Monday Morning Photo - Guggenheim Museum and Mamen Spider at Fog Art time, Bilbao

Malaga´s Botanical Gardens - La Concepción

Málaga´s Botanical Gardens in La Concepción are located 8km north of Málaga city. As you start climbing away from the coast heading towards Córdoba/Granada it´s possible to see a green and white-tiled dome roof of La Concepcion´s famous mirador glinting under the Mediterranean sunshine. Pond in Malaga´s Botanical Gardens The gardens and house were built in 1855 when two wealthy, local families united through the marriage of Amalia de Heredia Livermore and Jorge Enrique Loring Oyarzabal which meant the joining of several small estates into one larger estate. They created wonderful gardens around their house, buying and ordering plants and trees from around the world. Their love of plants was, unbeknownst to them, the beginning of Malaga´s Botanical Gardens as we know it today, It has become a gorgeous oasis of nature over the 23hectares that is now the visitable Botanical Gardens site. House in Malaga´s Botanical Gardens Another wealthy family took over the gardens in 1911 and enl...

Finally I got to visit Bilbao. I´d driven pretty near, got the ferry back to there once but had never stayed in the city. Last week I flew from Malaga to Bilbao for a two night, three (ish) day trip and it only happened because I won the trip via an Instagram giveaway.

Bilbao not so easy to get to within Spain, most flights I looked at were not direct, which meant going via Barcelona, from my nearest airport Granada there is one direct flight a week - why would I fly to Barcelona and not stay there? Bilbao was on the very long term (if I still have long term) drive to northern Spain trip plan. If you get the chance go - with an umbrella. It´s an easy, flat city with bus, tram, metro and train station right in the centre. I´ll be going back!