It wasn‘t a fluke, the rail experience in Spain travelling in tourist class was excellent again today, except of course for the beginning and end of the journey when lugging our suitcases around is involved 😂.

Today we travelled from Cordoba to Malaga it took about an hour and 20 minutes. Malaga is a sophisticated city of nearly 600,000 people and is know for its beaches, culture and food and is a really popular place to visit in summer. It’s nickname is the “ City of Museums” as there are 20 different museums here with a couple dedicated to Malaga’s most famous son Pablo Picasso.

The hotel we are staying at is right on the main thoroughfare and was recommended to me by a colleague who is now lucky enough to be living here Malaga and it doesn’t disappoint. From our balcony it was wonderful to see a long red carpet, obviously out for the arrival of their Australian visitors. Sadly when I asked the guys checking us in about the red carpet they let me down very gently and advised that it was in fact there for the annual Malaga film festival which ends today (Sunday 19 March).

The festival goes for eleven days and celebrates cinema made in the Spanish language. There was a foreign movie section that screened non-Spanish films that have been award winning and not yet screened in Spain, I didn’t see any I recognised in this category. It would have been wonderful to have been here for the festival, this is a beautiful place for a bit of glitz and glamour – I can’t find the dates for 2024, or could have looked at securing some tickets 😀.

As we are only here for a couple of days Pip and Dave not wanting to waste and time made the significant climb up to the Castillo de Gibralfora, Malaga Alcazaba and the Teatro Romano de Malaga and took some fantastic photos – thank you.

The Castillo sits 132m above sea level up above the city of Malaga in the Montes de Malaga mountain range overlooking the city and the port. The history of this castle dates back to 929 AD when it was built by Abd-al-Rahman III on a former Phoenician enclosure. The castle is famous for the three month Catholic siege that came to an end when the inhabitants (the Moors) were cut off from all resources and so were left starving – how sad.

We have discovered over the last few weeks that Castillo and Alcazaba are often close together, which is the case here. The Alcazaba was built between the years 1057 and 1063 on the orders of the Muslim King of Taifas Berber of Granada. Known to be an example of one of the best defensive systems of all time, it was built using parts of an ancient Roman theatre ( see below).

Rounding up the trio of amazing places that look over the city the magnificent ancient Roman Theatre. The theatre was built during the reign of Emperor Augustus in the 1st century AD but was only rediscovered in 1951 when work started on the Cultural building. Historians are unsure as to why it was buried but do know that it was used until 3rd century AD.

Dinner in a gorgeous Argentinian restaurant Pampa. This restaurant was again a Foursquare recommendation.

Pip and I couldn’t resist starting the night with a margarita.

The food as really excellent here, beautiful barbecued meats and Norwegian Salmon, as were the drinks. For Dave and Steve a local beer, with Pip and I trying a very nice local rose. The night ended with a lovely digestif of Caramel Vodka courtesy of the restaurant – yum.

The restaurant did get really busy, but we arrived early and so were able to snag a table without a reservation.

A nice walk back along the cobblestoned alleys and marble footpath to the hotel and then a trip up to the rooftop (at the recommendation of the check in crew) to watch Real Madrid take on Barcelona, sadly for the locals it was a Barcelona win tonight.

Tomorrow we are hiring a car and heading to Ronda and Sentil de Las Bodegas.