Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 52: Torremolinos and Malaga

I started the day in search of what I had hoped would be the more charming part of Torremolinos.  I found it, sort of, in an area with pedestrian streets lined with stores, restaurants, bars, and cafes, but I still underwhelmed.

Some research helped explain why.  Torremolinos was a poor fishing village, not much more than a dot on the map in the shadow of the much larger Malaga, about 10 miles east.  Then in the late 1950s, someone built a big resort here and it kicked off a rush of tourism that drew royalty and celebrities with names like Frank, Ava, Charlton, Marlon, and Orson.

Most of the city, therefore, was built up starting in the 1960s and so while all the pieces are there – pedestrian streets, a beach, a promenade – it is all in buildings that are more modern and, to be frank, boring.  It lacks the old world European charm of many other cities I’ve visited with those pieces.

Undeterred, I decided to take a train to Malaga, which took a lot longer than I expected it to and was much more crowded than I would have liked it to have been.

But it delivered me to the old town section of Malaga, which has all those same pieces but with older buildings and a LOT more people.  I wasn’t enchanted by it, but it was a definite improvement over Torremolinos.

My destination there was the Picasso Museum, a facility that was established there to fulfill a dream of the painter to have his work displayed in the city in which he was born.  Problem was that it was closing about fifteen minutes after I got there because of some sort of special event.

So, instead I wandered around Malaga and happened upon Mercado de Atarazanas, a central market in a 19th century building that incorporated a 14th century Moorish gate.  It’s filled with food vendors, my happy place on this trip.

I did what I always do in these places, which is wander the whole thing and make mental notes of all the food I want to eat, trying samples along the way – cheese, meats, fresh fruit.  I was going to go for some empanadas, but there was a stall called El Capricho, which had a line 30 people long for spicy Iberian pork belly sandwiches.  Yes, please.  It was as close to perfect of a sandwich as you can get – roasted pork, spicy cracklins, crusty bread soaked with the jus that the meat cooks in, and some onions and peppers cooked in the same pan.  Totally worth the wait.

I took a car back to Torremolinos and spent the afternoon at the hotel relaxing before going out for dinner at one of the few restaurants that was open at 6pm.  Did I mention people eat late here?  Seriously, you want lunch at noon and dinner before 7 or 8pm?  Go to a market get stuff to fix it for yourself.

The restaurant was Big Bull Steakhouse where I had bread with herbed butter, a filet with both garlic and pepper sauce on the side, a baked potato, and some corn on the cob.  The steak was perfect on its own without the sauces – smoky, juicy, and packed with flavor – but adding the accompaniments put it into its own universe.  Best steak I’ve had on the trip by far.

By the way, the truce with my digestive system seems to be holding, thank you very much.

Then it was on to a show, the Chamber of Secrets.  This is a family-friendly, comedic magic show headed by Uk magician Matthew Wright and his wife Alarna who sings and acts as an assistant.  Actually, they do more than that – they greet people, seat people, and serve drinks in the small theatre as well.  It’s clear this is a labor of love and it is working – the place was packed on a Wednesday night.

Wright is funny and a world-class magician, doing a lot of long-game tricks that start in one place, seem to wander a bit, and then end with amazement.  One bit had him show a video of his young children doing a magic trick that eventually wound its way through selections from audience members of things like Uno cards, dates and places, favorite numbers, Rubik’s cube patterns, and more that somehow made it into the video when he replayed it later.   Best of all for my selfish purposes, everything was in English so I actually got all the jokes – and he’s pretty funny, too.

Tomorrow is another day in Torremolinos.  I was going to take a side trip with an excursion to Gibraltar, but it is supposed to be beastly hot and with the traffic around here, the 90-mile one-way drive will probably take over 2 hours, so I may punt on that one.  We’ll see what my mood is like and you’ll find out in tomorrow’s update.