Malaga and More Beach Time

After landing in Malaga and checking into our rooms, it was time to start exploring! I was super excited to check out the Museo Picasso Malaga where Pablo Picasso’s permanent collection is housed. It was fascinating to walk through the life of this artist.

We also saw the ruins of the Roman Theater at the foot of Malaga’s Alcazaba, explored the grounds around the Malaga Cathedral and did some shopping.

Lunch this day was at El Pimpi — another favorite. We were finally getting used to Spanish time and enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch. I went the light route and had a shrimp and avocado salad and gazpacho, while Tim went big with the Pimpi Platter: jamon, eggs and potatoes. I think this was one of his favorite food combinations on our trip!

 

After this, it was time for a brief siesta and drinks by the pool before dinner out at Lo Gueno. We enjoyed steak and seafood dinners and marveled at the fact that steak dinners were under 15 Euro (a good deal compared to U.S. steak prices even with the exchange rate.)

Day 2 in Malaga was another beach day for us, while our friends did some further exploring of the Alcazaba and Cathedral. Tim and I set up camp at Malagueta Beach for most of the day, followed by a stroll through various vendors and shops along the waterfront. It was another swim in our rooftop pool before a dinner of tapas and strolling the streets of Malaga.

Day 3 we had to do some laundry in the morning but stumbled across the best churros con chocolate ever on our way to explore Malaga’s market. We had a picnic in the park with our finds, toured the bullfighting museum and then did a sherry tasting at Antigua. I think every day could be like this!

Did I mention it was quite warm in Malaga? Nothing compared to what we’d face in Seville, though, but we again ended the day on our rooftop pool.

Our last night in Malaga was one of my favorites. We met for drinks at sunset on our rooftop and enjoyed one of our best meals in Malaga at El Gato. We enjoyed a smorgasbord of tapas, including calamari, pork cheek, various toasts, tomatoes, croquettes and others I am sure I am forgetting.

Tuesday it was up early to catch our train to Seville. More about that in my final blog! I hope you are enjoying reading about our summer trip to Spain!

Barcelona

I remember learning about Pablo Picasso in my Art History class during my time at Central Community College in Columbus. Who knew 20 years later I would be touring the Museu Picasso in Barcelona and later visiting his permanent collection in his hometown of Malaga, Spain?

Funny how life is sometimes, isn’t it?

Our trip to Spain began in Barcelona. After 24 hours of flight and airport time (Omaha-Chicago-Frankfurt-Barcelona), we arrived about 6 p.m. on Friday night. We arrived just as our friends would soon to be taking off on their flight.

We caught a taxi to our Airbnb in the Barri Gotic part of old town Barcelona. What a find! Just down a narrow street from the Placa Sant Jaume square, around the corner from the Barcelona Cathedral and literally steps from some remaining columns of a Roman temple, we very much enjoyed our little apartment in the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region.

After getting settled in, we decided to go out exploring! We were so tired, but absolutely famished, so we grabbed a beer and some tapas, or pinchos, at a craft brew place, just steps from our apartment. Craft Barcelona was not to disappoint with tasty beer and tapas. At first I was a little confused about how the whole tapas things worked here. We walked in and ordered a beer, which was easy enough. But then there were all these tapas just sitting at the bar. Turns out you can take as many as you want. Then, you get charged for how many toothpicks you have on your plate when you get finished. The pinchos were only 1 Euro each. Why do they call them pinchos, you might ask? It is because they have a pincho (Spanish for spike), typically a toothpick through them. I love this idea! We had several (mushroom croquetas, chicken skewers, jamon with brie cheese, shrimp skewers) then made our way back outside for more exploring.

By this time, it was probably close to 10 p.m., but folks were just starting to head out for dinner. Mealtimes in Spain are a little different than the U.S. Breakfast isn’t too much different, but lunch isn’t eaten until after 2 p.m. and typically it is the largest meal. Tapas hour starts after 8 p.m. and dinner after 9 p.m.  I really didn’t mind this way of eating as oftentimes this is how I would eat growing up on our farm.  Tim and I typically eat at these times on the weekends as well. Anyways, by this time, we were starting to get very tired. We checked out a few stores, and had some sangria and olives. The scenery wasn’t too bad either.

The next morning our friends’ plane finally landed. While they were getting settled in, Tim and I explored Las Ramblas and La Boqueria, a large public market. We also stopped by the Jamon Experience (yes, they actually have a museum about ham) and a supermarket for breakfast and snack food for the apartment. By the time we got back our friends were ready to go, and as we left, we noticed a door by our apartment was now unlocked and we could tour the Roman ruins of the Temple of Augustus. After that it was a quick lunch including patatas bravas, albondigas, Spanish omelette, pan con tomato and sausages before heading to Museo Picasso.

Temple of Augustus

Pan con Tomato, Spanish omelette sangria and sausages

Picasso Museum

Barcelona Cathedral

I wish I could of taken pictures at the Museo Picasso, but one couldn’t at this one or the one in Malaga. We also toured the Chocolate Museum (which I couldn’t believe made Frommer’s, I would not recommend) and then stopped by the Barcelona Cathedral before taking a brief siesta before dinner. We really liked the idea of the siesta, which was recognized even more so when we got to Seville.

I was very excited to get down by the sea this night for dinner, where we found an OK place close to the waterfront. I enjoyed some nice gazpacho and sea bass. The seafood on this trip was really good as was my second favorite — the gazpacho. It was really creamy and different than other gazpacho I’ve had in the U.S.

Day 2 jet lag hit Tim and I hard! Somehow we slept until 11 a.m.! The afternoon was spent discovering Guadi architecture, including Casa Batllo and a tour of Casa Mila. Casa Mila was so cool as were the views from its rooftop.

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

View of La Sagrada Familia from Casa Mila

Casa Mila was probably one of my favorite things we did in Barcelona. That evening we headed down by the waterfront again, stopping at another brewery called Black Lab, and we had another lovely dinner by the sea this night at a Brazilian restaurant called Juanita Lala. The coconut shrimp I had and the steak Tim had were both very good. We also found a speakeasy this night called Paradiso. Pass the pastrami shop in the front, walk through what looks like a freezer door and you enter a beautiful and fun bar. Craft cocktails are served in all sorts of glassware and containers which really adds a whole new dynamic to this bar. Definitely worth a stop!

Day 3 Tim and I toured the Barcelona Aquarium before meeting back with our friends to tour La Sagrada Familia. This place was a bit overwhelming as there were just hundreds of people everywhere! The lines wrapped around the block, so it was very smart that we bought our tickets online beforehand. We chose to tour the towers which involved taking an elevator up to the top and taking these winding, tiny staircases down. The views were worth it. Back on the ground level the rainbows the stained glass in this cathedral made were unbelievable.

Our last evening we checked out Montjuïc Castle, getting there by cable car. What beautiful views of the city this offered!

Later that night we had dinner at Milk, another fun cocktail bar with a funky menu from the shaking beef Tim had to the wings and shrimp tempura I had.

Day 4 it was time to say goodbye to Barcelona and hop on a train to Valencia. More about that in my next blog post!