Malaga, April 19

Right near hotel, somewhat sad statue of Solomon Ibn Gabriol:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_ibn_Gabirol  .

After contemplating this poet and philosopher and the past, I headed off to the must-see castle (aren't they all), a long uphill trek. Here is the view from a designated view-point!  I mean, c'mon!  But back in the day, before it was concrete, it was, doubtless, quite a lovely expanse to the sea, but then again, at the time, it was not exactly a tourist attraction:

Look at the three fellows below.  What has changed over the years?  Outfits, facial hair styles, and weapons.  That is what has changed.

Now this soldado has very expensive-looking boots!

Nothing could be sillier for going into battle than this uniform.  If you are Napoleon, OK, the hat may work, but for running with a rifle? As for the rest, a tad fussy for the battlefield.  But, then again, if you dress someone up real fine, maybe he would be more willing to get in there and, well, you know....

Slightly more practical, but not much of an improvement overall. Note the bayonet:  

On to the Alcazaba, a Moorish site that displayed some original mosaics:

And other artifacts:

Wandered in a park then off to the waterfront where a HUGE cruise ship was in port.  There was another one, even bigger!

Enough of the city.  Took a cab to the botanical garden, which smelled divine!  It was more of an arboretum, but it had an impressive display of cacti:

The original pin cushion!

Why did I not go to the Picasso Museum today as planned?  Because the line was very long, so I did what Alex would have done (other people, too, but definitely Alex!): took out my phone, went to the museum's website, purchased a ticket on-line for tomorrow, got the app for the ticket, which did not work, contacted customer service who claimed not to have a recored of the transaction, sent them a screenshot of my receipt, and finally received the ticket.  All that plus, after many tries, calibrating the compass on my GPS and figuring out Google Photos have constituted my proud and official transition from the industrial to the IT age!