It’s hard not to love a city with big outdoor art, like this butterfly made of flowers along a pedestrian street in Murcia, Spain. There was also a traveling street art show display nearby with images and historical descriptions of famous Renaissance paintings that are currently housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. We had the pleasure of visiting that museum a few years ago and thought that it was great that they shared some of the best art from that museum with other cities far away.

Murcia is inland from the Costa Blanca, the “White Coast” along the Mediterranean Sea in eastern Spain. It’s a large city that is both old and modern, with English spoken nearly everywhere. As Americans, we may think of Spanish food as being likely similar to the Mexican food of our dreams, but it’s not. Dishes like tostadas (crushed tomatoes, olive oil, and other toppings like tuna or Spanish ham on an toasted open-faced baguette) and tortillas (a thick oven-baked omelette made of potatoes, eggs, onion, olive oil), and paella (a rice-based dish with saffron, vegetables, and chicken or seafood) are staples in Spain. They are flavorful, but are generally not spicy. We ate some of the best Spanish chocolate croissants called “napolitanas”, Italian lasagna, American smash burgers, and Argentinian empanadas in Murcia. The wine was good, local, and cheap too.

We did a lot of walking through the old town areas and found many signs like this one celebrating spring in the region. We visited a couple of museums and then checked out this gorgeous old cathedral in the center of old town:

After Murcia, we ventured on to Málaga, along the southern Costa del Sol (“Sun Coast”). It’s a large beach city that reminded us of Florida, and much English was spoken there as well. It’s the birthplace of Pablo Picasso. Here he is relaxing outside in the square in front of the museum:

Up on a hill above the city sits some Roman theatre ruins and the stunning Alcazaba fortress that you can hike up to see. We forgot to take photos of that. There is a beautiful shaded promenade in the city’s harbor area and many lovely parks we strolled through, enjoying the sun and ocean breezes. We also took the tram out to several beach town suburbs along the coast and tried to see the northern coast of Africa from the beach, but it was too hazy that day.

We ate well in Málaga also. A delicious dinner in an Indian restaurant, chilaquiles with chicken and green sauce, pastries with pistachio cream filling, a handmade stroopwaffel, gelato, and more.

It was an enjoyable getaway to some areas we’ve been wanting to visit, and it’s always good to get some sun on our faces after a grey and sometimes gloomy winter in northwest France.