Day 63 – 10 September 2023 – Torremolinos, Espana

A late start at 9.00 am for the short drive into Malaga to visit the Castillo de Gibralfaro, a former Arab fortress built on the hill overlooking Malaga & the port. Our local guide took us into the Interpretation Centre, the former Powder Magazine, & explained to us the history of the Romans, the Visigoths, the Arabs & then the Christians. A familiar tale throughout Spain.  Construction of the Arab fortress first started in 787 with additions & improvements over the years by the various Arab rulers. There is a fortified walkway, the Coracha, linking the Gibralfaro with the Alkazabar, a fortified Palace complex lower down the hill.

Our guide takes us out onto the walls of the fortress & explains a little more of the Alkazabar & the town. He points out the Malaga Bullring, the Christian Cathedral, the port & some of the prominent landmarks, such as the Lighthouse. The views up & down the coast are fabulous, our guide says that on a clear day you can see the Pillars of Hercules (the Straights of Gibraltar), not today however.  We walk around some of the battlement walkaways on top of the walls enjoying the views & exploring more of the Gibralfari. There is a large garden area in the middle of the fortress that now has a variety of different plants, including a large eucalyptus.

Back down the narrow road into Malaga & our local guide takes us on a walking tour of old Malaga. Firstly he takes us to a large square with a column commemorating some fallen soldiers. In one corner is a bronze statue sitting on a park bench, Pablo Picasso, the artist who was born in the building close to the park & our guide pointed out the apartment that the Picasso family lived in.  He then goes on to describe some of the life of Picasso, his wives & his children.

Next we walk past a church that has distinctive Arabic influence with the tiles & the shape of the doorway arches. The walkways in old Malaga are paved with marble, astounding. When we walk past the Picasso Museum the line to enter is very long, apparently the museum houses the large private collection of the Picasso family. His legitimate son passed away 2 years after Picasso’s deaf, his legal wife ended up inheriting his painting & she donated them to Piasso’s birth town.

The Malaga Cathedral is very large, however, our guide explains to us that it is unfinished. The Cathedral took hundreds of years to build as the church kept on running out of money to complete the building. It is only in the last 50 odd years that a roof was put over the Cathedral. He points out the empty locations where statues of saints would normally be placed are empty. On the other side of the Cathedral he shows us the rough rock that was left so that another part of the church could be joined on. He points out that the Cathedral only has one tower completed, the base for the second tower is there, however, the spire has not been built. The Bishop’s Palace, on the other hand, looks very smart & complete with a beautiful marble entry façade.

Continuing on, we walk past the narrowest street in Malaga, it is only 80 centimetres wide, this must be the narrowest street we have seen anywhere. A little further on we come to the walls of the Alkazabar, the lower fortress. Our guide then explains that when the Alkazabar was being restored, the team found some unusual stone constructions, so they dug deeper & discovered a buried Roman Theatre from the 1^st Century BC. Malaga was an important Roman city & port. Under a large glass prism in front of the theatre is the excavated display of a fish sauce manufacturing facility from the 4^th century AD where the guts of fish were left to rot in large stone vats before being made into the fish sauce that the Romans considered a delicacy. The city of Malaga is built over the top of the ruins of a Roman city.

We are all invited to a nearby café & Chad shouts us all, a flourish, most of us enjoy a sherry, a local fortified wine & it was very tasty. The guided tour ended here so then we had some time to walk & explore a little ourselves, with the aid of another Gelato to give me some energy.

Back to the hotel & a little relaxation before our dinner tonight. The bus takes us on a very long drive around the streets of Torremolinos to get to a spot that is about a 15 minute walk from our motel. We are dropped off on a street corner & walk through a small shopping area to the ocean front & the Casa Florido Restaurant. This is a seafood restaurant. Our table is at a seafront window looking out at the busy footpath. All through our meal there are lots of people walking past, mainly tourists.

Firstly we are served a salad then a plate of small pipis with lemon, they were very tasty. Next was a sizzling bowl of garlic prawns, delicious, however I ate a piece of cooked chilli that was amazingly hot & I broke out into a sweat, my tongue was burning. Crumbed & deep fried anchovies were followed by deep fried calamari rings. Bite sized battered fish were next. All very tasty & we were all very full.

However, out came the piece-de-la-resistance, a very large pan with salt covered, slow cooked sea bass. The restaurant owner uncovered the mounds of salt from the fish then started to take the fins off the fish & then the skin, she was very good & made a real show of the star of the show. The sea bass was delicious. After all that delicious food ice cream was served. Very enjoyable dinner was washed down with some nice wines.

After dinner most of us walked back with Chad to the motel along the waterfront promenade, the night was beautiful & balmy.  The lights along the shore made for a pretty sight. We chatted with our fellow travellers on the walk back & enjoyed the atmosphere, there were lots of others out walking as well, both locals & tourists. Another great day.