Playa de la Malagueta (Málaga), Andalucía, Spain and Canary IslandsMalaga
It’s still dark outside
The alarm went off 7.30 but it
was still dark outside??? Gine checked the phone and it says 7.30 – then the
watch and it’s 6.30: Ahhhh – the daylight savings time starts today – so we
decided as we were not prepared we will stay in bed for another hour and then
get up late… it’s not that we have to be somewhere on time…
Always the circles
As we start to go on the road,
the streets are quiet it’s Sunday morning and so we come to another one of the
circles, we check we are the only one there, Paul drives in and see there we
get a bang in the back of our car and a girl banged into us and tells us that
we made that big dent in her car – which is super weird as our car does not
even has a scratch. So she calls the police and as we wait we try telling her
that if we don’t have a scratch it is not really possible to make a dent
(especially if she drove into us). Once the police was here they took Paul’s
drivings lisence, our phone number and the lisence plate number and I think the
got the point when we showed him, that it is unlikely that she gets that huge
dent from us… so we will see. And then we continue on and hopefully do not hear
from her again.
Automovil Malaga
Very soon in we discovered this
is a very unique car museum and it is in a beautiful building which is part of
an old Tabaco factory:
- Car gallery: The automovil is a work of art - Automobils have always be a social symbol that revolutionized the fashion through every period of time
- Luxury:: the Billionaire club - In life there is not only money, but also cars, jewellery and exuberant dresses to beautify the way of life: that is the philosophy of the rich and famous
- Design: too much is never enough – we have the ability to find art in every corner, unknown details and artistic environment
And this is exactly on how this
car museum is – the episodes and time frames are all related to the fashion,
lots of real fancy paint jobs – this is so unique, we also saw a lot of cars we
never saw before as they are vintage European cars, and we always had to look
in the extra rooms, or the walls, here you find the special art collections
like the hat collection, , the wedding chapel fashion, the black room fashion
and the sugar daddy fashion. And they have a lot of cool little stories about
the cars – here is some of what we saw
Belle Epoque: from the
Beginning to WWI, when the car was a continuation of the horse carriage and few
believed that it will have a future, when they slowly added more features for
the upper class
- Touring Car: Minerva/Belgia 1904: it was sold in the UK by the founder of Rolls Royce Charles Steward Rolls, King Carlos of Portugal drove one
- The Dandy Racing Car: Hubmobile/USA 1912: one of the first sports cars fashion among the playboys of that time: it cost 750 Dollars at that time
- The Popular: DeDien Bouton/France 1903 – Rolls Royce from 1906 – Panhard Levasor from Paris 1911 - Delage 1910 from France – Charron 1911 from France
- Picnic car: Richmond/USA 1909: a common car with the higher class Americans, a very rare model, there are only 2 existing models left in the world the other one is in a museum in Indiana
- The Aristocratic Panhard-Levassor/ Bellvalet Paris 1911: was luxuries inside with gold, crystal, silk. It even had a phone to contact the driver. The car was made before the discovery of electricity, so the lights were lit with gas
- Buick 1916: this one was displayed on how tourists arrived at the Costa del Sol to spend their honeymoon with all their luggage
- Renault/France 1912: one of those was embarked on the Titanic
- Minerva/Belgia 1914: they showed one of this cars as the aftermath of WWI, the war with 10 Mill victims, this car was left exactly on how they found it after the bombing- there are still the bulletholes near the back seat
The Roaring 1920s: it
came with the Euphoria after WWI and the remarkable prosperity, this led to
behaviour changes as in liberation of fashion and emanzipation of women. The
Black Friday in Oct 1929 is the end of this era
- Hispano Suiza/Spain 1923: yes the Spanish did at some time make cars, this company made luxury and racing cars
- Ballot/France 1928: Ernest Ballot made cars from 1923-32, this car had a Baerth patent: a convertible, when the windows got stored inside the door
- Ambassador Nash 1930: Charles Nash started his company in 1917, he was the president of General motors, his slogan was “give the customer more than he expects” – with this he survived the Great depression
- Citroen/France 1922: the first model made for women- it had great success during the women’s liberation movement
- Topolino Fiat/Italy 1936: fiat made affordable cars and made a hit with this one
- Sudebaker 1931: one you can see in a lot of gangster movies, it was so popular they sold 45.000 in 1915 and 239.000 in 1949
- Unic/France 1924 by Sonia Delaunay a painter, she was the first painter to decorate cars in the 1920s
Art Deco: was the golden
Age of Art Styles in the 30s, this reformist, creative and innovative style can
also be seen in the cars creating luxury and elegance
- They showed a golden Engine from 1929 a monument to the wealth in the 1930s
- Merceds 1936: a symbol of power, one of the most expensive cars before WWII, it was a marvel of technique and elegance, 419 were made and each was custom made. The Nazis leader used them.
- 1936 Rolls Royce: one of the only 12 cylinder – a Model for Millionaires: the most amazing with this one, was looking inside
- Morgan/England 1928 – a strange 3-wheel mini racing car with the engine outside and in the front
- Packard Dietrich/USA 1939: the one here looks exactly like the one President Roosevelt and Georg IV were seen in
- Delage/France 1949: was a car for the rich and famous with ostrich leather, silver and ivory
- 1930 Pierce Arrow/USA: Georg made some of the most prestigious cars in the USA (it had little storage departments on the side)
- Lancia/Italy 1934: the one they had on display was used as Mousselin’s Parade car
- Talbot-Lago/France 1938 – the one showed was inspired by Marlene’s Dietrich performance in her movie “the blue Angel”
Popular cars: the middle
class demanded practical and more affordable cars
- 1931 Morris/England also called the doctors car, the Austin 1928 they were the big minicars, 1930 Austin/England
- Fuldamobil/Germany 1955: it’s also called the yellow egg
- Velorex/Czecheslovakia 1967: the three wheeler cars became popular in Eastern Europe, this one was unique because of the canvas bodywork – but it only did60 km/hr
Design cars: this were
cars created to impress and surprise society by making something completely
new: these cars have something in common – they were all to advanced for their
time and are still getting admired today, they are like “rolling sculptures:
- Lancia/Itali 1939: made for a countess
- Panhard et Lavassor/France 1939: this is an art deco style car, with the steering wheel in the middle, so the driver sits there with a beautiful woman on each side (Paul thought that was a great idea) – this is also definitely on of our favourties
- Desoto/USA 1934: they are named after the Spanish Explorer Hernando de Soto, it looks like the beetle, but was made 15 years before they made the beetles
- Peugout/France 1937: Eclipse – this car had a convertible roof which got invented by a dentist, this system was used again in the 60s – this specific car was buried in the war and was one of the most difficult vehicles to restore in the whole collection
- Tatra/ Czecheslovakia 1947: Tatra is one of the oldest car brands in the world, When Ferdinand Porsche saw it, he used several of it’s characteristics to make the famous beetle (by the way the front lights are super unique: one big one in the middle)
- Cord/USA 1937: it was designed by one of the most famous car designers Gordon Buehring, Cord had a very short lifespan and lasted only for 4 years before it became a victim of the Great Depression
- Auburn/USA 1936: this one was used by Marlene Dietrich
- Allard/England 1949: he put the big engines in light weight cars
- FN Fabrique Nationale / Belgia 1927: this one won several prices and it was the first vehicle to cross Africa in 1928 from north to south
- Renault/France 1930: a car inspired by Salvadore Dali, it was ordered by Mr Astor from Hotel Waldorf Astoria New York
Dream Cars: are the
holleywood American cars – luxury and power, celebrities made those cars famous
- Here we saw the Imperial 1956 made for the state heads like the president of Portugal, Monaco
- Several Cadillacs: they were also the first American cars to reach Europe after the war, their only problem was there were not enough gas stations to fill it up, as it used 30l for 100 km, and one of the Cadillacs was also in pink one of those super long 5.7m long with big wings
- Excalibur/USA 1983: they only made a few of those – very unique, you will be noted
- Rolls Royce 1987 with Swarowski crystals all over (even the car itself is a bit boring)
- Kaiser Darrin / USA 1954: it was too minimalistic for the Chrome era and was a failure as only 435 were sold it was the first fiberglass sports car
- Maserati / Italy 1950: the four Masserati brothers were racing enthusiast, they made 61 on the one displayed here, this one belonged to Prince Vittorio of Rome
Alternative energy: even
early on they tried new techniques like steam, electricity
- The 1910 Stanley Steamer/USA: those were the first ones to break 100 km/hr, after in the 1920s the steam cars were not profitable anymore, after they invented the electric start
- 1916 Milburn/USA electric car: it was the cheapest and lightest and most efficient electric car, it could drive 80 km distance and did up to 25 km / hr, it had levers instead of a steering wheel, they made 4000 of those cars
- Some super weird ones like the Alien made for the museum only in 2010 it runs on hydrogen, or the 2009 Solar space ship made in Bochum/Germany
- Ready to take Flight: Helicron 2/France 1932: a prototype made after WWI, when it was necessary to recycle many aviation engines there are only 2 of these vehicles the other one is in a museum in tennesee
English tradition: let’s
not forget the Rolls Royce with the Spirit of Ecstasy
- The Flowerpower car: a Rolls Royce from 1969 – ok this is so cool looking – it is identical to the one John Lennon and the beatles drove, yes it is the hippie philosophy
- The 1949 Jaguar, the 1948 Bentley,
- 1932 Rolls Royce hunting car (with wood inlays): and yes it was used in India to hunt tigers (really!!!)
Dolce Vita: the 50s
illustrate the post-war economic prosperity and the improvement of living
standards, cars became toys of actors, playboys and the wealthy youth. “Dolce
Vita just means that, in spite of everything, life has a profound sweetness
which cannot be denied”
- 1956 Porsche – 1954 Jagua/England – 1948 Alfa romeo (eventhe king of Egypt bought one of those) – 1956 Ferrari – 1952 Jaguar
- 1955 Mercedes Gullwing: this car was born to win – even today the gullwing doors are amazing
- 1961 Austin Martin: one like James Bond drove
- Delahaye/France 1952: Emile Delahay started the company in 1894 the one displayed crossed Africa from Cape town to Algiers in 10 days 5 hours and 15 Min: 14299 km
- We saw a super cool painted Corvette C2: this is the American symbol, the Corvette was made to compete with the European sports cars that dominated the market in the 1950s, first it was known as the General Motors Ferrari
- 1961 Jaguar/England: in 2008 it reached the top of the list of the most beautiful cars of all times in a survey done by the Daily Telegraph (Paul said it is also very pricy)
Hot rods: this is a new
art form from the USA to transform old rusted cars into spectacular creations:
extension to the body, spectacular rims and paintwork – very common the flame
design, presence of skulls. This “monsters” are a piece of art
- The golden skull: a 1932 Ford B
- The Bomb: designed by the Maga collection
- The Visionary: Matford/France 1936: inspired by Jules Verne the father of science fiction, it reflects the imaginative athomsphere of the fantastic travels of the 19th century- designed by the Maga collection, it’s from a 1934-40 Ford
- Callilac 1961 – American way of life: in cowboy style
- Lincoln 1938: Boyd Coddington was the first star in tuning – this car from Maga collection is dedicated to him
The engine a piece of art: I
mean I thought that will be super boring looking at some engines – but it was
far from it, they had engines from different fancy cars and each one was
painted amazingly in a different style – wow!!!
OK this was super cool!!! I may
need to mention the cool bench from car seats, the art of the colored rims, and
the chairs made of old tires.
After we went once more through
to make sure we can pick our favourite – it’s too difficult.
Around Malaga
We had the glorious idea to
drive to downtown Malaga and check out the beach there – I mean if we are in Malaga
let’s check it out:
- It is Andalusia’s 2nd largest city and it is the largest city of the Costa del Sol
- The name malaka means “the salt” the Phoenician gave it that name in the 8th century BC as they were salting the fish
We discovered: Parking is
complicated – there are a ton of people and we decided it’s to windy to pay for
money to walk in between all those people. But we did see a cool yacht and Paul
said he would like to take a picture of it, so we went twice in the circle,
first time: Paul stopped near a parked car with 4-way-flash on and gine run out
to take a picture and the next circle we parked in a no-parking zone except the
Naval Commander: let’s hope he is not working on Sunday afternoon and we had a
parking spot for 5 Min. And then we had to be careful to run over the horses!!!
Along the Belanmadena
boardwalk
Heading back, and having a
coffee we decided to walk along the boardwalk at our beach – it was windy, but
we did found a really nice bench to sit down in the sunshine to watch and
listen to the waves, soak up some sun, read a book, and Paul doing a bit circle
watching to check out on how people drive in circles. And walk a bit more along
the boardwalk – like we are on vacation.
And in the evening like most of the time: it's time to download pictures - write the diary or only relax from all the stress of being on vacation.
2025-05-22