13th of March 2026 - Málaga

I had just associated Málaga with holiday resorts and beaches with it being the capital of the Costa del Sol.  It has however a very interesting historic old town and there are also Moorish and Roman ruins.

The port area has may shops and restaurants.  We found a lovely place to sit with a glass of wine and enjoy the view.

Málaga is the birthplace of the famed painter Pablo Picasso and has two museums in his honour.  I visited the Picasso Museum opened in 2003 which housed in the Buenavista Palace built around an internal courtyard with twelve halls of permanent exhibitions.

The basement of the Picasso Museum contains important archaeological remains from several eras.

The Cathedral of Málaga is a Roman Catholic church built in the Renaissance architectural tradition.  It was constructed between 1528 and 1782 on the site of a former Mosque. Locals affectionately call the cathedral “la Manquita” (the one-armed woman) because it was never actually finished. To this day, it is still missing one of its two bell towers.

12th of March 2026 - Arrival in Andalucia

This is my first trip to the region of Andalucia in Spain.  I am staying in an hotel in Mijas Pueblo (village of Mijas) up in the mountainside at 400 metres above sea level about 10km from the Mediterranean coast.  My room has a little patio from which I can see the sea.

14th of August 2025 - On our way home

This morning the ship docked in Seward and we disembarked.  We were taken on a very scenic drive to Anchorage airport.

Anchorage airport has some very interesting signs...

This is my last entry from a very enjoyable visit to Alaska.

13th of August 2025 - Cruising Hubbard Glacier

We spent a couple of hours in Disenchantment Bay cruising alongside the Hubbard Glacier.  The length of this glacier is around 76 miles (122 km) extending from Yukon, Canada to eastern Alaska.

 

The glacier's brilliant blue ice comes from compression over centuries.  This removes air bubbles and allows the ice to absorb longer wavelengths of light.

 

We experienced Hubbard Glacier calving which is when chunks of ice break off the glacier into the sea.  This is accompanied by thunderous roaring. 

The glacier located west of Hubbard Glacier is Valerie Glacier.

12th of August 2025 - Sitka Sound

We cruised in a catamaran through Sitka Sound for a few hours in much welcome sunshine.  Although we saw seals, sea otters, salmon and bald eagles most of the photos I have are of the scenery.  I did get one photo of some seals resting on a buoy.

After dinner we saw our first Alaskan sunset.

11th of August 2025 - White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad

Today I took a trip on the White Pass and Yukon Route Railroad from sea level in Skagway to the 2,865-foot summit of White Pass.

The White Pass and Yukon Route Rail is an historic narrow gauge railway built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush to connect Skagway with the Yukon interior.

Although the day was misty it was at least dry so I was able to take pictures from the platforms at each end of the garage.

During the journey I briefly crossed back into British Columbia past a border point between Canada and the U.S.

10th of August 2025 - Juneau

Today the ship docked in Juneau which is the only U.S. state capital not accessible by road; visitors arrive by plane or ferry.  Again, Juneau is surrounded by the Tongass National Forest.  We were taken by tender to the pier where the coastguard was in town preparing for a presidential visit.  And yes, it was still raining.

Our first visit of the day was to the Glacier Gardens which are a short drive outside Juneau.  One of the significant features of the Glacier Gardens are the flower towers which are upside down trees made into floral sculptures.

 

We were taken on a guided tour round the Glacier Gardens by golf cart up to a cliffside viewpoint where we could only just see Juneau through the mist.

 

The next stop was to see a view of the Mendenhall Glacier.  This thirteen mile long glacier flows from the Juneau Icefield and terminates at Mendenhall Lake.  I had hoped to go dogsledding on the Mendenhall Glacier but this trip was cancelled due to the bad weather.  At least the mist cleared enough for us to catch a glimpse of the glacier.

On our way back to the ship we saw, through the mist. a number of bald eagles perched on lampposts but did not get the chance to take a photo of them.