We began with a short bus ride and a tour of the city before heading to the Picasso museum.
In addition to showing the usual panorama of the city, the arena that you’ll see is for bull fighting. Our guide (who’s not a fan) gave us more information than I wanted to know.
A typical home up in the hills:
I took Latin in high school and I think a year of Spanish (long gone). I’m always in awe of those who speak multiple languages but always enjoy translations as well:
Malaga city sights:
This darling little girl was collecting jacaranda blossoms and putting them in a tiny bag.
A vendor of those delicious Marconi almonds – a regular sight
This statue of Picasso was close to the museum and around the corner from where he was born:
Found out that Antonio Banderas started his acting career in Malaga (discovered while playing futbol). He also is a partner in one of the restaurants.
Outside his restaurant is a statue is of El Pimpi. The description below is definitely by a marketeer who described El Pimpi’s role in life on the website:
“Founded in 1971, El Pimpi is one of the most sunny wineries in Malaga, where it is possible to enjoy the local gastronomy and the wines of the land but, above all, of the tradition and culture typical of southern Spain.
Its name refers to the figure of the Pimpi, a popular Malaga character who helped the crew and passengers of the ships arriving at the port of the city.
Currently, the winery is a meeting point for celebrities, Malagasy and visitors, who recommend and value us as a leading cultural and gastronomic entity in Malaga.”
Picasso was born in Malaga and talk of establishing a museum of his works here began in 1953. The museum was formally opened in 2003. It isn’t large by any means but unique in that the works here have been donated by members of his family and ostensibly not displayed elsewhere. As with many such endeavors, creating a new space in the midst of a very, very old city can be a challenge. We did see the fermenting bins from the fish sauce factory referenced in the Wiki article:
“The excavations for the work led to remarkable discoveries: remnants of a city wall and towers dating back to the Phoenicians, of a Roman factory to produce the fish-based sauce garum, and also of the earlier Nasrid palace on the same site. As a result, the basement is effectively an archeological museum in its own right,[21] visible from above through transparent panels in the floor.”
Our guide was excellent and used the iPad she brought to show a variety of additional pictures – oftentimes photographs of his many muses. She also warned us about staying close to her, and not touching anything, including the walls. Black-suited museum enforcers made sure we followed the rules.
Millions of words have been written about Picasso so I won’t repeat all of them here. But, I hadn’t heard the anecdote that he discovered, even as a child, he could sell his drawings so that he could afford to attend the bullfights in town.
This painting caught my eye – it appears to have been done in pastels but is actually done in oil.
Across from our ship, a yacht called 1 Destiny. I looked it up – it’s about $220,000,000.
And, finally, some words of Spanish wisdom, left by our cabin attendant:
