ANDALUCIA, part 3 - IMPRESSIONS

Marriott Marbella

The Best Stuff:

• sunny and warm
• almonds
• olives
• tapas
• sangria
• market days
• Mediterranean Sea with the mountains above
• cork oak trees
• pueblo blancas
• fresh, fresh seafood
• it's snowing in Chicago, but 60 degrees here
• poinsettas - fresh and lush
• Spanish architecture
• the drive to Ronda on A369
• Marriott's Marbella Beach Club
• daily maid service

Best towns:

• Cabopina
• Puerto Banus
• Ronda
• Marbella
• Fuengirola

Challenges:

• Getting on the A7
• Finding authentic Spanish food

Disappointments:

• Marriott's beach
• restaurants & chiringuitos closed for holidays/season
• folk art and ware is expensive touristy crap

ADALUCIA, part 2 - FUENGIROLA, NERJA, CABOPINO, RONDA, PUERTO BANUS

Sunday market in Marbella

Tuesday a.m... It is raining! I google Marbella weather and they promise scattered showers and temperatures near 60 degrees. We get a call from Madrid--BG has made his connection and will be in Malaga just after 11:00am--and so we grab our umbrellas and head to the Fuengirola market.

Parking is crazy, so CA drops KG and I off giving us 20 minutes to shop. We dash for the food vendors and check out the first available olives. We need to replace the very bitter olive mix we bought in Marbella. This time we will taste before we buy! And, we LOVE the large, salted almonds and want more. The third booth we check out has a beautiful selection of olives, dried fruits, and almonds. We choose 4 kinds of olives--green, spicy green, black, and green stuffed with almonds. We each buy a large bag of salted almonds, and then a communal supply of dried fruits and a mix of fruits and nuts.

We head for our point of rendezvous with CA. I am sidetracked for a moment by some brightly painted ceramics. Then, we are off to the airport in Malaga to pick up BG and then on to Nerja.

We explore the streets of Nerja, check out the Balcony of Europe, and find a cafeteria for a bad lunch. Not my choice... I had my eye on the very European restaurant on the Balcony... But, this is a group effort and I concede. I won't eat bad food again.

We return to the Marriott in Marbella [Elviria] and BG is dazzled by the resort and our accommodations. We allow him a nap since in the past 8 days he has flown Chicago to Paris to Miami to Paris to Chicago to Madrid to Malaga.

Dinner is again a challenge because so many of the restaurants have closed for the holidays. We end up in the just so, so cute port of Cabopino at Albert's, a very Victorian waterfront restaurant--GO FIGURE. Our waiter is from Budapest, an I.T. guy. Jobs are scarce these days in Budapest, so he headed for the coast of Spain to earn some money in a beautiful spot. Monday, a bank holiday, he was skiing in the Sierra Nevadas. The cuisine purports to be Mediterranean and we have openers of tiger prawns or green salad with apples and avocados, and then dine on pasta, sea bass, or chicken breast wrapped around ham and asparagus... The food is good and the singer is very talented. She favors Karen Carpenter songs.

Today we sleep in a bit and then head to Ronda, where bull fighting began. The season lasts only the month of September, but Andrew Forbes has written accolades on the scenery to Ronda from Marbella and inspired us to try both roads. We take the A377 north from Manilva and then the A369 south to San Pedro. The A377 is longer, curvier, and the most beautiful. We have to stop twice for breathtaking views and then restrain ourselves from stopping more.

We take a cafe break in Gaucin where I find cute [secret] gifts for my big girls, and then arrive in Ronda in early afternoon. BG doesn't want to waste any time eating, so we share a baguette sandwich and not much more. We cover the old city--enjoying the views. We again find a small cafe for coffee--very local--before heading back to Marbella.

A Marriott employee had recommended La Taberna Del Pintxo in Puerto Banus for tapas, and the timing is right to give it a try. We love the restaurant, the pintxos [tapas], and the beer, sherry, and wine. The self-serve cold tapas bar is perfect as we can see before we buy--and they look as good as they taste! We also order some hot dishes: jamon con queso y tomate, pisto con huevo, patas bravas, pollos de champinones, i.e. [roughly] ham and cheese on toast, ratatouille with a fried egg atop, spicy potatoes, chicken fillets w/mushroom-cream sauce].

Cool way to keep track of the costs--each cold tapas in the self-serve area has a different skewer, based on price. You leave your skewers on your plate and the waiter tallies the charges.

BG & KG are buying so why not dessert! I order chocolate con horno and since it takes quite awhile to appear, our waiter treats us each to a lemon sorbet. My dessert turns out to be a molten-chocolate cupcake with pistachio ice cream, toasted pistachios and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Our waiter delivers it with 4 spoons--smart guy!

Instead of heading back to the Marriott, we stop for awhile at the Corta de Inglesia--a one-stop shopping experience that includes both high-end and lower-end goods in different areas of the building, along with groceries, housewares, etc. Wal-Mart marries Nordstroms.

A great day. Unsure what the plans are for tomorrow. Maybe Granada. Maybe not.

ANDALUCIA, part 1 - MARBELLA

Marbella, Old City

                                 

Saturday is a travel day—Marseille to Madrid with a 5 hour layover in Madrid where we meet up with our friend KG and the final flight to Malaga. Our bags arrive, the car is ready, and CA drives the A7 30 km toward Marbella and the Marriott Marbella Beach Resort. The resort is actually just a bit before Malaga on the Mediterranean near a village called Elviria.

Marriott seldom disappoints and on arrival we are delighted. Everything is beautiful—two large bedrooms with two large bathrooms, a full kitchen with a granite bar that opens into a full diningroom and livingroom, with a nice-sized terrace overlooking magnificently manicured gardens. If you squint to the left, you can see the sea.

There are indoor and outdoor pools, a mini-mart, a lovely restaurant and a carryout pizza/sandwich shop. Just a short stroll toward the beach, there are two chiringuitos where we can have fresh seafood and paella.

Sunday is fair and sunny, and by noon we are on our way up into the footfhills to picturesque Benahavis for a Spanish lunch. Our waiter brings bread, olive oil, and pâte as we peruse the menu. We choose gazpacho, seafood soup with just a touch of saffron, and a lukewarm(!) salad with julienned vegetables and lovely tuna for starters. Then, sautéed chicken breasts with wonderful olive oil and garlic and the fish-of-the-day with a shrimp sauce. Each plate includes a potato, baked, smashed at bit, and then deep fried in olive oil; and mixed green vegetables.

We wander through the streets, walking off our meal and enjoying this Pueblo Blanca. By the time we wind our way down to the A7 it is 5:30pm and, while we check out Puerto Banus, everything but the restaurants are closed and will be again tomorrow for a bank holiday—the Day of the Immaculate Conception.

Back at our villa, we each find a quiet corner or beach and settle in for the evening. There is no room for dinner, so we postpone our paella for one more day.

We wake up Monday to rain and wet and fill our time brewing coffee and making toast. We have yummy raspberry jam from the local supermercado. We discuss our options for the week ahead, and as soon as the weather clears a bit we head for the market day in Marbella.

We meander through a maze of vendors selling wonderful fruits, vegetables, olives, sweets, pastries, and spices. We choose large salted almonds, dried papaya and pineapple; macaroons, and lovely fried dough dipped in chocolate or filled with sweet cocoanut. We get sweet red cherries, tomatoes, and radishes. There is also a flea market with knock-off designer purses, wallets, and belts. They are very bad knock-offs and no one is tempted. I buy tights for the little girls and two poinsettias for our villa.

Poinsettias are used as border plants here—such a great seasonal touch. There're also twinkling white lights scattered around the resort property, and each town hangs lighted garlands over the main shopping streets—we saw the same in France.

We search out the old city and are delighted by the narrow, cobbled lanes and alleyways lined with brightly-painted buildings with ironwork balconies and flowers and plants in containers everywhere. We stop for tapas and enjoy sangria with our shared small plates. There are artichokes with anchovies, meat balls in tomato sauce, chicken curry, aged goat cheese, and sausages simmered with onions. A black & white Illy coffee—espresso with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—is the perfect ending.

Marbella is a lovely seaside community and we wander down the promenade where we see vendors roasting fish over open fires on the beach, cafes, and bikini shops. The sun is shining brightly over the Mediterranean and the promenade is lined with well-manicured topiary trees. It's a good day to be in Spain.

Tonight we plan on paella from one of the three chiringuitos on the beach just down the lane a few hundred meters,but for now we have again found quiet spots for individual activities—the things you do on a beach vacation.

PACKING

Coast of Spain - a typical Chiringuito

Two more wake-ups and we are off on our latest European adventure. We fly out of Chicago O'Hare Saturday evening and land at Heathrow just 6 hours later, change planes, and arrive in Vienna early afternoon Sunday. The plan is to head straight to the Naschmarkt in Vienna to inhale the wonderful selection and make strategic choices to carry on to Bratislava for Sunday night dinner with our family--including Grandma who, at 80 years, is making her third trip to Europe in 6 years. Grandma never imagined going once to Europe--it was not in the plan. But, when your grandson gets married to a Slovak and they produce two beautiful little girls, we all find ways to get to Europe! We will be together one week in BA and then grandma will have a week alone with her grandkids and great-grandkids while CA and I begin our adventures.

I tend to procrastinate on the packing, but I am a world-class hunter/gatherer. There are books, Christmas gifts, clothing, favorite foods, DVDs, etc. One large suitcase is designated for the bounty. We are also carrying along a new all-terrain stroller for KF's journeys.

Friends are meeting CA and I in Nice for a week in Mougins and the villages of Provence, then CA and I fly to Marbella via Madrid to meet more friends for a week along the coast of Spain. We have done lots of research, but will let each day take care of itself. There will be sites to explore, trails to hike, and markets to peruse. And cafes, and bistros, and tapas bars, and chiringuitos*, and, and, and...

After Spain, CA and I fly to Paris for a week at the Renaissance near the Tulleries in the heart of Paris. We will walk the city with forays into the Metro. We will revisit favorites and explore new avenues. Dinner one night at Spring to eat whatever the chef decides... Mostly we eat simple food in simple cafes and bistros. Food is everywhere and beautifully presented.

Then on December 20th we will fly from Paris to Bratislava to meet up with JE, MA, and JA [the squishy little guy] for a week of Christmas celebrations. If the weather is mild, we will explore the villages on the outskirts of the city and spend hours walking through the Staré Mesto [old city]--drinking punch at the Christmas market and indulging in the Viennese pastries and Vienna coffees [coffee topped with a mountain of whipped cream that melts slowly into the rich and flavorful beverage].

Enough procrastinating. Energy begets energy and there is packing to do! Let the games begin!

*Churinguito - beach bar that serves food and drink. On Sundays paella is the specialty.