September 30, 2016

The temperature was 19 C with clear skies and a light wind when we climbed the ten flights of stairs for our morning two ½ mile walk as the ship entered Málaga harbor before sunrise and docked. After breakfast, we collected our tour number and our tour members were on the bus and on our way before 9 a.m.

From Deck 14 in the early sunlight, a giant ferris wheel was visible not far from the dock, as well as La Farolas, a light house at the marina,  the nearby old city with the Alcazaba, the 11th century former Muslim palace, attached by a walled passage known as the Coracha, to the 9th century Castillo de Gibralfaro fortress.

The painter, Pablo Picasso, who co-created with Georges Braque in the early 20th century, the painting technique of Cubism, was born and spent his early school years in Málaga.

The excursion started with a bus tour around the old town and through some of the wider streets where vehicles are allowed, before starting the walking tour.  There was a distant haze at the horizon, so the coast of Africa could not be seen. Our guide told us that Malaga was founded by Christians about 450 years ago. But Romans and Arab Muslims had previously lived nearby.

The first stop was Castillo (Castle) de Gibralfaro fortress, where from a viewpoint, the city near the harbor lay beneath the castle hill.  Alcazaba, the 11th century former Muslim palace could be seen just down the hill; the ship was easily seen in the harbor as were the ferries; the La Malagueta bullring, used only a few times a year now was on the other side; plus the city hall and the Cathedral of Malaga were easy to pick out.  The various neighbourhoods of the city showed their red tile roofs.

To start the walking tour we walked to Plaza de la Merced, where a neo-classical obelisk, Torrijos Monument, stands in its center commemorating General Torrijos and 48 men who tried to revolt against Spanish King Ferdinand VII in 1831. Their names are inscribed on the sides of the obelisk.   On one side of the plaza is the Picasso Foundation Birthplace Museum, on the ground floor of the house where Pablo Picasso was born in 1881.

We saw the daily mail delivery person with her small pull along cart, a bit bigger than a large carry-on bag, making her rounds, just like in other Spanish and Portuguese cities. We passed parks and gardens and saw the orange trees with crops of still green oranges. Next we walked toward Málaga’s cathedral, known as La Manquita, which was built starting in the 16th century, taking nearly 180 years to complete, on the site of a former mosque.  We passed the building, where, annually, the Easter parade of floats emerges, with its impressive 10 meter high wooden doors.  We saw the excavated Roman Theater right beside the Alcazaba entrance. The amphitheatre itself has not been used since 3rd century and the Moors used some of the stones to build their Alcazaba fortification.  We passed the Picasso Museum and its ancient tower.  We wandered through the narrow stone paved streets surrounding the Cathedral before our 30 minute tour inside the structure. The Cathedral of Malaga has 18 chapels and lots of stained glass windows although there is one section with only plain glass.  In the choir section, the rich dark wood was carefully carved by monks into 103 panels and matching seats. Then it was time to return to the bus, walking through the cobbled streets past shops, cafés and the City Hall and its gardens.  The ship was about a mile away through the port at the end of a long pier.  

After a quick lunch, we were off the ship to walk up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro.  It took about an hour to get to the gate.  We walked up the hill, zigzagging our way along paths, stairways and sometimes steep ramps.  The views of the sea and city were beautiful.  We could see the gardens of the City Hall, the fountain and gardens of the nearby traffic roundabout, the harbor, beaches, well as the bullring.  We climbed over 175 stairs and about 850 meters of ramps of varying degrees of steepness. Our daily climb of 10 flights of stairs, for our morning walks, made the climb a breeze.  We bought a ticket for entrance to both the castle and the Alcazaba palace.

Castillo de Gibralfaro was built in the early 10th century on the site of an ancient Phoenician lighthouse.  It was enlarged in the 14th century, also adding the double wall pathway over the Coracha ridge to connect to the Alcazaba below.   The castle was surrendered, due to starvation, after a three month siege by the King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s army. (These are the same monarchs who sponsored Christopher Columbus’s expedition to the West Indies in 1492.)  This event was the first time that both sides fought with gun powder.  After walking around the encircling walls, we walked down the hill along paths and finally streets to find the entrance to Alcazaba near the Roman Theater ruins.

The Alcazaba palace fortress was built for defense, in the late 700s, then, rebuilt by the Sultan of Granada in the 11th century, also becoming his winter home, away from colder Granada. It included part of the city walls. Rock and stones from the nearby Roman ruins were used in its construction. There were many renovations over the past 1,000 years. There is a lot of Moorish architecture still visible.  Some ceilings were intricately carved plaster, stone or wood.  There were small shallow pools at different levels in gardens or patios that used gravity for the water to flow down to the next level.  After the defeat of the Moors, the palace was neglected but restoration work, than began in 1933, continues to the present.  When we left the site, we could not see an exit sign except for the elevators.  We travelled down several levels in the elevator and exited into a tunnel that ran under a street with the exit across from the City Hall.  We walked to the Cathedral, just a few streets away, and stopped at the Le Jardin bar for a local San Miguel beer and glass of Sangria, before walking back the ship.

From the City Hall it was about two km, or less than a 25 minute walk back to the ship. We crossed the street to walk in the park with its orange trees, hibiscus trees, purple flowered jacaranda trees, like we had seen in San Diego in May, different kinds of palm trees, bird of paradise flowers and ponds.  There was a large flock of parrots making quite a noise as they flew around the trees.

When we arrived at the ship, we had walked in total over 11 miles so far.  At dinner we chose the same Reisling wine as Pat and Frank had been enjoying this cruise.  Our appetizers were Waldorf Chicken Salad and Seafood Brik – an assortment of Mussels, shrimp and scallops – and Wild Mushroom Vol-a-Vent.  The entrées chosen were Pork Cutlet with German Potato Salad and Roast Chicken with grits and steamed vegetables.  The desserts were an éclair filled with a cheesecake cream and Crème Brulé.  We were tried so we went to our stateroom and worked on the blog and read the list of shore excursions for Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Manta, Ecuador; Lima and Pisco, Peru and Valparaiso, Chile for next year.

We checked the theater to hear the vocalist Dan Jupp, sing songs from the 50s and 60s then went to the Oceanview Café for a late evening dessert.

Today we logged 12.7 miles.