Hi Terisa, and Thanks!!!
Malaga was okay; a LOT bigger than we actually expected. I'd HIGHLY recommend the Malaga Footsteps Guide:
http://www.guide-to-malaga.co.uk/ by Brian Jones for anyone that goes to Malaga. He does a great job of highlighting the best things to see. Otherwise it looks like this big city with one or two attractions and it would be impossible to know about most of them. There's actually quite a bit there.
My only complaint about Malaga was that we couldn't seem to find a good restaurant. I kid you not, two of the places we ate at were almost unedible. The one was kind of expected; we were running into siesta and stopped in what looked kind of like a local fast-food place, but the other place was recommended. We tried paella and it was...not good. My own version of paella was a lot better and I don't even have the special pan! (I do have saffron, which I obtained from Glandeves (
http://www.french-saffron.com/) --GREAT little place in France from a local farm. I'm guessing you can get it anytime you want if you live in Spain!)
I tried to buy saffron at the Barcelona market, but that place was so packed, I never found any! The market was pretty expensive as well. All the spices that I did see were "mixes." I like to cook so I wanted to buy specific things -- not buy "Pizza mix" or "pasta mix." The market itself was...wow. Lot of food and a lot of people!!!
That southern part of Spain (Malaga) is quite arid for being so close to the coast. We went into the mountains (El Torcal) and it was very interesting terrain.
I'll be posting more about Spain now that Executive Lunch is out--the blog will go back to regular type postings, including me finishing up the travel log!!!
If we go to Spain again, I think I'd like to see the area North of Barcelona--that coastline looked pretty fabulous when I was researching. I'm an outdoors girl; I like to see a castle or three, but then I want to stretch my legs and do some hiking!!!!
Maria