Souless Costa del Sol

We finished our Andalucían adventures in Malaga. On our final night in Spain we booked ourselves into a beachside hotel just so we could cross off our list, “a package tour experience on the Costa del Sol.” Our hotel booking included book dinner and breakfast. It was also the cheapest accommodation we’d booked on the entire trip. 24 hours there was more than enough.


Our room was small, but clean. The hotel restaurant was a classic package tour experience; noisy children, overweight chavs and old ladies in sequins queuing for a bland starch-laden buffet. Even the beachside vista was pure package tour. Each hotel has its own sun-baking zone on the beach where row after row of sun-loungers resolutely stand vigil over the Mediterranean. Only the lagoon pool came close to matching its brochure photo. Souless is the only word I can find to describe the entire experience.


Needless to say, aside from a couple of boardwalk strolls, we kept well away from the beach. Instead we spent our last day wandering the streets of old Malaga, exploring its meretriciously restored Moorish castle and its equally majestic Cathedral. Both offered highlights.


The castle has its own water features similar to that of the Alhambra, but on a more modest scale. The Cathedral soars skyward with a dramatic bell tower, which seems perfectly normal, until you notice the foundations for a second tower directly opposite. Malaga’s cathedral has sat unfinished for more than two hundred years, leaving a distinctly lop-sided profile that never quite makes onto postcards displayed nearby.

I’d loved this final quirky surprise - almost as much as our last-minute tour of the airport's industrial zone. As the clock began counting down for our flight's departure we searched vainly for the rental car company's depot. Just as we began to despair, the remote site came into view. We paid our bill and caught a shuttle bus to terminal, reaching the check-in counter minutes before it closed.