A seriously early flight greeted me in Berlin, a 3:45am wake up call was pretty grim. My flight was fairly painless though which was good and I had a couple of hours wait for my folks to land when we would be meeting my Uncle.
The reasoning for Marbella being the last leg of the journey was just a few days chilling out after a hectic few weeks and to visit my Uncle who moved to Marbella 12 years ago. My folks were out for the weekend too so it was a good way to end a great few weeks.
When we were all together, my Uncle met us and drove us to his place which is actually in Nueva Andalucia, about an hour drive from Malaga airport. His place is incredible, but we guessed it would be. It’s in a wicked community with a lovely pool and it’s a 3/4 bedroom town-house. It was great to finally visit as we never got to go out to Kenya before he was retired and in the mansion there! Still, with my love for all things weird and wonderful, he has some amazing pieces of furniture, ornaments and keepsakes from his time there.
I just told a lie actually, we didn’t drive straight to his place from the airport. En-route we stopped in a lovely tapas bar near his place where we would end up going quite a bit. My folks were on the beer, we had some amazing tapas and had lots to catch-up on. We were there for a good few hours before heading back.
As soon as we were back, my folks and I were keen to check out the pool. It was a 1 minute walk from his place which was great, but when we got to the gate we couldn’t get it open and noticed it had a lock. So we assumed it was locked for residents and went back to get the keys. My uncle gave us the keys and we went down but it still wouldn’t unlock, the keys didn’t fit so we assumed there’d been a new lock fitted and we went back up. After a few minutes sitting down, my father decided he was going to jump over and while my mother and I weren’t keen we weren’t letting him have a good time and us not so we followed. We jumped over (we think unnoticed) and spent hour or two in the pool. By the time we left another family had arrived (the pool was always empty, most of the residents who clearly have a few quid didn’t seem to be there, it was great). Anyway, as we were about to leave, we were pondering whether to ask the family for the key or jump over again, my father took the initiative and hopped over and just as we were going to follow suit a guy from the balcony opposite said very politely that all we needed to do was pop this black bar up on the gate to open it! The way he said ‘I thought you didn’t know’ suggested he’d seen us hop in and was just waiting to let us know on the way out! So no keys needed @ all, just a random black bar to pop open the lock… showing our Uncle up in the first couple hours of being there (thankfully he never has used the pool). In the evening we went for a lovely meal at Tuk Tuk close to his house, we all had great meals and went for a quick drink at an outdoor bar before heading to sleep after being knackered due to an early start for us all.
On the Friday we went into Banus for a boat ride into Marbella itself and spent some hours there drinking, eating tapas and strolling around. We had an extra long lunch as I had the stressful task of booking the 3 Europa League ties with no preparation sat at a quite small table having tapas. I managed to get all 3 booked somehow although if at home I think I could have saved a few more quid and wouldn’t have mistakenly booked a 4 day trip to Cologne instead of 3 (I forgot EL = Thursday now *sigh*). We used the pool yet again tonight and we ended up at our home tapas bar for a few before heading back.
Saturday was a lovely day spent on a small beach and we had an amazing lunch on the beach too. More lovely food, more sun, more wine, more beer (for the folks, I was on the still water). After a great day at the beach we headed back and spent the evening on the terrace.
The Sunday was marred by the disastrous football match, but before it was great. We visited a white village and had more great tapas but at our favourite tapas bar. The less said about the game the better but we did watch it in a cool little pokey British pub there (I was grateful for the Stowford Press mmm). In the evening we went for a dinner at an Italian which everybody else enjoyed but mine was a bit of a let down (I love Italian food). We headed back for a few drinks on the terrace to complete a great weekend and a great way to end my 4 weeks in Europe after my mini break in travelling between Dubai/Morocco and this.
The Monday was particularly painful for me having such an early start 4a.m leaving, 90 quid taxi, my folks flight (smooth sailing for them) leaving at 6am and then having to wait for mine at 11:55am. However, 11:55am soon became 17:00 with a delay, and with my flight, then 3 hour drive from Stansted it was a grim day but surprisingly I wasn’t too tired, mainly because got chatting to a load of people in the airport. If there is one thing that brings British people together, it’s a mini-crisis and an opportunity to moan, superb ice-breaker.
I have had a cracking 2 months, but now I really need to get back and look or a new contract before I get used to being a man of leisure! Marbella was excellent, with an excellent host and great to catch up with my folks for a weekend.
