This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
An upscale and very lively seaside resort, Marbella is an excellent base for exploring the Spanish Costa del Sol, even in the middle of winter. Suggestions for cultural, museum and gastronomic outings.
On the outskirts of the very panoramic Mediterranean motorway, on the ultra-touristy Costa del Sol, the clusters of real estate and hotel developments follow one another and look alike, like sad cubes clinging to the hillside.
Attracted by a mild climate, honest beaches and the highest rate of sunshine in continental Europe — 325 days a year — contingents of vacationers flock there to deny winter; others stay only the time of a flirtation with the suavity of the places.
To meet their expectations, there is a bit of everything in all registers, between Gibraltar and Malaga: Torremolinos, Benalmadena and Fuengirolas, of course, but also the very pleasant Marbella, among other places.
Bella Marbella
Bordered by a thin sandy border, this seaside resort stretches out at the foot of the Sierra Blanca massif. Flanked by a maritime promenade several kilometers long and languorous, it is dotted with cerveceriasof chiringuitos (beach bars-restaurants) and lively terraces, protected from the onslaught of the sun by the plant shield of the palm tree alleys. The further west you take it, the closer you get to the stronghold of wealthy yachtsmen, whose opulent yachts occupy the chic port of Puerto Banus.
Beyond the hotels overlooking the sea and on the edge of the Jardín de las Esculturas where replicas of Dalí’s works are exhibited, an elegant little historic center emerges. Pricked with squares overflowing with flowers or planted with orange trees, it encourages strolling with its maze of flowery alleys, its 16th century facadese century and its awnings casting a modest shadow on the love affairs in progress, under the oblique gaze of the virgin statues nestled in the alcoves of the facades.
Behind one of them, the small Museo del Grabado Español Contemporáneo precisely houses The Loves of Jupiter and Semele, one of Picasso’s etchings which is one of the 1000 engravings by contemporary Spanish artists in this museum. But to get a great view of Don Pablo, it is better to consider his birthplace.
Malaga the museum
Born in Malaga in 1881, Pablo Ruiz Picasso lived there until he was 10 years old. In 2003, fifty years after his death, the museum that now bears his name was inaugurated there. Housed in an old palace, it presents more than 230 of his works grouped by theme, forming an edifying journey listing nearly 80 years of creation.
Outside, a bronze statue of the painter sits on the Plaza de la Merced, adding a touch of color to a square that has a lot of it, both on the window shutters and in the dishes of its terraces where tapas jostle, ajo blanco (crumb, almond and garlic soup), king prawns pil pil (spicy prawns) and others rabo de toro (bull’s tail stew).
More than an obligatory stop for charter flights and vacationers, the dynamic capital of the Costa del Sol has become a bustling cultural center and has around thirty museums and places dedicated to the arts. In addition to the surprising Interactive Museum of Music, the city has the avant-garde Center Pompidou (alias El Cubo) and its stunning collection of modern art (Kandinsky, Magritte, Saura…), the Museum of Russian Art, which houses between sparkling walls in the Sevillian style, but also the Malaga Wine Museum. Who knows that the winemaking tradition, introduced by the Phoenicians in ancient Malaka, is here one of the oldest in the world?
A little outside Malaga, the Jardín Botánico Histórico, inaugurated in 1885, presents a tangle of palm trees, baobabs, bamboos and 2000 plants, including splendid floral specimens, from all over the world . But flowers are also found in profusion in Mijas.
Magic Mijas
If there is one village not to be missed on the Costa del Sol, this is it. Located 30 minutes by road from Marbella, this cute bled dazzlingly white is criss-crossed by alleys connected by stairs that you never stop wanting to take. From the top of its immaculate prettiness, Mijas embraces the layout of an ancient Arab fortress and dominates the Mediterranean from afar.
Between two graceful wrought iron windows, alongside flowerpots as blue as in the Cyclades, cascades of bougainvillea unfurl and oleanders find their way into the whitewashed walls of low houses. At the end of the weathered cobblestones of a cul-de-sac alley, fat twinks munching each other’s whiskers; near the fountain in the central square, delicate chairs seem to twist under the heaviness of the sun, waiting for customers in search of a horchata or a sherry. And if the sun is damned, you can always take refuge in the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, which houses a vast collection of ceramics by Picasso – him again.
Moreover, the square facades of Mijas sometimes recall certain works by the co-founder of cubism — The reservoir, Horta de Ebro Where Houses on the hill, for instance. But here, these little whitewashed cubes are much less intrusive and, above all, much more charming than the clusters of hotel cubes that cling to the Costa del Sol…
The author was a guest of Air Transat, Club Med and Turismo de Andalucia.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Homework, relating to marketing. The drafting of Homework did not take part.