WARNING: this post contains some surprisingly uncomplimentary comments about the life and work of Pablo Picasso. If you are a particularly sensitive Arts person, read it at your own risk. A good place to start a walk around Malaga is where Alamada Principal, the city centre’s main artery, meets its most fashionable street Calle Marqués…

The train out of Madrid takes three hours to run down south, through the great plains and scrubby rolling hills of south-central Spain. As Castille gives way to Andalusia the hills seem to draw in nearer and there are more deep river beds to cross, and even more tunnels to push through. The hills are…

Three nights in Valencia. A decent period for a city break, but as usual not enough to get beneath the skin of a place to reach its beating heart. I passed through the central market just as it was closing. I grabbed a peak of the cathedral just as they were saying Mass. I didn’t…

First of all, we need to deal with that bat. Here we are inside the Lonja de la Seda, the superbly elegant silk trading hall that stands as a monument to mediaeval Valencia and its power and riches. But wind back a bit. Like all three of the great Spanish cities I’ll be visiting, Valencia…