Day 5, Saturday

Today, we traveled to Málaga. We had a very relaxed morning, waking up around 9, eating breakfast, and then leaving the hotel to travel back to Madrid (from Toledo). We arrived at the Estación de Atocha to take the AVE (Alta Velocidad de España -High Velocity of Spain, traveling at 180 miles per hour) train to Málaga. We arrived filled with nerves and excitement about meeting our señoras and their families. After we were all dropped off, we each got to spend about two hours with our families, getting situated in what will be our homes for the next two weeks. Around 5:30 p.m., Iker, our guide, came and picked us all up so that we could do a tour of the City Center of Málaga. It is a beautiful city founded by the Phoenicians about 770 BCE making it one of the oldest cities in the world and was given the Arabic name of Malacca (later to be changed to Málaga). We started out in the Calle de Peatonal (Pedestrian Street). Málaga’s port is its pride and joy, and it is the capital of La Costa del Sol. Málaga has sun 300 days of the year, and because of this, the majority of the buildings don’t have pointed corners, but rather rounded corners instead. Rounded corners allows more windows on buildings which allow more light into rooms. Next we went to La Plaza de La Constitución where there are 6 images of newspapers embedded in  the ground. They are all different title pages of newspapers on the day that Spain created their Constitution. Next we visited the Cathedral of the Incarnate Virgin; its construction began 200 years ago, and it is the only Gothic Cathedral in Europe that is still not finished. It is missing one of its towers, therefore the locals call it “La Manquita” which means it is missing one arm. Next, we walked to El Barrio de Picasso, where we saw the building in which Picasso started to paint the doves' feet with his dad, we walked by the museum that houses his personal collection, and we also walked by the house in which he grew up (we will visit these places later in the week). Today was a very exciting day and I know we are all excited to get to know our families, and also Málaga, better.

Pacey