Day 2: Malaga

When we were walking back from the centre of town to our apartment last night, we needed to consult Google Maps a couple of times to find our way. Guess what Tim saw as he zoomed in on the streets in our local area?!

Yes, that's right - Calle Esperanto  We were tired and more hoping to find a supermarket than an Esperanto monument last night, but when we woke up this morning - refreshed after nearly 12 hours sleep - we knew what our first stop was going to be.

Esperanto Street, which was only a short walk away from where we're staying, actually surpassed our expectations, coming complete with a Cafeteria Esperanto!

Today's a public holiday in Spain so it was closed, otherwise we would have popped in for a coffee. It was fun to see though, as well as a handful of other Esperanto signs on the street

Once we'd finished exploring Calle Esperanto, we set off to find the parts of Malaga we'd actually intended to see  

There were some beautiful big trees as we walked into the city centre and the sky was a lovely shade of blue for a day when the weather forecast had predicted rain.

Before too long we came to the part of town where we'd eaten yesterday evening. This street had some rather impressive decorations.

Unfortunately it was a bit too sunny to make for a good photo, though!

We caught a glimpse of the tower of Malaga's cathedral around the corner, so walked towards it. 

We soon found ourselves in Plaza de la Constitución, one of the main squares in Malaga.

The cathedral was just around the corner from here. It's so enormous that we didn't manage to fit it all in a photo.

Walking further south, we came towards Malaga's main park.

There were some really impressive palm trees here and we had a lovely walk in the shade.

At times it really felt quite tropical!

We were walking towards Malaga's bull ring.

We found it, but it turned out to be another one of those things which was so enormous it was difficult to fit it all in one photo.

As we turned to walk back towards the town centre, we found ourselves strolling through some more beautiful gardens.

There is a surprising amount of greenery and flowers in Malaga considering how relentlessly hot the weather is here.

It was pretty cool to walk through the park and see oranges growing on the trees  

We were walking towards the Alcazaba, a Moorish fortress initially built in the early 11th century.

The entrance, where we had to queue for tickets, is just next door to Malaga's Roman theatre. I had initially been a bit disappointed because the Roman theatre isn't open on Mondays, but it seems like it probably wouldn't have been the most impressive Roman remains we've ever seen.

Although there was quite a long queue for tickets, it moved quickly. Once we got to the front we were able to purchase them from a machine; €5.50 each for a combined ticket that would give us entry both to the Alcazaba and another castle which we planned to visit later in the day.

As we began walking around the Alcazaba, we had some great views back towards Malaga cathedral.

We could also see down towards the park with the palm trees where we'd been walking, with the bull ring in the distance too.

It was fun walking around the ramparts, but unbelievably hot. I'd been expecting temperatures in the early twenties, but we saw a thermometer saying 27 degrees today  

The view that surprised me most was the view out to sea. I knew that Malaga had a port, but I hadn't expected there to be a huge cruise ship in it. I guess cruising is back!

The other thing which will probably stand out from the photos is how built up Malaga is. It's really quite a large city, with a population of around 578,000.

There were some pretty gardens within the Alcazaba.

We could also see up towards Gibralfaro castle, which we planned to visit later in the day.

Once we'd finished admiring the views we had a drink to cool off and then walked back down towards the city.

There was actually a better view of the walls of the Alcazaba (and of the Roman theatre) once we were outside it.

It was midday by this point and we were absolutely starving, so we sat down at a restaurant in a nearby square to get lunch. It seems like our bodies haven't yet adapted to Spanish time, because when we sat down the waitress asked whether we wanted breakfast   She gave us a menu for lunch, but it was closer to half 12 before we were able to order it.

Once we'd finished eating it was time to explore castle Gibralfaro, which is another Moorish fortification on a hill above Malaga. The climb uphill towards it was a bit steep, but there were some more impressive views back down towards the town.

After 20 minutes or so of climbing, we knew we were nearly there when we caught sight of a large Spanish flag.

Once we made it to the top we were able to stroll around the castle ramparts.

The region around Malaga is really quite mountainous and we're looking forward to exploring more inland from tomorrow  

For today though we were pretty tired after climbing uphill in the heat, so we decided to head back to the apartment for a siesta before going out for another stroll later in the evening