Five flights for 92 euros: Málaga, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Milan and Malta

Exactly two years ago, on the twentieth of January, I boarded a plane in Düsseldorf bound for Málaga. I had travelled before, but always to a single place or with somebody else. This time I wanted to link several countries on my own, hopping from one plane to the next, and to plan the whole thing from start to finish myself.

I like travelling, and I like trying to get by with people in their own language even more. I started learning Spanish for a trip to Chile that never happened, but the learning stayed, and two of the five stops on this route were in Spain. I am no polyglot, but what I enjoy most is the moment when a language stops being something you study and becomes something you simply talk in.

A plan in a spreadsheet

It all started with a spreadsheet of cheap flights: the date, the times, where from and where to, and the price in the last column. The most expensive ticket was 25 euros and the cheapest 14, and all the flights of those two weeks came to 92 euros and 7 cents.

Date	Flight	Times	Price
20.01.2024	Düsseldorf → Málaga	16:15–19:15	€25.00
25.01.2024	Málaga → Barcelona	21:50–23:25	€16.98
27.01.2024	Barcelona → Milan	13:45–15:35	€19.09
29.01.2024	Milan → Valletta	06:15–08:20	€14.00
03.02.2024	Valletta → Cologne	17:50–20:45	€17.00
Total			€92.07

Malta, Marrakesh or Jordan

The ending took me the longest to decide. The spreadsheet had two options side by side for the last week: from Milan to Marrakesh or to Valletta, coming back to Cologne either way and for very similar money. Jordan had been in the running earlier, but it dropped out because of the flight home, which was outrageously expensive.

Marrakesh was much the same, and to be honest I think I was also a little afraid of another continent, just as with Jordan. After all, it was my first ever trip through several countries on my own, and by plane at that, so in the end Malta won.

Málaga

I landed in Málaga in the evening and took the train from the airport straight into the centre, to Centro-Alameda station. I spent five days in Andalusia, some of them in Málaga itself. The city looks best from above, from the ruins of the fortress over the harbour, especially at sunset.

Málaga is the city where Pablo Picasso was born, so his work is easy to come across. I also walked over to the cathedral, whose massive pale walls are hard to fit into a single frame.

The Málaga Centro-Alameda station sign above the platform — The first evening at Centro-Alameda, the cathedral, and Picasso’s poster “Faunes et flore”.

A side portal of Málaga cathedral — The first evening at Centro-Alameda, the cathedral, and Picasso’s poster “Faunes et flore”.

Ronda above the gorge

I spent one day in Ronda, a small town built on the rocks on both sides of the deep El Tajo gorge. The two sides are joined by the Puente Nuevo, a stone bridge from the late eighteenth century that, seen from below, looks as if it grows straight out of the rock.

The Puente Nuevo stone bridge over the gorge in Ronda — The Puente Nuevo over the El Tajo gorge.

The old town is small and quiet. It has the church of Santa María la Mayor with a wooden gallery on its front, and in the squares oranges were ripening in the middle of winter.

The walls of the gorge in Ronda with the bridge in the background — The gorge, the church of Santa María la Mayor and oranges in January.

The church of Santa María la Mayor in Ronda — The gorge, the church of Santa María la Mayor and oranges in January.

Gibraltar and the Sikorski memorial

On the twenty-fourth of January I was in Gibraltar, a scrap of Britain at the very southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. Red phone boxes stand here just as they do in London, and the Rock is home to macaques, the only monkeys living in the wild in Europe. They sit on the railings right next to the tourists, so getting a photo with one of them was easy.

Adam on a viewing platform with the top of the Rock of Gibraltar behind him — A terrace below the top of the Rock, a macaque on the railing and a phone box straight out of London.

Adam by a railing with a macaque sitting on it, the harbour below — A terrace below the top of the Rock, a macaque on the railing and a phone box straight out of London.

From the Rock you can see the airport runway, with Spain just beyond it. At the southern tip, at Europa Point, stands a memorial to General Władysław Sikorski, the Polish wartime leader who died in 1943 when his plane crashed on take-off from Gibraltar. There is a Polish eagle on top of it.

The view from the Rock of the airport runway and La Línea in Spain — The airport on the border with Spain, and the memorial to General Sikorski at Europa Point.

The memorial to General Sikorski with an eagle at Europa Point — The airport on the border with Spain, and the memorial to General Sikorski at Europa Point.

Caminito del Rey

The next day I walked the Caminito del Rey, a path fixed to the walls of the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes gorge. For years it was known as one of the most dangerous paths in the world, but since its renovation in 2015 it runs along new walkways, and everyone gets a helmet at the entrance.

Adam in a blue helmet on the path — The map at the entrance, the compulsory helmet and the suspension bridge over the gorge.

In places the walkways hang high above the river at the bottom of the gorge, and you can look straight down the rock face. That same evening I flew from Málaga to Barcelona.

The Gaitanes gorge with a walkway fixed to the rock and the river below — The gorge from the inside, seen from the walkway.

Barcelona

Barcelona was a short stop. I spent not quite two days there with a friend from Argentina whom I had met back in Leipzig (I write about my years in Germany separately), and it was the only part of the whole trip when I was not on my own.

Adam in the stands at San Siro holding up a Forza Milan scarf — Barcelona’s harbour from above, and me at San Siro with my scarf held high.

Milan and San Siro

I have supported AC Milan since roughly 2004 or 2005, back in the days of Kaká, Shevchenko, Paolo Maldini and Gennaro Gattuso. Those names take me back to the beginning of a loyalty that has stayed with me ever since, and from childhood I wanted to see Milan play at San Siro. I added Milan to the route precisely for the match, and apart from that I wanted to see the cathedral.

I landed in Milan on Saturday afternoon, and by the evening I was already sitting in the stands. Milan played Bologna and the match ended 2–2. There was a Polish connection too: Łukasz Skorupski was in goal for Bologna, and the club still has its report from that match on the website. I did not get to see a win, but I finally watched my team at the stadium I had dreamt of since the days of that old squad.

The floodlit pitch at San Siro seen from a high stand — San Siro on the evening of 27 January 2024.

Full stands at San Siro during the match — San Siro on the evening of 27 January 2024.

A pizza with ham, artichokes and mushrooms on a table — In Italy there had to be pizza.

Sunday was for the Duomo di Milano, which I wanted to see almost as much as the stadium. On Monday at six in the morning I was already flying on.

The front of Milan cathedral and the square before it — The Duomo di Milano. The selfie shows that Milan was colder than Andalusia.

Adam in a beanie in front of Milan cathedral — The Duomo di Milano. The selfie shows that Milan was colder than Andalusia.

Five days in Malta

I arrived in Malta on Monday morning and stayed until Saturday. Valletta is small and built of pale stone, so I could walk all of it. The spire of St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral rises above the city, the Barrakka lift takes you from the walls down to the harbour, and the Triton Fountain stands in front of the city gate.

The spire of St Paul’s Cathedral in Valletta — The spire of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Barrakka lift in the old ditch, and a selfie by the water.

The Barrakka lift in the ditch of the old fortifications, with a car park below — The spire of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Barrakka lift in the old ditch, and a selfie by the water.

The Triton Fountain in front of Valletta’s city gate — The Triton Fountain and yachts in one of the marinas.

Yachts in a marina below the hotels — The Triton Fountain and yachts in one of the marinas.

Malta is not only centuries-old stone, though. Not far from the old walls stand glass towers with car parks lined with palm trees below them, and it was exactly this contrast between classic and modern buildings that I wanted to capture.

Glass towers with curved balconies in Malta — Modern Malta: glass towers and palm trees over a car park.

A car park with palm trees under a blue sky — Modern Malta: glass towers and palm trees over a car park.

Outside the capital, on the west coast, I found Popeye Village, a colourful village built in 1980 as the set of the film “Popeye” with Robin Williams, and not far from there a bay with a sandy beach and a watchtower on the headland. Much of the coast is rocky cliffs, and the water below them was turquoise even at the beginning of February.

The wooden houses of Popeye Village above the bay — Popeye Village, a bay on the west coast and a cliff with a cave.

A bay with a sandy beach and a tower on the headland — Popeye Village, a bay on the west coast and a cliff with a cave.

Who took these photos

Adam on a rocky cliff above the sea — On a cliff above the sea, Malta.

Since I was travelling alone, I owe you an explanation of how I ended up in so many of the photos. Usually I asked other visitors for help, and when there was nobody around, I propped the phone against a stone or wedged it into a crack in the rock and set the timer.

The best summary of the whole trip is my fridge magnets: eighteen of them, from Gibraltar, Málaga, Barcelona and Milan.

Eighteen magnets from Gibraltar, Málaga, Barcelona and Milan laid out on a table — Two weeks in magnets, from Gibraltar at the top to Milan at the bottom.

On the evening of the third of February I landed in Cologne. Behind me were two weeks, five flights, Spain, Gibraltar, Italy and Malta, and all of it had started with one spreadsheet of ticket prices.