It was a relaxing start to the day. We headed over to the train station about 10am. I had done a recon earlier and discovered how to buy the tickets after many failed attempts, so we were armed with tickets. The aire here while secure is located in a pretty iffy part of town. The good news it was a short walk to the train station. Three stops later we were in the center of the city.
We started out in the market. Ton had a great time walking the aisles in the large market that featured all of the staples; Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Spices. There was a mix of locals shopping for staples, and tourists looking at the locals shopping for staples. Fortunately, this one has not converted to a glorified food hall like many of the markets in Spain we have visited. Ton bought some pickled egg plants that we are looking forward to trying. The lady at the shop even showed her what parts to remove before eating which we wouldn’t have known.
We had visited Malaga on our first trip and it was raining. We enjoyed the visit then, but I remembered the town as not being that crowded with tourists. Unlike that first visit the weather was perfect today, and the crowds were out in force. We suspect there was a cruise ship in town, but we never went down to the waterfront to confirm it.
We visited the Cathedral and the Roman Theater, but a lot of today was spent popping into little shops to buy gifts and souvenirs. A lot of the buildings look like they were built in the 1880’s and 1890’s as they had cast iron frames and pillars that were prominent in those days.
We came across a fancy restaurant, and Ton immediately recognized it as the one we had eaten in on our first visit. It was on Kit’s list of places to eat so lunch was decided. Ton and I split a skillet of Black Seafood Rice, Stephen and Kit tried a variety of Tapas like dishes. Our dish is made with squid ink which gives it its color. It is one of my favorite dishes.
After lunch which was on a Spanish time schedule, so we were done with it about 2:30 we did some more shopping. Ton and I wanted to revisit one of the most memorable drinking experiences we have had. There is a Sherry bar in Malaga that has been in business since the 1840’s, it was atmospheric on our first visit so we wanted to see if it was as good as we remembered it. It was more crowded, but once we managed to push our way up to the bar, we got a sherry and a vermouth. They still wrote our tab in chalk on the bar in front of us. It was as good as we remembered it and we took a liter of vermouth back to François for future consumption.
The sherry place was our last stop for the day. I was concerned that I might have messed up the ticket purchase in the morning for the return trip and my concerns were correct. When our tickets didn’t work I asked an employee if I could correct the problem for the card we had, he asked what I had done, and after I explained it he said follow me and led us to a gate that he unlocked and told us “have a good trip” as he released us into the train station. Another nice gesture that will keep Malaga on my favorite city in Spain list.