Malaga, Spain is not terribly different from some of the other towns we had already visited over the last 30 days.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, but we have explored some of these activities before.

Malaga, Andalusia Spain

The top 10 list of things to do in Malaga include some we generally do not do or had just recently done elsewhere in Spain.  We generally shy away from going to the beach or visiting the museums.  We are still only partially recovered from our tour of the immense and stunning Vatican Museum in Rome and the amazing Florence Uffizi Gallery in 2014.  Malaga has another Moorish castle on a hill, but we had just toured the Alhambra in Granada.  What we did do, was largely because it was included in our extra special super deluxe Hop-On Hop-Off (Ho-Ho) bus tour package.  When we bought this package, there was much congratulations among the tour workers and happiness.  Our grand deluxe package came with walking tours, admission to the car museum, a ride to the Botanical Garden (ticket was extra), admission to the Picasso Birthplace Museum, boat ride, a pork chop lunch, beer includio, and a flamenco dance show.

 

Flamenco Dance in Malaga, Andalusia Spain

I really hate going to shows where the premise is ‘let’s dance for the tourists’.  I just do not wish to go to such a contrived event.  However, I had already paid for the flamenco show, the place was promised to be air conditioned and the pork chop lunch and beer would immediately follow.  Flamenco is taken very, VERY seriously in Spain.  Andalusia in southern Spain is the heartland of flamenco.  They will tell you it is an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity recognized by UNISCO.  It is so special the guitarist is not called the Spanish word for guitarist, they have a special word for the flamenco guitarist.  The flamenco dancer and singer also have special words reserved just for them as simply the Spanish word for singer and dancer will not do.  They say if you were to sum up flamenco art in one word, it would be feeling, but that too is not enough so they have a special word for the feeling flamenco conveys- since special ‘feeling’ is inadequate to convey the trance-like state of rapture the audience will feel during the show.  They will tell you there are four parts, the guitarist (insert special word here) the dancer (insert very special word here) the singer (insert the very special word here), as well as the clapping and the rhythm.  Combined all together, you get a unique very special feeling.  They will tell you a performance can have singing without the dancing, dancing without the singing and my favorite, the guitar without either the dancing or the singing.  So it is all very serious.  Things, however, do not go well when ‘one person in your party’ somehow gets the giggles and finds it very difficult to contain her laughter, kind of like a kid in church.  I’m betting there is a special word for that kind of behavior too, but fortunately we did not learn it as the laughter was adequately contained and drowned out by the loud chanting and singing.  So my flamenco photo below is very special as it captures the very serious singer, the special dancer and the special guitarist.  Only thing missing from the photo is the clapping and rhythm.  Hopefully viewing my photo will give you a very, very special feeling.

 

Purple Jacaranda Trees

Jacaranda trees are not indigenous to Spain or Portugal, but many streets are lined with them.  Here are a couple of them in bloom with some typical architecture as well.  Their blooms are very sticky when they fall to the ground as I found out when tossing some into a pond for a photo, but that is at a later visit…..

 

 

Jardin Botanical Gardens

I’m sure the botanical garden is very nice, but we were there in the heat of the day and if we did not catch the Ho-Ho bus in forty minutes, we would have to wait two hours and forty minutes for the next bus.  That would not be good for anybody in our party, so we explored only a small part and hopped back on the bus.

 

 

Picasso Birthplace Museum, Malaga, Spain

One is not allowed to take photographs inside of the Picasso Birthplace Museum, so all I really got was a photo of the pleasant courtyard.  Very symmetrical and Picasso likely would not approve.

Picasso Birthplace Museum Atrium

I think you deserve at least one look at a painting on display inside the Picasso Birthplace Museum….

I’m hoping the above painting changes my sister’s aversion toward black and white, we shall see.

 

View from our Sweet Digs

Our rented condo was not in the old, high walled tourist section of town, but was very walk able to that area.  As a result we got more of our dollars’ worth and rented a three bedroom, two bath condo.  What luxury to have on the road.  It was redecorated with top quality everything, not at all like a rental-type unit.  We selected this apartment through VeoApartment, not our ususal go-to-site.  VeoApartments seem to have a fine selection and we would use them again.  VeoApartment Rentals

 

 

Spanish Wedding

While relaxing on the balcony on Saturday, we saw two horse drawn carriages which were part of a wedding party.  I feel bad I did not run out sooner, for better photos.  Here are some snapshots showing what high style they have in Spain for weddings and formal events.

 

 

 

 

 Next stop is Madrid.