The experience of walking through the botanical garden of Malaga happened at the beginning of January during our visit to that city. We rented a studio for the two of us in a district called Ciudad Jard铆n. When we arrived on the first day, we went through some very winding roads, between the hills and crossed the same river, Guadalmedina, many times. I loved that landscape and as soon as we got off that highway we entered the area with the houses where our accommodation was located. We found it super easy and our host welcomed us, showed us the house and we settled in. I was looking forward to seeing the city, the lights, the architecture but at the same time, seeing on the map how close this botanical garden is, I put it in our plans. It was out of the question that we would visit it. For this, we chose the last day of our stay. When we left the accommodation, we went to this place and approached the entrance of this wonder.
Oh, a little surprise - there was an entrance fee to pay! I thought it was free, but ok, it was no problem; it was worth the money for this cool walk. If we wanted, we could stay until six in the evening, because there is a show that starts at that time and the entrance to it costs even more than our day passes. We saw the reason for this special fee for the show - the park was full of Christmas figures made of lights, which were obviously turned off during the day. I imagine how great this is at night, in the dark when all the lights and reflectors are turned on, although I was happy with our walk there.
The problem I now have is how to present the whole park, which is so big that it took us three hours of walking. For the record, we walked without breaks. Imagine the number of photos I took and now I have to select. It is impossible to fit everything in one post, for several reasons. The post will be too boring long for the readers, and I also think I could not even put so many photos in one post. So, I am going to divide this visit to the botanical garden into parts, although I don't really like to break it up and make a series. On the other hand, setting smaller, more attainable goals will help me because last night I got a little overwhelmed at the thought of sharing this whole experience with you. In fact, I got home very late from work, had dinner, and sat down in front of the laptop but I couldn't do anything. Total block even though I had also intended to write a story of a different kind. Well, I will leave that for another occasion and now we are going to walk a bit if that is okay with you.
The map will help us move through the park. Actually, I don't know if it is correct to say "park" for a botanical garden, so my apologies if I name it in this way sometimes. It could be also called forest as there were parts that we didn't even visit (the upper part on the map which was a forest route, but we were already quite tired).
About map and flowing the route! It was well explained and there were signs and all but we still managed to get lost two times. 馃槀 The first time here, already after some ten or fifteen minutes of our little exploration tour. Obviously, it was easy to follow to path here, between the tall plane trees.
Looking at the foliage of these giant trees I felt autumn vibes, although the greenery that was all around throughout the whole park set me into a different place, maybe a jungle in some moments.
I also had a map in my hands, I had it all the time with me and tried to follow the numbers. The path between the plane trees was labelled with the number 3.
To find place number 4 we passed through a little area full of vegetation. There was hidden a building that I would not expect to see there. It is a museum, the Loring Museum.
I had no idea that I would find such a cool building among the trees and bushes but the board gave me some information. It explained that it was a Doric-style pavilion built by the German Architect Wilhelm Strack and that many archaeological remains were kept in this museum by the Loring family, including a series of bronze legal statues dating back to the year 81 A.D.
It seems that there were valuable collections that of course are not lost nowadays, but are not there already. The majority of exhibits were brought to Malaga's Museum, and some of them to Madrid.
An impressive bench however I didn't try it out. It was wet by rain or moisture so I skipped the fun of pretending to be one of the people who used to rest here in the past.
A little display in the continuation of our path, just right behind the Loring Museum. My husband was reading more about the people displayed here but I recognized one person here and stopped there.
It was the Empress Elisabeth of Austria and Queen of Hungary, the famous Sissi. 馃槏
And where to go now? 馃槀
Following the numbers we were supposed to find the number 5, Amalia Heredia Square but we took a different path (didn't realize it immediately) and found ourselves between some very tall bamboos - by translations from Spanish, this species would be called Bamboo fishing rod.
That is what I mentioned that we got lost, but it was cool in the end. It was amazing how tall they were.
I remember being surprised at how thick the stems were, and when I went to touch them I saw that many of them had names carved into them.
Oh, and there were little elves everywhere. 馃槀
I am more than sure that they were part of the evening shows, with all the other light creatures we found around. Look how many of them, and there were more... It must be super exciting to walk here when it's dark and the lights are on.
Our little detour led us to the entrance again, but we turned back to the paths and made it to the next stop. Number 5, a lady called Amalia Heredia Livermore. Once again I learned these facts from the board - she was the founder of the Royal Spanish Society of Natural History.
I posed with her and even put her on my sunglasses 馃う鈥嶁檧. Luckily nobody saw that, as then... maybe we would be asked to leave this Botanical Garden. 馃榿
Well, until here I arrived today... and this is just one part of this place. Should I say now - to be continued...? Well, I can't determine and promise when I will make the next post from this place, but hopefully, I will manage not to make a big pause. 馃槈
