Marbella etc (4)

WEDNESDAY 1st October

Our first full day at the resort. We weren't in our usual villa but it was fairly close - adjacent to the reception block and roughly above the Market Place. This was the view from our balcony:

The last time we were here it was a full house - Gary, Luca and Ross came too. This time it's just Jo and me - so much room! We purposely hadn't hired a car this time - we had planned just to have a relaxing break mostly on-site.

Being away from home and having spent 3 nights in a hotel in Malaga I had fallen out of my knee exercise regime so I needed to get back on track quickly and I thought the best way to do that was to use a couple of the machines in the gym - so that was my start to the day, after which I picked up our morning croissants - lovely!

We spent some time at the adult-only outdoor pool but otherwise did very little other than read our books. We had managed to cast my Netflix account to the TV's in the apartment and had started watching the House of Guinness on Tuesday evening so we were on to episode 2 now.

THURSDAY 2nd October

Today we were booked to attend another sales preview - something we had booked the previous year as it seemed like a good deal. It's not something we look forward to but we got through it unscathed.

After lunch we decided to walk to the local mall where there is a decent-sized Carrefour supermarket. We didn't plan to buy a lot - only stuff that we couldn't get, or was substantially cheaper than, the small market at our resort. It's a bit of an up and down walk but it took less than 15 minutes to get there.

Nothing much else today - other than laundry, cooking, reading and eating - then another episode of the House of Guinness.

FRIDAY 3rd October

I didn't go to the gym this morning - my knee was sore and swollen. Jo thinks I overdid the gym work yesterday. However, the croissants had to be got so off I went, cheered on by Jo looking out from the small balcony at the back of our apartment:

Time to stretch our legs a little - a beach walk, heading west in the direction of Marbella town. The sea was very calm and settled and we paddled a little on the way. After an hour or so we were ready for lunch and we came across the beach cafe we had stopped at last year. We enquired about tapas, but no, all they did was "racion" - basically small portions. We chose a mini hamburger and something that was described as aubergines with honey - and this arrived:

Deep fried aubergine chips in honey? Really? There was enough there for 4 of us.

On the way back there are stretches of boardwalk - part of the long-term plan to cover the whole coast:

We alternated between the boardwalk, the beach and, towards the end, pavements through other resorts:

We made it back "home" safely:

Over 16,000 steps again today.

SATURDAY 4th October

Jo had a bad night - her back again, so it's been a slow day. I was back at the gym this morning and this afternoon I decided to walk to the local pharmacy/pharmacia to get a top-up of Voltarel for her. Unfortunately, I got there a few minutes too late - they closed at 2:30 pm and the next nearest is over 12 kms away in Marbella town. I found out that you can't get any medicines - not even paracetomol - unless you go to a proper pharmacy. No disaster for now as Jo has adequate to see through the weekend.

It's Saturday so it's pizza night and I planned to go to on-site Charlie's Bar to get it. I wondered whether they would be showing the Manchester United match but was disappointed to see that Charlie's doesn't open until 6 pm now - I'm sure it used to be 4 pm which was perfect for watching Premiership football on Saturday afternoons.

Marbella etc (3)

TUESDAY 30th September

Breakast then final packing, check out and wait in the foyer for a while. We soon got fed up and wandered over to the bus station where I went up to the ticket desk and showed her my carefully researched screen shot:

"No, no, no" she said - "train to Fuengirola then bus from there". It seems this particular bus service doesn't run any more so off we trotted to the nearest train station where I went up to the desk thinking I could get tickets from there but I was told just to tap my credit card on the machine entry point - which we did - and it got us through in good time to catch the next train to Fuengirola.

3 stops later we were at Malaga airport - who knew there was a train station there? I've been to the Costa del Sol more than 20 times and was never aware of this. Anyway, 40 minutes later we were at the terminus in Fuengirola. Now the trick was getting through the electronic barriers - we tried several but none would accept my credit card. We spoke to one of the staff and he said it's ok - just walk through here - in 2 hours time your card will be charged with the maximum fare. Sounds good - except 4 days later the only charge on my credit card account is the nominal 1c card check.

Anyway we went for coffees and I ordered an Uber to take us to our resort - easy.

At the resort we were a little early but soon were in our apartment and had stocked up with food essentials from the Market Place. The second part of our holiday could now start.

Marbella etc (2)

Saturday morning here and it's getting hotter again. Hope everyone's ok back home after Storm Amy.

I forgot to mention that, before we came to Spain, I made some of our travel arrangements for January/February in the southern hemisphere. We leave Aberdeen on 7th January and fly to Singapore for a few days. We then go to Darwin - again for a few days before heading to Adelaide. After that, final plans are yet to be made. We have booked a week up in the Gold Coast the first week in February but otherwise our plans are fluid until we return to the UK on 26th February - a bit shorter than our usual stay.

Now back to the Marbella diary:

MONDAY 29th September

Our second full day in Malaga. First of all we had to check where the bus station was as we had specific plans to catch what was allegedly the only bus of the day that dropped off at Hotel Don Carlos, adjacent to the Marriott property. Finding the bus station was no problem but figuring out how and where to book wasn't quite as easy. After a while we decided we would just come along early on Tuesday and suss it out then.

I had booked us in to the Picasso Museum at 2 pm - it was fully sold out on Sunday when we'd tried. We had plans to see the Cathedral as well but didn't know whether we'd make it over there in time to do it justice before the 2 pm deadline.

In the end, we made it in plenty time. The vastness and the splendour of these historic churches gives pause for thought that "them and us" is not just a current human failing:

We did the full tour with audio guide and still had time for another tapas lunch just outside the Picasso Museum, watching the long line of ticket holders slowly progressing towards the entrance. One of the tapas choices was black pudding so we just had to try it:

Then it was time to join the Picasso line. I can't pretend I'll ever fully understand his work - surrealism, cubism etc - but there were one or two pieces that caught the eye:

I thought we'd look for a quiet beer after the Museum but had yet more frustrations with Google Maps information about opening and closing times and whether businesses were still going or not. We gave up eventually but then happened upon a (very) small hole in the wall that did nothing but Pastis del Nata - and a coffee if you want. It was doing a roaring trade - and no wonder.

That kept us going for a bit as we headed to one of Malaga's very old what I would call sherry houses - Antigua Casa de Guardia. I made the rookie error of calling the drinks that were poured from large casks behind the bar "sherry" - "no, no, no - ees Malaga wine!":

We had 3 each - Seco, Pajarete & Moscatel no.2 - any more and we might not have found our way back very easily! Quite an experience - the barmen tally your drinks in chalk on the bar and then total them up when you're ready to check out - and if you leave a tip, they ring a bell so all can hear!

We made it back to our modern, high tech hotel which didn't appear to have a proper restaurant but it turned out there was a franchise operating adjacent to where we had breakfast. We were their only customers but we had a lovely meal starting with local bread and olive oil which was so nice you could have drunk it from the bottle. Even our random choice of wine was excellent:

Off to bed - tomorrow we check out and head to our Marriott resort.

Marbella etc

Today (Thursday) is our 3rd day on the Marriott resort, having spent 3 nights previously in the centre of Malaga. Ryanair was bang on time but we had some technical problems with Uber - we understand there was a blip in the internet that evening - so it was almost midnight (Spanish time) when we checked in to our high tech hotel where it's all Bluetooth entry etc.

But before I do the holiday diary I should tell you that I managed to go out on my bike with my pals on a fairly decent ride and I had no issues with my knee. Furthermore, I attended my 6 week physiotherapy check the day before we flew out to Spain and all went well. She said there was now no need to see the surgeon again - just keep up the good work.

The weather in Banchory had been pretty good before we came here - every morning we would sit in bed and look out at what we called the golden light as the sun came up and shone on the trees:

Our last evening in Banchory was a bit bitter-sweet as we attended one of Mohammed's retirement do's. No more Derbar - the end of an era. Let's hope a suitable replacement comes along. We were there with Anne and Leslie again - it used to be 6 of us every month but Johanne is now too poorly to attend:

Back to Spain now:

SUNDAY 28th September

We walked past the port to the tourist centre - cathedral, Picasso museum, Alcazaba fortification etc. To get to the top of the latter it's quite a climb and I wondered whether Jo would make it or not but she was game to try. I pointed out that it was a zig-zag path most of the way which helped.

First was the Roman theatre:

Then the climb - occasional rest was required:

We made it to the top and then headed for lunch - tapas, of course and it had to include sizzling gambas pil-pil:

Thinking a beer might be in order on our way back to the hotel, we searched in vain for somewhere with decent beer that was actually open before evening. Google Maps wasn't much help - a lot of the info seemed to be out of date or just incorrect. We gave up but did eventually stumble upon one on the way back - https://lafabricadecerveza.com/en/

A short(ish) kip at the hotel then out for dinner. Not many places open early enough for us on a Sunday evening but we hit the jackpot with https://tascalaska.es/. Excellent salad followed by paella:

More to follow in due course.