Marbella

Well its still raining in the always sunny south of Spain and so we headed directly southwest the 186 km to Marbella.

We had been kindly offered a place to stay by Antonio and Natalia. We met Antonio at the BMW dealership in Madrid last week just before he left for a trip to Morocco. We arrived to there home and were served a gourmet lunch.

We then rested up and waited for Orvar of the Kingdom of Sweden to arrive. He left home 4 days ago and has come almost 4000 km to meet us.

Our gracious hosts chauffeured us around town and showed us some of the sights. Walking along the seashore we checked out the big boats moored there and all the fancy shops.

Then we toured the old city or Casco Antiguo and stopped in for some vino tinto and traditional tapas.

This one is for you Ruby Garden!!

At home we opened the bottle of bubbles Orvar brought with him from Champagne.

Today Antonio had to go to Japan on business and so it was up to Natalia to show us around. We had lunch at a trendy tapas bar and then had drinks at the beach. We had to dip our toes in the Mediterranean Sea.

On a clear day you can see Africa from here, but we did at least see Gibraltar.

Today we met with Agustin a friend of Natalia’s who is a Spanish Moroccan who gave us his favorite routes and spots to visit for our trip to morocco.

It was another rainy day, but we decided to tour the old city of Malaga.

I guess it is never too cold for icecream? We also tried a traditional sweet here, which is fresh churros and chocolate.

Then we drove up into the mountains to visit the village of Mijas. Here there is a panoramic view of the sea.