Motril, Spain

The port we were at was Motril, but we went to Malaga. It was the longest tour we booked, 8 hours, and we were kind of leary about committing to this, but it turned out to be a good choice. The other main option for this port was Granada, but we had been there just 4 years ago on a land trip to Spain.

The city of Motril is small, around 60,000. It is in the province of Granada. It is mostly an agricultural area with several rum factories. This area is the “costa tropical”.

The roads to Malaga were great. There were many tunnels through the mountains which made the travel time less. Before the roads were improved because of the World’s Fair in Seville in 1992, it could take 4 hours to travel from Motril to Malaga. Now it is just over 1 hour.

Our first stop was at Alcazaba de Málaga. It is like a mini Alhambra. It has served as a fortification for the town as well as a royal residence. It was built in the 11th century. We had a guided tour and saw the different courtyards and rooms.

Malaga means Queen. Picasso was born in Malaga and when we got into town we saw the building where he was born and the church where he was baptized.

We thought we would have lunch on our own, from the tour description, but our next stop was a lovely restaurant, partially owned by Antonio Bandares, who was not there to greet us. We had a lovely tapas lunch with lots of sangria and ended with a glass of the local wine. We were a small group so it was a nice way to have a meal that was very typical of how the locals eat.

The Cathedral was huge and beautiful. It was built between the 16th and 18th centuries. The organ was from the 18th century.