April 2017: The kids were psyched. Roger was skeptical. My mother-in-law was nervous. But I had a new fun adventure planned! We had a short amount of time and limited ability to walk long distances, due to my father-in-law’s knee operation, and a great big city to explore. So I suggested we do a Segway tour of Malaga so we could see the most that we could in a day. There were several companies in Malaga that offer Segway tours but I decided on Segway Malaga Tours because it had a number of positive reviews.
This was our first day in Spain and we still had serious jet lag so we slept in. Everyone finally got moving about 9am. We booked a one hour tour at the last minute and Segway Malaga Tours was very accommodating. We wanted to do the two hour tour but it was not available due to the processions for holy week.
We checked in, which was quick, and were given helmets and dorky orange vests. The segways had baskets in the front for your stuff but I kept my camera gear in my bag. Then Annette, our guide, gave us the “how to ride a segway” lesson. Lean forward to move forward, lean back to stop, lean the handle to the right or left to turn. It was pretty straight forward and she had each of us practice until we were comfortable. Of course, our kids, ages 11 and 12, mastered it easily. But even my mother-in-law, who was very skeptical, was able to get comfortable on the segway.
Riding them through the city was a great way to get an overview of what we wanted to see more of later. We passed through the Botanical gardens, saw the old Roman theater and the entrance to the Alcazaba (an old roman fort), then we road up a beautiful shady, tree-lined path to a lookout just below the old castle.
We passed many people walking up the steep hill to the castle who looked at us enviously on our motorized wheels.
We stopped at a hotel with a spectacular view of the city, Parador de Malaga Gibralfaro. It was a great place to take pictures and to appreciate just how big Malaga is.
Since it was only a one hour tour, we headed back the way we had come up. At the end of the tour, Annette let us go full speed on our Segways. It was little disappointing. They don’t really go that fast.
After our Segway tour we had some delicious crepes at a little cafe just around the corner and then headed back through the Botanical gardens to visit the inside of the Alcazaba.
The old Roman fortress was in pretty good shape for being several hundreds of years old. The gardens were lush and well-maintained. The detail in the architecture was amazing.
While we finished up our tour of the Alcazaba, the Holy Week processions had started and we were able to get a glimpse of the participants dressed in their robes and pointy hats. We also saw a large float passing by. There were hundreds of people in the streets watching so it was tough to get a good picture. It looks like the best place to be is in the balconies.
Overall, an amazing first day of our weeklong adventure.
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