Another sightseeing day today, and a bonus…….Mike and Vivian arrived a couple of days ago from Morocco, staying in Marbella, they spent yesterday touring Old Town, then down to Puerto Banus for lunch…….Mike has had some cars through his garage over the years that would fit right in down there so I’m sure he appreciated the view. We are going to pick them up in Marbella this morning, and continue on to Malaga for some sightseeing, and a walking tour that Sibylle sourced online……….it is apparently FREE, but a donation/tip to our guide is strongly suggested……..even mentioning a base level of 12 euro. Little Ninja finds her way through Marbella and we are on the road with M&V by 10:45………we are still another 40 minutes or so to get into downtown Malaga. Mr Tour Guide told us to meet by a statue so I plugged that in and we started making our way into town………getting close, we almost grabbed some street parking, but I wanted to get closer…….could have been a big mistake because the parking lots seemed to disappear after that, but a quick double-back, good spotting from the crew, an illegal u-turn into three lanes of oncoming traffic, and a slick left hand turn into an underground lot, right under the main square, and we are golden. There is still an hour before the tour starts, but first things first……we all have to pee. The hotel across the street is the target, thinking we can waltz into the lobby and find el banjo. They have security at the door, and we have to tell varying stories about why we should be let in…….Mike needed to talk to the front desk, Jutta wanted to check out the restaurant, etc.. Back outside and full relieved, we decide to follow this movement of people through the square, and towards what appears to be a large marina/harbour. This is where the big boys park!
Nice little market area with assorted vendors…….we stroll around and kill the hour…..time to head back. Mr Tour Guide has a yellow umbrella as an identifier and we find him easily…….apparently we will be a group of at least a 16, and we are just waiting for the last two before we get going.
Eventually he gets everyone’s attention and begins his dialogue. Not sure if I like his voice and if I can listen too him for 90 minutes, but we’ll see, but when one of the first things he talks about is a restaurant across the road, their daily specials, and great service, and I’m thinking………hmmmm. The group follows him down the street to the first stopping point, then the second, which was a statue of Hans Christian Anderson…….and what does he have to do with Malaga anyway…….we are looking at each other……..Cairnsy says he’s not following this guy around…….I agree, the goats are on board, Vivian is two thumbs up, and when the group moves away, we stay behind………there was another foursome who did the same, so his tour just got slashed in half and he was out at least 150 euro. Too bad, we were looking forward to finding out about the city.
Back at the statue we saw a sandwich board and stopping point for the Hop on- Hop off bus…….we all love those, and decide it is the way to go. Get our tickets and scoot down the street on the opposite side to catch an earlier bus doing the upper loop which a local tells Mike is the best way to go. Earphones in, we are now finding out all we wanted to know.
Malaga is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, 1881, and seeing as we are dropping names, Antonio Banderas. It is a major tech hub and attracts a lot of people in that field to live here……the 300+ days of sunshine helps also. Big time tourista business, and just looking around, there are a million restaurants, hotels, tons of shops, and generous pedestrian areas. The bus winds its way up and up and up…….can’t believe how these guys maneuver on the tiny streets. The highest point of the tour is the castle (its remains), so we hop off……..good photo op’s from the tower and incredible view of the entire area. Nice little break up there, but then we hop back on for the ride down……pretty good trip.
It is feeding time for the goats…….I can tell Jutta has that look in her eye, and the bad thing about having a million restaurants is that you have to choose just one. We make what turns out to be a very good choice……again great food, and we wash it down with a bottle of Luis Canas Rioja Reserva……life is good.
Having barely scratched the surface in Malaga we decide it is time to head home. This would be a great place to stay for a few days on a return trip.
We have golf tomorrow, and M&V are off to Gibraltar before starting their 4 round tour of golf in Costa Del Sol. Getting here a few days early has made Mike rethink his decision not to get a rental car. UBER is just loving this guy. Marbella to Gibraltar and back……..can’t imagine what that is going to run him, then 4 golf course trips of up to an hour each!!!!!!…….Little Ninja is giggling all the way home.
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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