Apparently we cannot get enough of this country--we're approaching the end of our two years living in Europe, and somehow managed to squeeze a
third trip back to sunny, friendly Spain. We picked a week at the end of April/beginning of May to escape the cool Spring in Brussels and hit up the beach in Marbella (Southern Spain.) Grandma and Grandpa King gave us a time share week last Christmas, so we stayed at the gorgeous Marriott with Uncle Dale in tow!
The beach was still a little chilly for swimming, so we enjoyed the pools at the hotel and just took walks on the sand. All along the coast was very private and quiet with lots of cute restaurants literally right on the beach. We had so much delicious seafood- even Sofie ate paella and fish!
We really loved the Old town of Marbella. It is set back from the beach a little bit, and is basically built on a hill (like most towns around the area) We found a great tapas place (lets face it, thats one of the main reasons we love Spain!), and Sofie loved the challenge of walking up and down the hilly cobblestone street.
Another fun day trip was to the town of Mijas. It was about 45 minutes from our hotel and set much higher in the hills- the views were great! The day we picked was a little too cloudy, but they say on a perfectly clear day you can see Africa from Mijas. Mijas had lots of donkeys, which were sort of touristy, but the idea came from not too long ago when the townspeople actually used them to ride up and down the hills. At some point they realized they could profit from all the tourists who wanted to give the donkey ride a try. This town was really what I pictured as "southern Spain" with the white buildings, bright flowers, even a very old (and open) bull fighting ring.
We found a playground in Mijas!
The best part about the trip was that it was very relaxing. We took a break from following Rick Steve's "walks", seeing museums and ancient European sights and watched sunsets on the beach drinking sangria. Thanks to Uncle Dale for the extra help, it was a great vacation!
