Malaga, Spain

View of the Port of Malaga from Gibralfaro Castle (built 14th century)

We are home from our 10 night trip to Spain and we had a great time.  We spent our first three nights in Malaga and this post will highlight those three days.  Cordoba and Madrid will be separate posts.  I have tried to include a lot of detail for anyone thinking of traveling to Spain/Andalucia.  At the time of our trip it took 1.55 CAD dollar to purchase 1 Euro (Euros will be listed if you don't live in Canada so you can look up your exchange rate if you wish)

When you are self-employed you never know what will happen.  Around 3 pm the day prior to our departure we received a request from a company that we had a proposal into - for a 5am online meeting the next day with a large company whose owner is living in Barcelona(hence time of call) but is based out of Calgary where we would do training.  You can't really say no so we got up at 4am to prepare - although our first travel flight was 11am that day.  It is a good thing we accommodated that request as we got that contract (found out a few days later and had to make travel arrangements while in Spain).  Needless to say though we had hoped to get a bit more sleep prior to our European flights.  After first flying to Calgary and then to Amsterdam we had an 8 hour stopover which when I booked the flights was 3 hours but in January due to a schedule change turned into 8.  We ended up booking the Yotel Amsterdam Airport for 4 hours for a 3 hour nap and a shower before eating something and getting our final 3 hour flight to Malaga.  Cost was $113 CAD (approx 75 euro) for 4 hours including 2 bottles of water.  If we had been better rested we likely would not have done it at this cost - however based on how totally exhausted we were it was worth the price and we felt refreshed.  It was the size of a walkin closet but had wifi, tv, charging outlets and a shower with comfortable bed so I wasn't complaining.  If the stopover was longer I would have stayed at the Mercure which is also inside Amsterdam airport past security with only hand luggage being allowed - but is a fullsize room and more comfortable.  They wanted 100 euro for a day rate up to 8 hours.  We then went and had an expensive airport lunch (37 euros) and beer and reboarded.  Nothing in Amsterdam airport is cheap so you have few choices - even fast food is expensive so we went with a regular restaurant and got nice tasty fresh food instead. 

If you ever fly KLM internationally they feed you well - about every 3 hours you get a meal or a snack with complimentary liquor/beverage.  That is just one of the reasons why we love KLM (also free baggage/free seat selection/free blanket and pillow/free entertainment centre/extremely competent and nice staff) but for flights within Europe their partners are all no frills.  We flew Transavia from Amsterdam to Malaga and they charge for every pop/coffee/snack so we were glad we had a bite to eat before boarding.

We landed about 8pm after figuring out where our luggage was  - it was on a separate carousel as originated from outside the EU but that took us an extra 1/2 hr to figure out.  We took a cab to our hotel which only cost 27 Euro (24 euro plus 1 euro per bag including carryon that he puts in the trunk).  There are cheaper options than a cab - but I always splurge on a cab on arrival after so many hours flying.  We arrived at our hotel - not a tourist hotel but a Spanish business hotel in Olletas which is about 1/2 hr walk from the attractions or a quick 10 minute bus ride away.   We booked it as needed good wifi to check on our business and it cost half the price as the tourist hotels around the Cathedral area.  From the cab we noticed a grocery store just around the corner from the hotel.  If you haven't figured it out yet I do hours and hours of planning/research before our trips.  Even so, there was no mention of this store on any of the forums regarding our hotel so I was very pleased to see it.  We stocked up on alcohol, water, and snacks and got some rest after cracking into a 2 Euro bottle of wine, which was rather tasty although cheap (I always pack a corkscrew) and some excellent Spanish cheese.

We let ourselves sleep as long as we wanted after our long journey and emerged at noon in search of breakfast.  Having missed the hotel breakfast (not included so no loss) we walked a couple blocks to a cafeteria.  There are many pastry shops and cafeterias in Spain and we were in an extremely non-tourist neighborhood so armed only with a few words of Spanish (I seem to understand quite a lot but don't speak much) and a printout of Spanish food translations we asked for a menu.  ****Important - most of these have no menu.  You need to know how to order your coffee - I had researched this and knew we wanted Cafe con leche which is essentially expresso and equal parts hot milk - and point to something in their pastry cabinet which appears to be the most common breakfast item.  In this case we didn't want pastry so I was leaning towards tortilla (cold potato omelette) when I recognized our waitress say the words jamon y queso (ham and cheese) montadito (small sandwich).  Needless to say this is probably one of the cheapest and common sandwiches in Spain and was extremely tasty and hit the spot.  Thanks to the poor waitress who had to try and help us order without a menu nor much Spanish and she knew no English.   Two ham and cheese toasted sandwiches with coffee came to a nice cheap 7 Euro.

Our first real day in Malaga was a Sunday.  Knowing we only had Sunday and Monday in Malaga and Mondays in Spain almost all attractions are closed we opted to do a lot of the sight seeing on our first day.  We first went to the Castle Gibralfaro for amazing views of Malaga by cab as based on research it was nearly impossible to reach without several bus changes from our hotel.  Fortunately cabs are cheap in Spain unlike most of Europe - 7 Euros for that cab.  The day was pure sunshine and 22 degrees celcius.  Please note - all these first day pictures are taken with my iphone 4s and hubby's iphone 6 as I forgot to put the battery back into my Canon after charging it (was back at hotel).  In future I may not take it on long trips as it is a bit of a hassle to drag around due to size and a magnet for those who prey on tourists.  I was amazed at some of the great shots hubby got with his phone.  My 4 year old phone4s  takes ok shots at best.

Once at the castle hubby immediately made friends with this little squirrel - yes, he really was 1 foot away.  He was munching on what appeared to be green apricots.  

If you would like to read about the Castle Gibralfaro's history see this link.

Friendly squirrel at Castle Gibralfaro

I had read online that there is path from the Castle down to the Alcazaba and Roman theatre ruins and then just a little further the Malaga Marina.  The smart tourist chooses to  walk down versus up which involved lots of stairs and was still a workout in the sunshine.

Moorish Alcazaba (built 1062) and Roman theatre ruins (1st century BC)

A lot of Spain attractions have free periods - you can research them and save a lot of money if you time things correctly.  As this was Sunday and we arrived at 1pm and free time started at the Castle at 2pm I expected to pay but based on our tight schedule was willing to do so.  We arrived and were waived on in without any payment required even though we were early - score!  The Alcazaba was also free.  Normally it is 3.55 Euro for a joint ticket to see both per person which is extremely reasonable if you have to pay and well worth it.

After we got to the bottom we proceeded to the Marina area for refreshments and Tapas (30 Euros-expensive area but worth it for the view).  This area is absolutely lovely on a Sunday afternoon.  There appeared to be the equivalent of a local artists market set up just for the afternoon in addition to the many shops and restaurants.  It was quite crowded with local Malaguenos enjoying their family time.

Transmediterranea Ferry docked in Port of Malaga (goes to Mellila Spain on tip of Africa)

Malaga Marina Walkway looking across to restaurants where we ate

Park across from Port of Malaga

When we were touring the Castle Gibralfaro I swear I saw parrots - when we got to the park by the Marina I found the source as there were many parrots in the trees and on the ground.  We did not see any parrots on the rest of the trip so they might just live in the coastal areas.

Parrot at park across from Port of Malaga

On our second day the weather was much cooler - 12 degrees and the locals had parkas and scarves on.  The Cathedral of Malaga was open on Monday so we took the bus which was extremely easy and modern with electronic bus stops to show you how long you need to wait and which bus stops there.  For tourists there are essentially 2 buses to take note of.  C1 and C2.  It is circular and C1 goes towards the Port and C2 goes the other direction - easy peasy and I had read up on the buses to take ahead of time (Trip advisor reviews on our hotel gave me this info).  The bus stop was about 100 yards from our hotel.  Cost was 1.3 Euro per person per direction and they were very clean.  If you don't have exact change the driver will make change, small bills only. 

Malaga Cathedral (building started 1592)

Inside Malaga Cathedral

If you ever travel to Spain you will immediately realize that it is a very Catholic country and you can't throw a rock(*not recommended :)) without hitting another Church or Cathedral but there are simply some Cathedrals you cannot miss and the Malaga Cathedral is one of them (entrance fee 5 Euro).  Filled with art and fantastic religious objects we spent about an hour going through it.  It is closed on Sundays for mass and is open to tourists the rest of the days of the week so worked perfectly with our schedule.  After that we had an excellent lunch in a small bistro and we just wandered around until we got tired and hopped the bus back to our hotel.

That evening we ended up in a local bar (all usually serve some kind of tapas) as the restaurant I had researched was closed due to being a Sunday.  Without a lot of options we tried to order as best we could.  We ended up with chicken stew over fries (good) and oxtail stew over fries (not so good) with 2 Alhambra beers (good).  Dinner for 2 in a local bar including a beer 20 Euro.

According to hubby's fitbit we walked 16 km our first day and 10 km the second day.  Apparently we do a lot of wandering.  Fortunately we took good shoes but we still had sore calves (due to steps up and down at the castle and Alcazaba) and feet every day of our trip.

Next we headed to Cordoba by high speed train which I will detail in my next post, likely a few days away as we are extremely busy with work/life at the moment trying to fulfill a fast contract - plus I have gigantic weeds in the yard/housework that needs addressing.
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On a side note, upon our return to Canada after 3 flights and 20 hours of traveling we could not bear to go one more night without seeing our dog Buddy so drove the 1.5 hrs to get him and 1.5 hrs back.  The original plan was to go the next day.  Needless to say we were all very happy to see one another and he has been a big suck ever since we got home.  The people of Spain appear to love dogs as we saw tons of happy well groomed dogs being walked every where we went.  I admit to accosting a few Spanish dogs on the street for some affection due to missing Buddy.  He has received lots of love and tons of treats in the 3 days since our return.