Málaga

Our last night in Madrid was greeted with a long morning before we parted ways with our friends and headed to Málaga (they left for Barcelona). We met up for breakfast and then took a nice final stroll through the city before heading to the Atocha train station. We boarded the Ave (Spain's high speed rail line) and enjoyed the views as we headed south towards the Costa Del Sol.

One thing I have to point out is that we legitimately thought we were staying in Málaga, it wasn't until we arrived that we realized our hotel was actually 30 minutes away in Torremolinos. When searching hotels along any coastline, check and double check the location that is listed and where it is in relation to where you think you want to be. Nothing against Torremolinos, it is just not at all where we thought we were staying, and to be completely honest it is the most disappointing place we have seen thus far.

Confused at the train station, we took a cab and headed to our hotel. Another surprise, our four star hotel we thought we booked was more like a two star hotel. The lobby is beautiful and from the outside it looked ok, but everything is outdated. It may have been a four star hotel in the 1970's, but unfortunately it's no where close to that now. Again, check and double check where you are staying before booking...big lesson learned here. That all being said, our hotel is definitely the nicest one in Torremolinos, which should tell you something about this little town.

Torremolinos is the oldest resort town in the Costa Del Sol. In it's hay day I am sure it was wonderful and fun, but now it is run down, outdated, filled with bad pseudo American restaurants and Irish pubs, and completely missing Spanish culture. The crowd is much older and almost everyone is from the UK (hense the food choices). Needless to say our first night was uneventful.

We woke up the next day well rested and figured out that there was a commuter train into Málaga and that the station was very close. We grabbed breakfast and then headed that way.

What a relief it was to head into a modern day city. We stopped at the main train station and booked our day trips to Cordoba and Sevilla and then headed towards the city center.

We cruised around downtown Málaga, people watching, scoping out restaurants and shopping, and admiring the bustling beach town. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we were right where we wanted to be. We made our way to the Alcazar, an old Moorish fortress on a hill (it leads to an old castle but we didn't make it up that far). It was amazing to see the old architecture still so intact, and the views of the Mediterranean from the top were indescribable.

On our way back down we realized that there was an old Roman amphitheater at the base of the military fortress. The theater is still used today and is in very good condition.

After seeing the sights, choosing to avoid the local museums for now, we made our way to the beach. The sand was hot and filled with people of all ages. It was nice to be on a (relatively) clean beach with beautiful water. The beaches here are almost all public, unlike Mexico, hardly any hotels have beach front property. After about half an hour of walking along the beach we took a cab back to the train station and headed to Torremolinos on the commuter train.

We got back just in time for a late dinner. This time we went to the front desk for restaurant recommendations, explaining we wanted more authentic food, after some laughter suggesting that such a menu doesn't exist, they suggested only two places. We walked by both, picked one and sat down to eat. Although much more authentic, the food in Andalucia has yet to be anything to write home about. Málaga has much better food than Torremolinos, but neither can compare to Madrid.

Committed to making the best of our time here, we went out towards the beach where many bars are located. We hopped to two different bars filled with locals. It was fun but not exactly worth the expensive drinks, we much prefer the older more authentic little bars to the ones blaring techno music.

We were headed to Cordoba the next day so we made our way back to the hotel and right to sleep.


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