Due to the fact that Brad and Innis and I shared a van rental with Tim and Tracy, and their flight left from Malaga two days before ours, we had a couple extra days in Malaga after we left the resort before coming back to Canada.
Malaga was actually a stop on our tour the first time we were in Spain eight years ago, and we hadn't left with fond memories. It was a holiday or something, so everything was closed. We were there in August, and the heat was unbearable, the roads dry and dusty. Everything looked cheap and faded and ... pink. For some reason, I remember a lot of the colour pink from that trip. This was also where we flew out after catching a bus from Tarifa, during which I spent three hours sitting in a seat recently doused with another passenger's spicy barf (the bus was crowded, and when we boarded, I grabbed the first available seat and had no idea what I'd be sitting in -- Brad and Claire found roomier and cleaner seats at the back), trying to suppress the nausea as the bus lurched up and down the mountainous coast and careened back and forth on endless switchbacks. In short, it was awesome.
Malaga could not have been more different this time around. Lush, green, clean, busy and interesting. For example, who knew Malaga had an ancient fort? A Roman amphitheatre? A beautiful, ginormous cathedral? Not us. But it does!
But first, our hotel. It was basically amazing. At only 75 Euros a night, we stayed on the main tourist street in Malaga, the Marques de Larios, which looks like this:
Those sheets hanging above act as shades, so everything along here is all deliciously cool, shady marble.
And Innis liked the view from our balcony:
And I liked this part:
And, we were only a five minute walk away from this park:
Which leads to a beach on the Mediterranean, whereupon we mercilessly plotted to dangle our ten month old's toes in the water, though we knew he wouldn't be too happy about it:
But when he gave us the go ahead ...
... we went for it:
We went to the Malaga Cathedral:
(we think the netting was to catch crumbling stone?)
Then we went to Gibralfaro Castle and Alcazaba (which Brad alternately called Azcaban and Alcatraz):
And then on to the amphitheatre:
Where we also saw some kitties:
And then we even had time to eat dinner in a restaurant, and Innis was on his best behaviour:
... most of the time:
"MOAR FOOD! MOAR FOOD!! I EAT EVERYTHING!!!"
Wow. That was the longest post, with the most pictures, ever. And that was me exhibiting restraint. Oh well, at least I'm not forcing you to sit on my couch with an album in your lap. At least with this website, you can come and go at your leisure, reading this post in, say, five or six sittings.