Málaga in January – with friends!
4th – 6th January: Málaga (again)
Caitríona: Our second trip to Málaga was in order to meet up with our fab friends, Aoife and Helen, from Bray, and Aoife’s grandmother Greta and her uncle David ❤
We were thrilled to meet pals from home out on their holidays and it happened to coincide with my birthday also, so it was extra fun.
Helen’s brother, David, knows Málaga well and knew good spots to eat, so we followed him through the back streets, ending up at this great place
Jumbo ice creams afterwards
5th January
Hanging out at the Picasso Museum:
Meanwhile, Saul and Morgan took a spin on both the red line and the blue line of Metro de Málaga 😎
Morgan: these two lines opened at the same time, in July 2014, and they are not very big at the moment. But they are building extensions to the metro lines, according to the map, four more lines. The metros were nice. They looked a bit like trams and sounded like the LUAS in Dublin, with the same sounding bell noise.
We all met up again to climb up to the top of the hill in Málaga, to reach the Moorish castle, and the views were spectacular.
A few among us had required some cajoling to make it all the way up to the top of the castle, so ice creams were in order once we got back down again:
Following another wonderful lunch of shared tapas and wine down at the marina area
Festival of the Three Kings
It was then time for the arrival of the Three Kings, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, it being the Eve of the 6th January. In Málaga, this takes the form of a procession which leaves the City Hall and travels slowly through the city, with floats and music, to great fanfare.
The crowds were enormous. Rows and rows of seating had been laid out along all the streets. The Kings, when they finally arrived in their carriages, threw sweets out to the children on the streets – four million sweets! To be honest, it was so loud and hectic and, dare I say, competitive amongst the adults present!! that we left and took in the loveliness of the back streets instead 💝
Because we missed out on sweets from the Three Kings, we went for waffles instead (I know, more sugar)
And then, after our farewells to Helen, Aoife, Greta and David, back we went to our overnight stopping point, about a 20 minute walk from the city centre.
6th January
The following morning, another lovely, sunny day, we sorted ourselves out and had a last walk along the prom in Málaga. We then hit the road south towards the Rock of Gibraltar.
