We loved our day in Malaga this summer. The eldest was not keen on our parking spot, by the bullring, but we distracted her from what happened in the bullring and walked through the old part of town to the Picasso museum. The artist was born in the city, although he never returned after the age of 19. The museum is housed in a beautiful 17th century renaissance building in the narrow streets near the cathedral, and has a selection of the artist’s paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics on display. My favourite was a painting of Picasso’s young son, Paulo, on a donkey. My own young son was not impressed with the museum, but it was cool inside and it only took about half an hour to walk around, so he didn’t suffer too much.

Once out of the museum, our next stop was tapas for lunch. The helpful man at the tourist information office had pointed out the area around Marques de Larios, behind Plaza de la Marina as good for tapas bars, so we strolled off in that direction. The centre of Malaga is perfect to walk around as it’s mostly pedestrianised and some streets are actually shaded by huge net-like sun shades strung between buildings high above them, protecting shoppers and diners from the heat of the sun. There were so many great looking tapas bars buzzing with Spaniards that we were spoilt for choice, but eventually settled on one. We ordered a selection of favourites to share, and everybody was happy: patatas bravas, meatballs, anchovies, tortilla, garlic prawns. (If only I could rustle up a range of tapas for the kids’ tea every night back home, I’d avoid the constant search for a meal which everyone in the family likes.)

Lunch over, we wandered around the streets for a bit to see what we could see, and came across a Roman amphitheatre from the 1st century BC, just below the Moorish Alcazaba fortress.

The youngest was at his cultural/ sightseeing limit by this point, especially as we hadn’t even glimpsed Malaga football stadium or any of the team’s players, both of which he’d been looking out for all day. It was time to head back to the pool. Malaga is definitely somewhere I’d love to return to, ideally without a child in tow!