Shops etc open late, Beautiful Beach, Amazing Cathedral .
Disadvantages:
Noisy, dirty, has Bull Ring .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I've not even been back a week, but feels like months ago that I went to Malaga. Back in the cold and gloom!
I have never been to Spain before, and the decission was partly due to availability. I was waiting on the return of my Passport from Passport House, and so no holiday could be booked until then. I booked online at about midnight on 11/01/03, and we flew out at 6.25am on 12/01/03. So no time to buy phrase book, or learn any lingo! This was our downfall.
If I advise anything, it's take a phrase book. On our return a friend kindly told me that you will deffinately have more fun out there if you can speak some Spanish. (Thanks, that's real helpful now!) Once out there, we could not find any Phrase Books, and did not even find a Guide Book in English until our third day! I felt held back by this, and would deffinately want to know some minimal Spanish at least, next time. (Oh yes, I want to return, maybe not to Malaga, but near by.)
We flew into Malaga Airport from Gatwick, and arrived there at 10.15am (their time)The Airport was pretty quite, probably due to it being sunday morning! There was no staffed info desk, or anything written in English that we could see. So we headed out the front with cases in hand, to try and figure out what to do. Spotted a bus stop to the right of the main arrivals exit, and walked over. Buses run every 30mins into the centre of Malaga and it only costs 1 Euro. (However it was pretty full with people and cases, so we ended up sat on our cases.)
Just as you leave the confines of the Airport you will pass the San Miguel factory, for those of you who care! (Which I beleave you can tour.)
Once we had arrived in Malaga centre we sat and had a coffee in the Bus depo cafe, and looked over a list of Hotels and map the lady from the Information Desk at the Bus station had given us.(Much more helpful than the airport!) We quickly chose one within our budget, walked literally around the corner from where we were, and checked in. The good thing about going this time of year, is that even if you don't have accomadation booked, you will deffinately be able to get what you want once there.
Our Hotel was only supposed to be 1 Star, but we thought it was great! Not the Grande Vere or anything, but nice and clean with friendly staff.(None of which spoke English though) It also had a En suite with shower and bum-wash etc.
Bags dumped, we were ready to explore. We were in the New part of Malaga, which had the Bus station, an Underground station, Cinema, many Shops, Restaurants and Bars, as well as the Larios shopping centre. Larios Centro is huge! It has 125 shops, restaurants and a cinema. Oh yeah, and a Supermarket downstairs. You could easily spend a day just in there! Generally though I found this part of Malaga quite dirty and noisy.
It is one of the largest cities in Spain and is known as the capital of the Costa Del Sol. It has 6000,000 inhabitants and is surrounded by mountains which protect it from the cold from the interior.
I prefered old Malaga, were the buildings are outstaningly beautiful and there is a much slower pace. The shops wind all through many little lanes here, and reminded me quite alot of shopping in the Lanes in Brighton, at home. There are more bars and restaurants here, and alot more with English Menu's than in the part were we were staying!
The Cathedral is in Old Malaga, and it must be seen while you are there! I'm not religous, but feeling of awe this building gives you is amazing. Sta. Inglesia Cathedral has recently been restored, and you can have a look around inside for the bargain price of 2 Euro's. It is full of sacred art, paintings, altar pieces and statues by, Ventura Rodriguez, Nino de Guevara, Alonso Cano and Claudio Cello. (Are they famous?)
There is a square called Plaza De La Merced lined with bars and eateries which I believe in the Summer is extremly busy with tourists drinking etc. This is just at the foot of the hill where the Gibralfaro Castle is situated.(Castillo de Gibralfaro) The castle was built between the XI and XIV centuries, and is one of Spain's most complete.
Close by there is a Roman Theatre (Teatro Romano) which is in the process of being re-built. Opposite which is the site for the new Picasso museaum, in the process of being built. This is due to the fact that this is were Picasso used to live and you can even visit his old house. (Casa natal de Picasso)
Also near to here is the dock, which at sunset can look pretty stunning on it's own, complete with working Lighthouse(Farola). The lovely tropical park runs along parallel to the dock road, and if sat in the middle of it, you wouldn't know you were in a city. It has amazing oversized plants (subtropical to be precise!), and a small, clean kids play-park in the middle.
The Bull Ring is near here, but that is all I am willing to write about it! :(
There are numerous beautiful churches dotted around the city: Iglesia de San Juan, Iglesia de Santiago. Iglesia del Sagrario and Iglesia de Los Martires to name but a few.
Other impressive buildings are: Baroque style Ayuntamiento (City Hall) and the Palacia de Justica (Law Courts) both the work of architect Guerrero Strachan.
I found the people generally friendly, but a few seemed not so. Maybe due to our complete lack of knowledge of their language, perhaps? As it was when trying to communicate that they became less friendly. One couple we treid to speak to for directions, just walked off! Didn't give us a second glance, and of course this was at our 'lost' point in the trip!
We did check the beach out even though it wasn't really hot and it was pleasent and clean, with lots of shells to pick up! We had an early evening stroll along it one night before our tea, and it was most relaxing. The shells are so much more colourful than ours, lots of rich oranges, browns and even purple.
I loved my time here and will deffinately be going back to Spain!!
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