Globetrotting

From 4 to 8 October, we went to see my brother in Malaga – he is currently doing a three-months exchange to the local university as part of his PhD program in Berlin. On the way there, we stopped in Madrid for half a day – I had never been there before and so it was a great opportunity to visit the Spanish capital. I really liked it – other than it being much warmer than in Fontainebleau, it also had a very nice atmosphere. In addition, we got to visit two art museums for free: The Caixa Forum (which is small, has changing exhibitions, and is always free) and the Prado (which has the best collection of classical art in Madrid, and is free for the last two hours every day).

Malaga itself also turned out to be really nice. A couple of classmates we had spoken to before our trip had said that the city itself wasn’t that interesting, but in fact the old town is quite picturesque with marble streets, and an unfinished cathedral (one of the towers is not as high as the other one).

Unfortunately, I got sick for one and a half days and needed to go to the hospital to get medication, but thankfully we had enough time to still do some trips into the countryside on the weekend. On Saturday, we went to Cómpeta, a nice white village in the hills to the east of Malaga. On Sunday, we ventured westwards and took a round trip to Zahara de la Sierra, Ronda and back.

Zahara de la Sierra is an impressive town, overshadowed by a fortress towering upon a rocky mountaintop. From the city, you have great view on the surrounding scenery including a big artificial lake. The town itself is also very nice, with white houses and pretty little streets and squares.

Ronda is a town dominated by a high bridge over the El Tajo canyon, which splits the city into two and runs next to one of the central squares. This square and canyon have supposedly been the basis for a vivid description of the execution of fascists in the Spanish Civil War in Earnest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, which coincidentally I had just read over the summer – making for an interesting comparison of the actual setup with the imagination I had formed while reading the book.

Some pictures follow.