Costa Del Sol

I'm still celebrating my birthday and Jens is celebrating his too.  We usually try to do something special either for him or for me or for us both.  Since our birthdays are only 3 weeks apart from each other, it is possible to make a big deal out of it and rub it in your face.  This time we decided to go to Costa del Sol for the big candle blowing event.

The encircled area is Andalusia.

Costa del Sol is a small stretch of beach in the Andalusian part of Spain.  It is the Spanish Reviara. That sounds nice doesn't it?  Put on your sun tan oil and say it with me: eSpannnnn ish Rrrrrreviarrrra.  Very good!  Concrete hotel blocks, side by side for miles and miles, is another way to describe it.  Put on your g-string bikini and say it with me: Cooon-creeete hotellllllll blooocks.......  And though that may not sound very nice at all, we had some very nice hotels on or near the beach with good food and good service.  We went specifically to Málaga, Marbella and Terremolinos (in that order).

We didn't quite know what to expect with exception of what one normally hears about Costa del Sol and most of that is negitive. And there is the ugly side - old and run down.  Yet the charm is there as well on every corner.  One only has to have the right frame of mind and to be sure to wear your  "+ glasses".

I will now break this blog into 3 chapters, titled efter each town.  There will be a few pix and then if you are interested you can click the links to all of the photos that can be found on my shutterfly site.

MÁLAGA

This is the town we flew into.  From the airport you can take the train or the bus to the city center.  We took the new express A-line bus from the new terminal 3 for only €3 per person each way.  Becuase it was an express bus, there were only 7 stops and it only stopped if there were passengers waiting - which there weren't with exception of stop #4 at the train station.  We had to get off at stop #5.  In other words: it was a ½ hour ride and the stop was just 2 streets from our hotel.  I scoped it all out on Google Earth before leaving home.  Jens likes to do taxi's and I am such a penny pincher that I prefer to do public transportation if reasonable.  The price difference is like a free meal.  This is our new gig: hotel and bus stop have to be side by side becuase Jens has to save his walking strength for when I drag him all around tourist-town.

We found a very nice 3* hotel just 50 steps from the old town.  Old Town is small enough that you can walk from end to end in about 20 - 25 minutes.  BUT ! you could walk for hours and hours within the old town.  There is so much to see and then of course there is the coast line and city parks and on and on.  Naturally we did the Hop On Hop Off bus to get a quick glimpse of the town.  We were there for only 2 days so we did what we could at a comfortable speed and will have to save the rest for next time.

Here are a few pix from Málaga.

 This is the view from our room. 
The red and green roof building is the produce market.

We chose a room with balcony option. the balcony is only big enough to step out onto and just barely at that.  A balcony room just guarantees that you are higher up in the building. Stepping out and looking right we could see the center of old town, tower of the Málaga cathedral and the Alcazaba ruins on the hill.

 Delicious looking bakeries -
but once you've had real Danish danish, nothing else compares.

 Just 50 steps from our hotel is the start of one of the walk streets in the old town
and here it is beautifully lined with palms.

 By step number 75 we were already pooped and decided to sit down and order a café con letche.

 Who knew that Málaga could be this beautiful!

 The bell tower of the Church of San Jaun and this we can see from our hotel room.

 This is one of the church walls.

 One of the many fountains -
 this one is smack in the center of old town at Plaza de Constutión.

 This is the inside of the produce market just across the street from our hotel.

 Hop On Hop Off bus city tour.

 And we hopped off here at the huge cathedral of Málaga

 There were religious tile pictures everywhere.

 Oh mi god - look who's here!  It's that famous Danish story teller 

and he is telling me the story of La Sirena Pequeã  (aka the little mermaid).

 Between old town and the coast line is the beautiful city park of Málaga
with the most exotic tropical plants.

 At the end of the park and in the middle of the round-about is the beautiful
Fuente de las Tres Garcias at the Plaza General Torrijos.

 Some hunky muscle men holding up the city hall.

 The rain in Spain stay mainly in the planes but today was a non-mainly day.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF MY PIX FROM MÀLAGA

 

MARBELLA

It's Spanish so say: mar-bay-yah.   Years ago on one of my flights to California, I met a man sitting on the seat next to me.  He was reading an American newspaper so I knew he was an American.  I didn't want to talk to him so I just pretended to be Danish and read my Danish newspaper.  Well our secret was out of the bag almost immediately.  He was really a Dane and I was really confused oh I mean I am the American.  So we started talking before we took off and we talked non-stop all the way to Chicago.  He works for Danisco and lives with his Danish wife and their 2 boys in Wisconsin.  They have been living there for as long or longer as I have been living in Denmark.  But it turns out that they have an apartment in Marbella and when they are there, they are so kind to send me and Jens a post card.  So basically my only knowledge of Marbella is what I can see on the post cards and what they write about it.  Eventually I have received so many post cards and greetings from Marbella that I just had to throw Marbella into the travel mix of our Costa Del Sol tour.

At the end of our 2 days in Málaga, we took the bus back to the airport and rented a car for 3 days and drove to Marbella.  The drive is only 55 minutes on the highway but we took the scenic route and stopped for lunch making the trip 2 hours and very nice.  Once we got to Marbella we had a hard time to find our hotel.  It was on the beach but we couldn't find the beach.  I had made a print out from Mapquest but when it came to make a "slight left" we got all mixed up because it was impossible to make a slight left.  There was no left turn at all.  Well... there was but only if you wanted to drive on the wrong side of the highway.  So instead we made a right.  That was dumb.  And we laughed because had we just gone forward about a ½ mile more, we would have come to the hotel without a hitch.  We new we were close so we asked a woman on the road if she knew where Hotel Fuerte Mirmar was at.  She pointed and said, "it's right over there".

It was a wonderful hotel right on the sand with view of the harbor and sea and of the mountain side. As nice as it was, it didn't look anything like the post cards I have received from the Danish-Wisconsin couple, Lars and Merete.  We were on the 6th (7th) floor with great views and while walking down the hallway of the hotel I looked out the window and saw a big church that is placed on the opposite side of what we can see from our balcony.  I said to Jens, "That must be the old center of town, why don't we head in that direction. Bingo! 

Here are some pix from our 2 days in Marbella.

 On the way to Marbella we stop for lunch in Fuengirola.

 Across the street from our lunch café.

 A short walk from our hotel we sat at this promenade bar and café and drank cervesa.

 One of the many religious statues - this one at the harbor.

 We had delicious stake here at this restaurant right on the beach promenade.

 This is the mountain view from our hotel balconay. 
In the opposite direction is the view of the sea.

 Now we are in Old Town - so charming.

 At the Church of Encarnacíon in the center of town.

 The Plaza de los Naranjos was so cute we just had to stop and have a drink.

 I'm pretending like I am a famous Hollywood star hiding behind my Foster Grant's

 This is the promenade between Old Town and the beach.

  This is the promenade between Old Town and the beach.

 This is the view of Old Town from the window in the hotel hallway.
It would be nice to have this view too but from here you cannot see the sea.

 

 This is the pool of the hotel and you can see how close we are to
the water by the fishing boat in the background.

 We enjoyed breakfast at poolside.

 This is the hotel we stayed at. 
Our room is in the middle just to the right on the 6th (7th) floor.

This is one of the very old fisherman homes covered in tile.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF MY PIX FROM MABELLA

 

Terremolinos

Since Marbella is about an hour away from the aiport and we had an early departure, I figured that it was best to get as close to the airport as possible so that when it was time to check-out, it would be a short drive to the airport and not a long drive.  The closest town to the airport is Terremolinos; only 15 minutes away. At the start of my planning, I really wanted to go to Fuengirola - not for any special reason other than it just sounded interesting.  I just picked the name out of the hat but when I looked at the map, Terremolinos made much more sence.  It turns out that Terremolinos is also the gay hot spot of Costa del Sol.  But we were there only over night and we are not into the bar/club scene or anything after 8pm if it doesn't include ice-cream.  I was simply looking to be as close to the airport as possible.

It turns out that we had lunch just a 3 minute walk from Stefan's best friend's bar/café.  But we didn't realize that until I read the e-mail/facebook message too late on my mobile phone. I always carry that damn phone with me everywhere I go but I always forget to check it or turn it on or turn up the volume.  Stefan is the Swedish guy we know and visited him at his home last year.  He is also our baby sitter for Miss B. - the name he's given to our dog, Bounty.

The hotel we stayed at is big and ugly on the outside but very nice on the inside and the view was great even though we had foggy/overcast weather.  We had a hard time again finding this place as Terremolins is built on a mountain side with very windy roads and we couldn't figure out how to get down the mountain side to where the hotel was out.  We finally figured it out after driving in round circles in the center of old town.

But of course I wanted to spend time in the old town and it meant that we would have to walk back up the hill.  Yes we had a car but parking was a nightmare so we just left the car out on the street in front of the hotel.  There was an elevator that went from beach to town and the elevator was just 50 steps away from our hotel but it was closed for siesta.  How strange.  So we walked up "souvenir ally" to get some lunch. Before we completed our lunch we notice how the town just suddenly died.  All the shops closed down and all the cafés emptied out and everybody went home or hotel for siesta.  We were ready to shop but instead we just walked around a napping town.  Most surprisingly was that they even turned off all of the wonderful water fountains so that they could nap as well.

Later after lunch we walked back to our hotel to take a little siesta ourselves.  Then when it was time to go to dinner we thought that we would give our tootsies a rest and just walk across the street to one of the beach restaurants.  But the one directly accross the street was very tacky and botulism looking and the restaurant next to that appeared to be pretty much the same.  So back across the street we went and decided to take the elevatro up to town and check out Stefan's friend's restaurant.  But just as we were about to enter the elevator we notice a small sign that showed the closing hours for the elvator and it closed at 8.  We were ready to go have dinner at 7 and we didn't want to do all that walking again so late at night back to the hotel.  So instead we walked back again across the street to the beach promenade and checked out yet another beach restaurant - there were millions to choose from one after the other.  This one was all covered in colorful garden decoration and lit up with colorful lights.  It looked like a decent stake house.  It had great service and it turned out to be the best restaurant of the entire week.  The stake was so delicious and tender, you could chew it with your eyelashes.

Here are a few pix from Terremolinos.

 On the way from Marbella to Terremolinos we met
a heard of elephants at a round-about.

 This is the very ugly hotel but it was very very nice and comfortable on the inside.  

Unfortunately it was overcast the only day we were here.

The temps. were perfect but I'm coming back when the skies are clear.

This was so funny.  You can pray to Jesus here at this hole in the wall and just in case he can't here you, you can always call the operator and ask for long distance to get you Jesus on the line.  click and listen.

 

 The town is closed for siesta.

 We are the only souls on this square.

 Such charming cafés through the town.

 It's very colorful on Avenida de la souviners por la Turista.

 This is the place we finally settled on for our last meal.

 The place was lit up and covered in small statues of all types.

When we are in Spain, we always order 2 of these delicious sizzling appetizer: shrimp in garlic-chili oil. 
Hit the play button and listen to it sizzle.

 Our meal has arrived.

You know you are in for a special treat when your stake matches your wine and
 the stake is served on a contrasting background color.

 He we are in front of the restaurnte on the sand.

This is the side of the restaurant and it's like this all the way around the building.  They made sure that they stood out from all the other hundreds of restaurants and cafés to choose from.  It sure worked on us and we'll be there again next time.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL MY PIX FROM TERREMOLINOS