Made quite bold by our bus excursion on Wednesday, we determined to repeat the prank on a grander scale today. After breakfast, we got all the camera gear together and walked the three blocks to the city bus stop and waited for the #110 - Malaga bus. A small group, about 7 of us like minded individuals were at the stop, but it turned out that the rest of the group was only going as far as downtown Torremolinos. Jan and I paid our 1.35 Euro each and climbed aboard, but not too far as the thing was packed with hotel-dwellers going downtown to shop. It was standing room only, and the driver was not making it easy on us. One fellow further back, following a really energetic series of starts and stops by the driver - as she tried to insert the bus back into traffic after picking us up - said that with everybody jammed in together it was like riding in a car with the air bags inflated. True enough, those in the middle of the bus couldn't have fallen down if they had tried to.
I was standing right by the driver so I got a good view of the drama unfolding ahead. On the Spanish roads, where might makes right and the mightiest are the rightest, a bus is one of the best rides to have. Probably second only to a loaded dump truck, or a cement truck. And our driver, a female, was one tough lady. Her other car must be a broom. She literally drove with her right hand on the rim of the wheel and her left hand on the horn pad, and she used her left hand as much as her right. Like most of us where there are two driving lanes in each direction, you take one half of the roadway as you go forward, usually either the right or the left lane. Not her, she took her half of the road in the middle, to hell with the rest of them as the other cars couldn't pass her. Like I said, her other car is a broom.
The herd cleared out at the downtown Torremolinos stop, and Jan and I got seats for the rest of the nine kilometers to Malaga, where we disembarked finally.
We hiked about the small city and had a wonderful time. Statues and monuments everywhere, the first shots Jan has picked are of Hans Christian Anderson, the author of many tales, mostly sad ones, and mostly for children. He spent a lot of time in the city, and Malaga has informally adopted him. We went to some Roman ruins and a rebuilt fort and Roman Theater, that was very interesting. Then up the hill to see the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, certainly one of the most famous sons of Malaga though he did most of his work in Paris and in the south of France. Wandered about some squares enjoying the sights and the friendly people, then had lunch. Jan had her Paella that she has been craving, and pronounced it excellent. Gotta get that recipe.
Then off again to tour the Malaga Cathedral which now serves as a museum as well, housing many religious artifacts that date from the tenth century forward. Then on to a Museum of Picasso's work, housing the majority of his family's private collection. Most were not signed, at least not where I could see it, so I asked. I was told that for his personal collection of his work he signed the back of the work, not the front, a characteristic of his. He was trained, by his father who was also a well known artist, in the classical style and his early works (around age fifteen) were lovely portraits and landscapes. Once he got loose from his father, and moved to the Bohemian Paris, his art changed dramatically. For the worse, in my view, but I am not a fan of the 'cubist' style that he was part of pioneering. But his body of work has stood all the tests of time and art critics, and made him wealthy by the time he was twenty-five, so the rest of the world thought he was pretty hot stuff.
As we exited the museum of Picasso's work, it started to rain. Since it was almost 5:00 anyway, we headed for the homeward-bound bus and off we went. Got off one stop early so had to walk quite a way in the rain. Got wet, rats.
Tomorrow, we plan to head to Granada.
