spiny tree

In the gorgeous downtown city park

Key to all the trees, which, alas, I discovered just as the bus
back to the camping aire was arriving

Pretty place