Malaga Festival Saturday

It's been quite warm but overcast today, mostly spent indoors, with a sermon to write and tomorrow's adult Confirmation class to prepare. Early evening I walked to Playa La Malagueta and was amazed to see huge waves breaking on the shore, as the tide was going out. There was no wind. Off shore I counted ten people in wetsuits attempting to surf the waves, a lots more on-shore watching or trying like me to take photos. They were rather far out attempting to catch a big breaker, and the light was not quite adequate for good action shots, but it was good to witness nevertheless. Almost all the sun worshippers had already left. There was, however a large oldish man lying on the foreshore, reading and eating a snack, oblivious to how close he was to being covered by incoming waves. He seemed to leave it to the last minute to move to drier ground. So strange. was he drunk, or crazy or what?

From there, I walked across the port and into the Old Town, drawn through the streets to the Plaza de la Merced by the sound of a heavy rock band in the open air. A stage was set up and several stalls had been set up around one corner of the square. One was a booking office for Firm Festival Tickets but the rest were part of an espacio solidaire de mujeres. promoting organisations concerned with protecting women and children from domestic violence and exploitation. The band was performing in support of this. I stood to take photos near the statue of Pablo Picasso seated on a bench. He was born in a house nearby. It's often surrounded by people who want photos taken featuring this lifelike work of art. For a few moments it was clear enough of people for me to get the urge to take a photo. As I was getting the camera out, a burly man stepped forward, caught hold of the statue's head and planted an affectionate kiss on its forehead. That was a surprise. Just sorry I missed a great photo opportunity.

I walked on towards the Plaza Cevantes, to find it cordoned off by the Policia Locale, attempting to control of crowd on cinema fans and celebrity watchers thronging the periphery to watch the arrivals for a gala night film performance at Teatro Cervantes. The telly people were there, projecting key scenes on to a large public screen on the forecourt above the huge red carpet leading to the entrance. No doubt it was a special moment for anyone who knew who's who, but hardly so for me. I didn't need an excuse to head for the apartment as hunger reminded me that supper time was near.

    

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.