Sept 23 Malaga Spain

 I wonder if the Malaga airport could handle all of the last minute arrival and departures that Oceania created when the changeover day shifted from Lisbon (harbor pilot strike) to Malaga. Lots of flights had to get changed. The easiest were the people who flew into Lisbon a day early -- they could then fly to Malaga (space available) today. The itinerary change was published about two weeks ago so there should have been time to fix things. I didn't hear much complaining at the dinner tables around us.

We had not scheduled an excursion so we did our two hour stroll through town that turned into more than 3 hours. There was supposed to be a shuttle bus from the pier to the town. We boarded that bus and 10 minutes later, after a high volume phone call in Spanish, the driver sent us all off. A tour company rep on the pier said the bus was broken and a new one would arrive in 20 minutes (which I immediately converted to 30+ real minutes). She also said the walk into town was about 20 minutes so we took off on foot -- after I had gotten her to show me exactly on the map where the shuttle bus return would originate (you already know how this is going to end up, don't you?).

The cube house, after a pleasant 15 minute walk along the pier.

Town Hall

University

Roman ruins from the first century that we discovered in 1951 (or rediscovered, I guess).

Pablo Picaso the most famous native of Malaga. He's sitting on a bench near his family home.

Pablo's view

The Picaso Museum, head of the line. The end of the line was 200+ people down the road.

The Basilica

As you guessed, we waited at the pickup point for the shuttle bus for 45-minutes (supposedly running every 30 minutes) so we walked back. We could have taken a taxi but we were still OK with walking. Unfortunately the shade went away for the second half of the walk along the pier, leaving us feeling like this street art.