Malaga, Spain

Today we visited Malaga, Spain.  It is another city that has a lot of history.  According to scholars it was founded about 770 BC by the Phoenicians making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe.  It is a fairly large city with a population of 578,460 (2020 census) making it the 6th most populous in Spain.  For being a large city, it was probably the cleanest city that I've seen.  No garbage on the streets or sidewalks or parks.  




We took a 4 hour bus tour of Malaga today.  The weather was perfect with sunny skies and temps in the mid 70's. Malaga averages about 300 days of sunshine a year and even its average winter temps are in the low 60's.  The two highlights of the tour were a castle and a cathedral.  

The castle was on top of a hill overlooking Malaga and called the Castle of Gibralfaro.  It was built by the Moors and included the Alcazaba, which was the royal residence of the sultan.  







The Cathedral of Málaga is a Roman Catholic church in the Renaissance architectural tradition.  Construction on the cathedral started in 1528 and was completed in 1782.











The Roman theatre of Málaga, which dates from the 1st century BC, was rediscovered in 1951.



The people of Spain having fun and relaxing on a nice sunny day.  Note: All the shops close for siesta at 1:30 and open back up at 4:30.






Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga.  The picture below shows the apartment on where he was born (see blue circle). We also saw the church where he was baptized and a museum of his works.  The city is very proud of him.






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