The Costa-del-sol gets a bad wrap so visiting Malaga made me wonder just what it would be like but I needn’t have worried as, spoiler alert, it was beautiful.
We didn’t know much about the town other than it was the birth place of Picasso and had a museum dedicated to him here.
We got off the boat early as ever wanting to beat the heat and the crowds. It was very empty in town which was great as there’s nothing worse than pesky people in your photographs.
First stop was the cathedral which was a very attractive tree lined place. We then walked the short distance to the Alcazaba which we found was open early and cheap to get into. It turned out that the place was a faithful replica of what originally stood there having been houses in between. Like all Moorish palaces it was very beautiful and somewhere I could imagine living had I been around then and had plenty of money obviously. Our ticket also allowed us entry into the castle but we decided to leave that for later instead heading to the Picasso museum.
Picasso Museum
Outside the museum there were two queues – one for those that had pre-booked and another for walk-ups like us. The queue was moving at a glacial pace and, as I intimated yesterday, I don’t like queueing so we elected to book a timed slot for half an hour later and go for a coffee in the meantime.
The museum was well done with some interesting pieces which were mostly donated (actually loaned) by the wife of his son and his grandson. I also read that there were over 200 works there but there were some “notable” gaps such as his blue and pink periods. This had no impact on me whatsoever!
I like Picasso’s works but much of it looks primitive to me. How he could get away with painting something misshapen and say with a straight face “that’s a guitar on a table, obviously” when it looks like something that the grandkids could have done but I’m sure I’m missing something.
Thanks, but no thanks
After that we headed towards the castle but on seeing the steep climb to it decided to do some shopping instead. Spain has a chain of shops that are very similar to Tiger called Ale-Hop and we headed there and picked up a number of interesting sock presents ready for Christmas. When then spent a happy hour or so wandering the streets making our way slowly back to the boat.