Gibralfaro discovery

The third warm and sunny day in a row. This cheers me up considerably. I climbed the steps to take the pedestrian tunnel under the Alcazaba on my way into town for my afternoon paseo today, and on a whim, decided to walk up a road closed to cars which climbs up behind the barrio on the west side of the hill, to see where it leads. I've often seen pedestrians joggers and cyclists, even Segway riding tourists going up there, but not had time to explore.

The road winds up the hillside through a forest of Mediterranean pine and eucalyptus trees, which exude a delightful aroma, warmed by Spring sunshine. Along the ridge above, there are occasional glimpses of the outer fortified walls of the Castillo de Gibralfaro. The road ends at a junction near the entrance to the Parador, with a mirador overlooking the coast below - a climb of about 110 metres from the Plaza de Toros. It's a nature reserve, with a notice saying  the area is habitat for cameleons. I didn't see any, but I had a good view of a hoopoe on the wing as I descended. What a marvellous stretch of parkland, right in the heart of the city!

I continued walking through the old town, and watched a waste disposal team operating in a narrow part of Calle Granada, lifting a two metre tall rubbish receptacle from its hole in the ground using its built-in crane, and emptying it into the enclosed container on the back of the lorry. All this happened without preventing passers by from walking through on the side which wasn't cordoned off to get the job done. These lorries come late at night or early in the morning along the Paseo de Reding, when traffic disruption is minimal. It's not so easy in a busy pedestrian zone, and admirable that it just gets done without incident, day in day out.

Malaga's Festival of Spanish Films is taking place at the moment. The Calle Marques de Lario is decked out with promotional red carpet with dozens of large portrait panels lining the edge of the carpet containing black and white photos of cinematic events and personajes. Nicely done, brilliantly understated.

Then, on my way to the port, rather than wait for the Alameda pedestrian lights, I took what I thought was an underpass, which led into a huge underground parking area. It was, however, possible to walk through safely to the other side. What surprised me was a large circular fountain located in a central position underground, but emerging the surface above. Such a clever way to help air to circulate and reduce pollution to some extent. I've never seen anything like this before.