Dateline: Malaga, Spain. We spent the morning ashore in this pretty Spanish coastal city. It reminds me very much of Barcelona. Think Barcelona minus the Gaudi architecture, plus the Picasso birthplace shtick. There is a Moorish castle on the hill overlooking the town, sort of an Alhambra in miniature. The area spent most of its history as a military post, defending the southern bulwarks of Spain. Today it is a container and cruise port, plus one terminus for ferries that run back and forth to North Africa – Morocco to be precise. Several are in port today.
The Spanish cities we’ve visited so far are clean, historical, busy, and pleasant places as far as cities go. With me, however, cities don’t go very far; I prefer the countryside every time. I noticed that our cab driver ran several octagonal red stop signs and parked on the sidewalk twice. I suppose that is cab drivers pretty much everywhere. There is a life-size statue of Hans Christian Andersen wearing a top hat sitting on a park bench in downtown Malaga. Our cabdriver had no idea why other than that he was a writer. Lots of writers’ statues weren’t there….
