We headed up and down mountains on tortuous roads and switch backs. When we planned this we thought it would be more about the destinations than the journey.
First stop on our little white village tour is 📍Genalguacil. This little mountain village decided to turn the whole village into an open air art museum. We’ve done a lot of little white villages while travelling through the south of Italy and Greece. At some point they started to blur together. Genalguacil, with its fair number of formal art pieces and the additional contributions from the residents, adding their own unique twists to their home and patios made it unique, memorable and a pleasant first stop in our day.
Of course, the village might be small and the art numerous, but navigating it with Google Maps isn’t as straightforward as I might have thought. In most cities I would expect Google to guide me to where I’m going. I do not expect the routing AI to care about my human sensibilities and suggest I walk the route parallel to large boulevard instead of the tiny sidewalk next to it. I’m convinced it doesn’t like humans, maybe because we keep asking it to route us everywhere we go even if we’ve done that route a thousand times. Maybe because we often fail to listen to its instructions. In any case, I would not be surprised that Skynet actually evolves from the Google routing AI.
In a small village like Genalguacil, there are a couple of roads where there can be either a car or a human but no room for both, or cute little alleyways and staircases where cars can’t go and humans can use and enjoy the art that adorns it. When you ask Google how to get anywhere it won’t acknowledge the existence of any other means than the road. If you zoom all the way in you might just make out the outline of stairs or a square but don’t ask Google Maps, it will not tell you. We’ve made it mad and it’s ready to take revenge on us.
Nevertheless, we explored the open air art museum that is Genalguacil the old fashioned way, by walking at random. Took us a little longer than planned but it gave us a chance to see lots of art and a couple of cats too.
Next up was 📍Gaucín. Cute white village with ruins of a castle on top of the hill it’s built on. We parked just outside the village and beelined it to the castle. Getting to the castle required following one of the three main arteries of the town. I’m sure there’s a more pleasant way but Google would not tell us. Maybe because I thought ill of Google, maybe because we’re on the tail end of the season, or just maybe, because we neglected to look at the opening hours for the caste that are clearly posted on Google Maps, but as we’re about to arrive at the summit of the hill we hit a gate and learned the caste ruins are closed. There was convenient advertising of the next concert being held on the site but no indication of why the site is closed. Again, I’m pretty sure it’s Google Maps’ fault. I don’t see how we could have seen that coming. In this age of AI, one shouldn’t expect humans to read, we trained these things, they should know better. So, again, no fault on us.
Disappointed we crossed the village back noticing how, outside of its one attraction, it looked like any other village we’ve visited with none of the charm of the few very unique ones like Alberobello with its trullies, Astypalea with the charm of the remote island or Lindos with its acropolis. We still gave the Andalucia white village another try and pointed our chariot toward 📍Casares and its promised of castle ruins opened 24x7!
If you ever go to 📍Casares you’ll be told, like us, to park at the public parking at the top of the hill and take the elevator down to the village. The thing is, if you’re like us you won’t be able to find the elevator. OK, we were a little tired, it was the end of the day and we might have been looking forward to chilling out in a beach town before heading for dinner. But! It doesn’t mean we didn’t look. We even considered the Tirolina (zip line) as a means of getting to the village but were relieved to find it closed too. We had to resolve ourselves to spare Karine’s leg and not walk down to the village (to then go back up to the castle) and only grab a few pictures to prove we were there and head out to our home for the night in Marbella.
📍Marbella is known for its lively nightlife, high price resorts and its beautiful beaches. Its urbanism is also synonymous with governmental corruption and was the first town in recent spanish history to get its council suspended by the federal government. They don’t advertise that part however.
For us Marbella was a convenient location somewhat halfway between Malaga our next stay and Gibraltar, our next day trip. It also has a good concentration of good restaurants ensuring we would eat well. We arrived a few hours before sunset and went on to see the collection of Dalí’s sculptures in a park near the beach. We also walked the small section of town referred to as the old town but really they could have called it Disney world. Everything and everyone has something to sell you. It immediately felt very similarity to our visit to Santorini last year. It was made to part tourists with their money. Unlike Santorini we’re only spending the night here and heading out to Gibraltar early tomorrow. Still, we had a good dinner!
Places
Genalguacil · 29492, Málaga, Spain
29492, Málaga, Spain
maps.app.goo.gl
Gaucín · 29480, Málaga, Spain
29480, Málaga, Spain
maps.app.goo.gl
Casares · 29690, Málaga, Spain
29690, Málaga, Spain
maps.app.goo.gl
Marbella · Málaga, Spain
Málaga, Spain
maps.app.goo.gl
