5 Days in Malaga, Alhambra and Seville
- Lucy and the lens
- Oct 1, 2018
- 4 min read
Visiting Spain in February could have gone one of two very different ways: pleasantly warm, tapas in the sun, wandering the orange-tree-lined streets...or rain, rain and more rain. Luckily, we got the former, and as a result we had a fantastic time exploring Malaga, Alhambra in Granada, and Seville.
Here's how we spent 5 days there!
1. Malaga
Most people just fly into Malaga and then head to either the beachside resorts or the historic towns of Andalusia. Instead, we actually stayed in Malaga and discovered its quiet, historic centre. Here's what we did:
The Picasso museum - Picasso was actually born in Malaga, and this museum pays tribute to his influence. When we were there, the museum was undergoing refurbishment, but they still offered a great exhibition of a smaller selection of the 250+ works on display, arranged so that you could see how his style had developed over time. The gift shop here was also one of the best I've seen, selling reproductions of every Picasso print you could possibly imagine.
Historic churches - Malaga has a great number of beautiful churches, most of them Catholic. Our favourite was one that we could see from the window of our AirBnB - but it took as a few days to actually find the owner of the pink-tipped spire we could see above the rooftops! It's called the Iglesia Sagrado Corazon.
The spectacular Malaga Cathedral also has a beautiful orange garden in its grounds - you have to pay an entry fee to wander around it, though!
Wander the historic streets - the loveliest thing about Malaga in February was how uncrowded it was, which made wandering its winding streets a joy. Many of the buildings are painted with frescoes or geometric patterns, perfect for a photo!
Tapas bar hopping - we had tapas for lunch, tapas for dinner, tapas out on the street, tapas inside...our favourite was the jamon, sliced in front of us from cured legs sitting on the bar and hanging from the ceiling. You can also buy cones of jamon on the streets or at the market.
Atarazanas food market - visit this market to sample fresh food, from olives to seafood to enormous strawberries and, best of all, wine. We always find that glasses of wine bought at food market bars is significantly cheaper than ordering the same thing at a sit-down restaurant, and Atarazanas is no different. You can get pleasantly day-tipsy at the wine bar here - which might be why we then went and spent so much money on fresh produce to cook up into a meal that night!
Coffee shop culture - as with any town in the area, drinking coffee here is all about nipping into a cafe, ordering an impressively cheap espresso and drinking it, standing, at the bar. Repeat as many times as necessary.
2. Alhambra
We visited Alhambra Palace as a day trip from Malaga, renting a car for the day. We didn't get a chance to properly explore Granada due to this, instead parking up and then catching the shuttle straight to the palace. Queuing for entry was a bit of a shock after our quiet couple of days in Malaga - luckily we'd pre-booked tickets for a specific time slot, and got to jump a lot of the queue!
The timed entry is key, I think, as once we got inside it felt a lot less crowded and we could enjoy the intricately-carved Islamic architecture properly. You have to follow a designated route through a series of beautiful rooms and landscapes courtyards, until you are spat out into the palace gardens with pools, orange trees and fantastic views over the city and surrounding mountains.
Seville
We headed to Seville on the train from Malaga and spent the night. We spent the afternoon wandering the old town in the direction of Plaza de Espana. I'm very glad we visited in February rather than peak times, as the stunning square with its ornate bridges arching over the horseshoe-shaped canal was actually beautifully peaceful. Like many of the most impressive man-made places (Eiffel Tower, I'm looking at you!) Plaza de Espana was built in the 1920s for an Expo event, in a much older Renaissance style, and then kept around because people liked it so much.
We stayed the night in Seville almost exclusively because we wanted to get up early to try what are generally considered the best churros in Seville - at Bar el Comercio. We had them with freshly squeezed orange juice - the best orange juice we've ever tasted was in Spain on this trip and it's SO CHEAP! - and thick, molten chocolate. The cafe was mostly full of locals, too, which just confirms that churros is a legitimate breakfast choice in Spain!
We stayed at Vincci La Rabida., a hotel that had the most fantastic views over Seville, with its cathedral standing proud on the skyline.
In Malaga, we stayed in this AirBnB in the old centre.
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