Europe 2014 - off again!!

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Hola!



Well here we are in Marbella, Costa del Sol, Spain. Such a different place with amazing scenery. Hills and barren mountains in the background, with very lush green golf courses and the Mediterranean sea on the other side - can see it out of my window as I do this blog.

So let's go back a few steps first.

We caught the train late in the day to Rome, strangely enough our tickets weren't even checked so wonder how many people get a free ride? There is a machine that you put your ticket in to but we didn't as we didn't have the usual type of ticket that it takes. A non Italian speaking man told people around him that they were on the wrong train - a group of chinese girls in particular. He told them he was on his way to Milan!! Not Rome... a conductor came along and told him, he was on the wrong train.... he wasn't happy! Eventually, we got to the Hilton Hotel close to the airport where we stayed for the night. We were lucky enough to get an earlier train but still were pretty late getting to the hotel.

At lunchtime the next day we arrived in Malaga, Spain. We hired a car - thank God I'm Preferred Avis member - they get preferential treatment otherwise stay in the queue. As with every other European country, you drive on the other side of the road to what we do in Australia. We found the A7 we had to get onto and had a hel of a time finding where we were staying. Fortunately, in this part of Spain there are a lot of Brit expats so they were very helpful and helped us on our way. By time we arrived at our first overseas "HomeLink" stay we were exhausted - John went for a swim while I checked out the place. It's very nice here with - as mentioned above, great views of the sea and only need to walk a couple of hundred metres to it and the shops of course and soooooo many restaurants. We went to dinner at Harry's Bar and Grill, full of poms. This place belngs to a couple in Scotland - we arranged this between us nearly 2 years ago. She is having her 60th birthday and a special anniversary in Australia - leaving in 6 weeks for a 4 month trip around our country! She - Julie - said that she and Roddy had 14 HomeLink exchangers in Australia including us. Way to go I say! This is a 2 bedroom apartment overlooking the sea in the little distance and is very nice, very Spanish.

I had a wonderful time on my birthday - we headed to the main town - Marbella (Marbaya) to find our favourite department store - Il Corte Ingles, but couldn't find it despite trudging the streets so headed back to our area - La Cala for lunch BUT we found how to get to a golf course to have a look and had my birthday lunch there - magnificent views and ambience. There are so many golf courses here - you can see by the housing estates around them that have survived the GFC and the financial crisis in Europe. We noticed that some houses or blocks of apartments that have been started and just left as they are for a long time. Again we arrived home exhausted and John slept and when he woke up we decided just to have some fruit and cheese for dinner at home. Very nice.... oh yes and the wine... turned out to be champagne!!

ON Sunday we went to Fuengirola and found another Il Corte Ingles department shop and grabbed a few things there each - mainly shorts and t shirts. We had lunch at a seaside restaurant which would take a couple of hundred customers but we got there about 1.30pm when it was almost empty - by time we left there was people waiting for a table - it was packed!! We stopped at another golf course on the way home - it was incredible - we saw so many golf courses from this one up on the hillside - Santa Maria - you will understand when you see the photos I put on here - incredible views and very hilly golf courses... not my cup of tea. Anyway we had a drink there and headed home for our Siesta - getting the hang of these quite easily. We stayed home for dinner again - out on the balcony. Just beautiful.

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Photos

Lunch at La Cala
Restaurant was packed out by time we left although it was almost empty when we arrived. They must all have a late lunch on a Sunday - great idea.

View from La Cala (not Santa Maria)
Very hilly on all 3 courses there but beautiful and green with a contrasting barren mountain behind it

View from La Cala golf resort
Photos never seem to give the correct perspective as the views there were really incredible from the mountains to the sea

Saw this one in a window
The before and after shots of having your hair done, couldn't resist it

Andaluz apartments
Where we're staying - we have a front apartment.

Apartment view
This is one photo showing the view of our pool and a bit of the sea in the background

John and his mate by the sea
What can I say here?

Check out the sign
Found this sign on all the beach chairs under the umbrellas by the sea - of course you have to rent them but loved the sign - I am happy but if you want service you turn it around - I need service. Now that's service!!