Day Four – Malaga

I awoke this morning at around 6.00 am to see the lights of the Spanish coast passing by our window indicating that we had travelled through the straits of Gibraltar and were now in the Mediterranean. Malaga is just a short way up this coast and this was to be our first stop.

Over breakfast we watched the ship manoeuvre into her moorings , this task being finally completed at 8.30. At this stage the Captain announced we were safely moored and passengers could now proceed ashore. We had not booked any organised tours at this destination as we wanted to explore the town by ourselves. The ship had docked about a mile from the town centre but free shuttle buses had been laid on to avoid the walk through an industrial area. We took one of these buses just around 9.00 after first phoning Victoria to wish Joseph a happy first birthday.

We walked towards the old part of town, avoiding the tout attempting to sell rides in the pony traps, towards the cathedral. The only other time that we have been in Malaga was when we visited Torremolinos when the girls were small, and then that was only briefly.I had no idea that it was such an historically significant town with a Roman amphitheatre and even some Phoenician buildings mixed with the modern office blocks.

The principal place that we wanted to visit was the Picasso museum, the artist being born in Malaga in 1881. Following the lecture that we attended yesterday on-board we were both looking forward to having a fresh look at his work. He was the most prolific of artists with in excess of 30,000 pieces known to be in existence and a goods representation was held at this museum. Picasso himself once said “At eight I could draw like Rafael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like a child”, and you could see the progression from old master to child-like painter in this museum. The lecture and especially the museum visit has really opened my eyes to how good an artist Picasso really was.

After the museum we walked through the winding streets to visit a few souvenir shops and then made our way back through a beautiful park to the shuttle bus. It was lunch-time and we were not going to buy food ashore when it’s free on board.After lunch and the now customary game of table tennis Sylvia returned to the cabin inspired to unpack her water colours to sketch the Costa Del Sol coastline. Meanwhile I retired to a sun lounger to contemplate the day.

As our ship left Malaga we were surprised to see after such a fine day, snow on the distant hills[you can just about see on the above photograph]. The answer to yesterday’s quiz question was Liam Neesom. No question today as there was no quiz but two sea days ahead prior to Greece.