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Published: April 29th 2015
Day 1-2:
We left Vancouver Thursday April 16 in the early hours (yawn ?) and thanks to Chris we didn't drive. By 17:00 we arrived in Montreal, ready to pick up our rented car by speaking our broken French tongue ? and head to Ottawa to meet the next day with Terri's family. At around 19:30 we pulled into a secluded exit off the highway and ordered, again in French, a subway sandwich, only to realize afterwards we were now in Ontario and laughed because the guy behind the counter was so graciously trying to understand what we were asking and was perfectly bilingual ?. The Delta Ottawa was our place to rest ourselves, and we soon fell asleep..well, at least I did while Terri counted sheep.
Friday greeted us with sun and we headed to Jon and Lisa's to spend some enjoyable reuniting with them, Jacob and Emma and Della. We agreed to meet that the Willows on our way back home. After visiting, we drove back to Trudeau International in Dorval and waiting for our 23:00 flight to Barcelona.
Day 3 - 4:
This 7 hour flight seemed like all day long and placed us
in Barcelona at around 17:00 their time. I can sleep anywhere and did manage to capture some rest for a few hours whereas when we landed Terri was ready for bed. It was fortunate that the Marriott we booked was only a 15 minute bus ride from the airport and effortless to find once we got Out of the terminal. After check in I went investigating through the hotel, bought some food and wine at the bar there and as the proud hunter going back into our rented cave, Terri was barely awake, managed to chow down then was out for the count until next morning ?. So much for the Sightseeing in Barcelona Since our flight next morning to Malaga was around 8am. We awoke in the dark (the sun in Spain this time of year arises an hour or so later than ,Vancouver and sets around 21:30). We arrived in Malaga (pronounced mal a gah) just before 10:00, rented a cute 4 door standard Fiat and headed off to our resort on the east side of Marbella (pronounced mar bay yah). Our first week was at the Alanda Marbella Resort, Very generously rated as one of Interval International's
better resorts, but in comparison the Marriott Marbella where we are now staying, there is no comparison.?. But who cares, right? We're in Spain's Costa deal Sol! Anyway, back to day 3... We quickly sought out some lunch after checking into the Alanda, and walked the beach area and heading back to the room to catch some rest. Wow...we slept until day 4...brings us to Sunday....
What a beautiful area! After getting the rest we needed, we decided to explore. Here is Spain, Sunday is still a day for rest and family time so most shops are closed, so we drove into Marbella (7-8 Kms west) and drove thru a few residential areas...and looking for a grocery store to buy some bacquettes and cheese/wine ? ...made a wrong turn and had to drive thru a tunnel that was perhaps a maximum 1 foot wider than our little car, scraping our side view mirror but managed to make it through otherwise unscathed...had we stopped for engine trouble, the only way out of the car would have been through trunk. Once we found our way back to the highway, we drove into Puerto Banus, and little area just southwest of Marbella,
and discovered this is the area of the rich and famous. Considering an unemployment rate in Spain of several double digits, this area doesnt appear affected. After finding a small grocery store, we headed back the Alanda club to enjoy our evening.
Day 5 - 6:
Today we planned some sightseeing in Malaga about an hour Northeast from here, by driving from sight to sight. My Scottish nature prevented me from getting a GPS ( I had one from Chris and Yoko but I could figure out how to download a free map of Spain and Garmin wanted over $100 for
theirs) so we 3 frustrating hours driving thru many narrow one way Malaga streets finally to arrive at the entrance of a castle in the city centre atop the highest point, found a much needed bathroom and then enjoyed the best view of the city. We were just above the bay where 4 cruise ships were anchored and the site was started to get very crowded from these excited tourists, so we left to seek the next site called La Teatro Romano, which was apparently very close by. Yeah, right! ? After another gritty 30 minutes
in a very busy city centre, we escaped and headed to our rental car company near the airport to rent an English speaking GPS. Yahoo! We were in need of some rest and food, so he headed back to to our resort and called it a day, as far as sightseeing activities go.
We treated ourselves to an enjoyable fine dining experience at the Elviria even though we looked like we had dressed for a camping trip when everyone else was finely dressed. A bottle of wine took care of that. We planned our next seige on Malaga over steak and seafood. ?
Once revigorated by food, drink and sleep, we set out this Tuesday morning to see the rest of the heritage sites in Malaga. The highways connecting townships and cities are really good compared to Canada, and everywhere we went we encountered roundabouts with 3-7 exits, which we had to carefully count in order to follow the instructions of our female GPS tour guide. ?. We easily arrived at the Teatro Romano which was right beside several other historical sites we wanted to visit. We found an underground parking garage and set out by foot, ever
vigilant of the disreputable pickpocketers. So far we haven't seen any and feel very safe everywhere we go. Our first climbed up a stone walkway to this castle only to find when we arrived at the top that it was the same castle we visited the day before, only we came up from opposite sides. terri managed to climb it without too much difficulty breathing, and at the top we sat by a little cafe to drink a little wine and beer, which was all it took to get Terri into a joyous mood.? . We continued to soak in the beautiful architecture surrounding us, walking through numerous buildings and streets. Once we had our fill we felt the need to recoup so back to Alanda we went. Thankfully for our GPS, we easily arrived back in little time.
Day 7 - 8:
Today we headed to Seville (pronounced Sa Vee Ya), about a 3.5 hour drive. We drove through very peaceful rolling hills and mountain ranges and olive orchards that would stretch to tops of steep hills. Beautiful countryside. The night before we were fortunate to secure online a Marriott hotel right at the centre of the
city because when we arrived, the city was bustling with a Flamenco fiesta celebration. Men, women and children everywhere were finely dressed for this event and hotels were completely booked up. This was a pleasant surprise from our initial sighting as we came into the city where we saw a large gypsy ghetto area just perhaps 10 minutes from our hotel.
The sight of a line-up of horses and their carriages in Plaza del Triunfo caught our eye as we wandered around behind the Cathedral and beside La Giralda tower And the beautiful Plaza de Espana. The nicely shaped orange trees lining the side of the square added that special little touch to the scene! We took lots of pictures and anticipated watching some Flemenco dancing on the streets later in he evening (most don't dine until late in the evening) but by the 10pm we were exhausted and decided to take a taxi back to the hotel ( a 10 minute carriage ride would have cost us cdn$90 vs $10 cabby fare).
After a restless night (perhaps due to all the fantastic espresso and coffee we've been consuming) we checked out without breakfast and headed to Cordoba
to meet Manuel and his brother Alberto and his mother Rosa. We arrived at their door about 11:30, walking down a vary narrow but pretty street, not too far from where we luckily grabbed a rare parking spot. Only Rosa and Manuel were there greeting us since Alberto was out at the time, and Manuel's father was away in Portugal competing in a170km mountain bike race. They gave us a tour of their beautifully-decorated home designed by the father, then promptly showed us part of their beautiful city, all very historic and well preserved. Their area of town was getting ready for an important religious right celebration, and perhaps this was happening throughout all of Córdoba. At one point we sat down at a cafe and ate snails, big ones and small ones. We were surprise by how delicious they tasted.
When we returned to their home, we met Alberto and they all got busy preparing the main course for us, a beautiful selection of traditional Spanish food and although we were getting tired from our travels, we sat to eat and enjoyed everything they prepared. That were so gracious! Unfortunatel, not long after our meal, Terri started to
feel sick and we knew it wasn't the foI'd because I was fine. We excused ourselves from the remaining hospitality offer to us for the planned overnight stay and restaurant meal the next day with the whole family. We felt vey bad but was necessary to get back to the coast and sleep where Terri would be more restful.
Days 9 -12:
As soon as we arrived back we checked into the Marriott Marbella Beach Resort and stayed put enjoying the resort's many amenities and wonderful climate, except the first day Sunday was rainy and windy, but we just slept anyway. On Wednesday, we ventured out to Marbella for a short while, and enjoyed the area' offering of tapas and an evening meal of paella, which as fantastic!
Day 13:
Today is Thursday and with all sunny weather and 28 degrees, we mainly sunbathed by the pool and read books. We did start off the day walking for an hour on the clean sandy beach stretching in either direction just outside the resort's property. The ocean has been really calm all day. Tonight we have reservations at a nearby popular beach house restaurant. We're
looking forward to a pasta seafood delectable meal by the seaside.
.....returned from the best meal yet! Butternut squash/coconut milk/shrimp soup, Malay curry seafood and chicken, and seafood spaghetti.
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Manish
non-member comment
Nice view
And nicely captured