Our time living in the UK has meant that the mere mention of the city of Málaga or the Costa del Sol was enough to send shivers of ‘tourist nastiness’ down our spines. Images of European tourists (well, truthfully, Brits on holiday) and stag / hen weekends quickly came to mind. While we do admit to coming to Spain for weekends like this (netball club tournaments), this was a long way from what we’re wanting to experience on this trip to Spain.

Day Trip to Málaga

We’d read that in the last few years Málaga has been working hard to develop its cultural side. They’d promoted a cool new area of street art and opened two new galleries, one dedicated to their favourite son Picasso, and another being a satellite of one of our favourite galleries: the Pompidou of Paris. And of course, the usual European smattering of Roman ruins and medieval basilicas. As it was just a day trip from Granada, we decided to give it a go.

Unfortunately… the Pompidou was closed for unknown reasons. While my Spanish was probably good enough to ask the attendant why it was closed, it definitely wasn’t good enough to understand his reply. So sadly we will never know.

The Picasso museum on the other hand was excellent. It really did a great job of taking us through every stage of his 80+ year career.

It was perfect weather to rent bikes and pedal along the shoreline (not such a good idea to try to cycle around the old town – too many people and too many cobblestones!).

For the foodies

Espetos are skewers of grilled sardines and baby squid on the beach in Málaga, traditionally grilled on the beach as they arrive fresh off the fishing boats. Technically these are only supposed to be eaten in months that don’t contain an ‘r’. So not until May. And only at beach shacks that set up just for the summer (chiringuitos). Alas, we’re not here in the height of summer so we had to put up with a restaurant in the beach with likely sardines from some inferior area like Catalonia. We managed to survive.

Step into my mouth if you want to live, or maybe not