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| Rain washed main square in Malaga |
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| One of the many cathedrals of Malaga |
Saturday in Malaga, a little rain misting the city and hiding the Castillo de Gibralfaro behind low cloud cover. Walking into down town Malaga just when shops start to open up the city seemed deserted. Plaza Constitution, usually bustling with locals and visitors during summer tourist season, looked abandoned, a flawless rain washed smooth tiled surface. I passed Malaga Cathedral, la Manquita (one armed lady) so called because only one of her bell towers was ever completed, the other is merely a stump.
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| Side Chapel in a church |
No line ups yet at Pablo Picasso's boyhood home, the restored 17th century Buena Vista Palace. Picasso is probably the most well known Malaga citizen, and a good number of his works are exhibited in his home turned museum.
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| Picasso's birth record |
On previous visits, I had climbed the castle hill and admired the interior of most churches, drove to Granada for a visit to the magical Alhambra, and petted the donkey taxis in nearby white washed Mijas Village - all wonderful destinations near by.
For this visit, I made no specific plans, instead umbrella at the ready, I meandered through the narrow streets, where shops just started to open their doors, and cafe operators organized their chairs and tables under awnings and large umbrellas, as to make out-door dining inviting even during inclement weather. Flamenco and bullfights, if not filling the air with music and singing or eliciting 'OLEs' in the local bull ring, were widely represented in store windows: bullfight memorabilia, fighting bull souvenirs, frilly and flouncy flamenco outfits in a riot of colours, embroidered scarfs with long fringes, artificial flowers to clamp either between teeth or embellish curly locks.
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| One can hear the castagnettes of Flamenco just looking at these dresses |
Behind it's Moorish style portal, the produce and fish market was already in full swing, all very clean with the market areas divided into areas for fish, meat and poultry, baked goods, produce, candied and dried fruit and nuts, olives of every description, cheeses and smoked ham...one could work up a healthy appetite just strolling around and taking in the inviting sights and inhaling the mouthwatering aromas.
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| Malaga Fresh food market |
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| It's supposed to taste marvellous |
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| Malaga veiled women.... |
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| Fresh shrimp |
The one wide pedestrians only thoroughfare of Malaga, Avenida Marques de Larios, had filled with shoppers. Here and on adjoining streets stylish and elegant stores, restaurants, small boutiques line the sidewalks and one can find just about anything one desires: fashion, art, crafts, antiques - a horn of plenty for window shoppers.
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| Rain or shine the sidewalk bodegas are open |
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| Some of them a little empty for lack of large umbrellas... |
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| Never knew the title of this work of art.... |
So one strolls and looks, and strolls some more until mid afternoon when I passed the ruins of the old Roman amphitheatre at the foot of Gibralfaro Hill.
I remembered someone mentioning 'El Pimpi', the one restaurant in Malaga which is on everyone's 'must see and visit' list - even the locals flock here in droves. And there it was! It looks like a series of vine covered converted old mansions, and contains a maze of rooms decorated with antiques, harbouring small courtyards open to the sky (now covered with glass and dozens of vines) where the 'ham slicer' prepares plates of jamon Iberico, the windows of upper dining rooms look over narrow alleys and Plaza Maria Guerrero, a long bar is walled with wine barrels, vestibules are adorned with paintings of saints and dozens of potted plants. Posters of famous matadors and signed photos of even more famous international celebrities paper the walls of the various dining rooms and bars.
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| Wall tiles depicting bull fights in El PIMPI |
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| All Picasso's exhibition pieces are for sale on post cards outside the Picasso Museum |
I opted for the 'al fresco' choice of seating, and found shelter from the rain underneath one of the giant umbrellas in front of El Pimpi and watched the world walk, skip and float by...
Many of the ports feel like a 'homecoming' after having visited them a couple of times. The desire to wander afield and see famous and worthwhile 'attractions' diminishes, and the wish to partake in everyday life of a city emerges. Hence, very few organized tours for me on this journey, and much more leisure to just enjoy and improvised spur of the moment discoveries, which are usually not touted in the brochures to merit a special visit. But, one tastes the flavour of these distant places in a much more intimate manner by merely wandering about.
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| Ham cutter inside El Pimpi |
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| Malaga - City of Saints and Processions |
