Malaga, Spain

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Ok, I'll try and list some things in order from our trip instead of just random posts. I was having a little trouble with the blogger site earlier, but hopefully all will work well now.
We flew into Genoa, Italy from Frankfurt via Paris. Wish I could say I had been to Paris, but regrettably, I just had 2 layovers at the airport. I did buy a swatch watch there at the duty free shop!
It was great to see Italy again. I had always thought it was beautiful. Lots of hills and pretty buildings. Here are some shots of the coastline as we were leaving on the ship.

The next day was spent "at sea". It was a little different cruise than I was used to. We had to go and wait in line to get our credit card on file this day, instead of as we boarded. The ship looked much like the Royal Carribean ships I have been on.

Our first port of call was Malaga, Spain. The moors had been a strong influence here and there was an old Arabian fortress and Moorish castle, both from between the 1100's to the 1300's. I already posted some photos from the Moorish Castle. From the height of the fortress looking down on the city, you could see the bull ring. It was rather interesting. There were bull rings in most of the cities we went to.

I wouldn't want to see a bull fight, but I am interested in how it is a part of their culture and trying to understand what it means to them. They are very proud of it. You could also see our ship from that vantage point.

We then went to through the hills and streets in our bus to to the Alcazar, the moorish palace. The unevenly spaced risers on the steeps and cobbles that went every which way, made it a little tough going for Edith and I. But it was beautiful. Afterwards we came to the cathedral square. We toured the church and had a little bit of free time in the square.

Only about 20 minutes. We really needed an ATM and didn't find one until we were on our way back to the bus. I was able to grab some Euros for us quickly, but we didn't have time for Edith to try.

This is Edith in a guard station in the fortress.


This is part of the cathedral.
There were a lot of plants in Spain that were similiar to Arizona. Palm trees, Jacaranda, Bouganviella, etc. It was clean and the people were all pretty nice. We had ice cream on our little break and then the bus took us back to the ship. That is mostly it for Malaga!