To The Costa del Sol: Off to Marbella We Go

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We’re Going to Marbella
Brekkie is take-out from VIPS eaten at the hotel and then we are back on the metro to Atocha RENFE to catch our Talgo 200 train to Málaga. I buy some tortillas españolas and bread to take with us on our 3.5-hour trip. Málaga is near Marbella and is the closest airport and major train station; once there, we’ll have to catch a bus to Marbella and then a taxi to our hotel. I chose Marbella because it’s a beach town and (mainly) because we can stay at the Westin La Quinta Resort for three nights using a combination of points and cash. Lodging will be cheaper, but food will be more expensive if we’re stuck at the golf resort. Still, we want some chill time during this final segment of our trip.

The train ride to Málaga is chill. We eat our tortillas and drink some vino tinto from the cafeteria car. The bus station in Málaga is across the street from the train station, and by 4:30pm we are on a bus for the one hour ride to Marbella. Then a taxi to our resort, which is isolated and means that we’ll be trapped here for three days with no free wireless Internet. Maybe that’s exactly what we need to rest up before the tough year ahead.

Westin La Quinta Golf Resort
The place is beautiful - Spanish architecture, like much of California, with the sound of water greeting you in the lobby. We are upgraded to a superior room automatically due to our Starwood Preferred Guest status, and when we open the door to our room with a balcony with a view of the mountains, the Mediterranean sea, and the swimming pool, we exhale. Ahh, this is more like it! The king-sized bed is a “Heavenly Bed,” one of these named and patented beds that hotels like to use as markeing (like Sheraton’s Sweet Sleeper). But I’ll have to put it out there - I could live in this bed. Once you lie down, you just drift off to sleep and forget that you’ll be the intern next year, the bottom of the hospital ladder, trying your best to do your job right, always worrying about what you’re not doing right. But now we have to eat - how do we get out of here to avoid hotel food?

There is a Mercedes promotion in the main common area, and Sebastian invites us to test drive the new C-Class that they have outside. He even offers to take us to the town so we can eat and take a cab back. We are too hungry to entertain his offer and end up eating an appetizer of cod fritters with salad while at the bar. We really just want to stave our hunger before dinner. The mixed nuts at the bar are awesome. Why am I singing nuts praises? Because they are really good. They have a different kind of almond called a Marconi almond (so says the bartender whose grandfather was an almond farmer). Leroy is enjoying a dark Havana Club 7 años cubalibre and I’m having a glass of Marqués de Riscal rioja 2002, which will become my favorite Spanish red for the visit. Ketama and Antonio Carmona are playing on their sound system, and the vibe is chill and perfect for a Spanish afternoon. We talk a bit, mainly trying to figure out how to pull off a wedding, then go back up to the room to catch up on our blogs. We are way behind and plan to use our Marbella time chilling and catching up. We order a cheeseburger and cowboy wrap, and cringe out how expensive food is at the resort. We’ll need to blow this place to get cheaper food in town, but how to get into town is the question.

After blogging and enjoying the sun set from our balcony, we turn into the Heavenly Bed and look forward to two days of rest and sunshine in the south of Spain. Qué bella!

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Photos

The Westin
The view from our refuge in Marbella

The Best Shower Ever!
Yep, I'm putting it out there. (At Petit Palace in Madrid).

Marbella
And the Mediterranean Sea

Later that day...
There will be many more shots of this view.

Ahh...
I love vacation!

"Heavenly Bed"
Can you tell Meli's been jumping on it already?