A quick stop in Marbellla

Friday morning we awoke to, what else, a driving rain so we dallied over breakfast and packed our bags.  There was a taxi stand in front of our hotel but they were all small and we were traveling with four large, heavy duffel bags plus our backpacks so we asked the front desk to call a larger taxi for us, which they did.  When the taxi arrived it wasn’t any larger than those out front of the hotel.  Joder!  We were out of time so we packed three bags in the back, one in the front seat and held onto our backpacks for the short, five minute drive to the bus station.

After successfully purchasing our tickets to Marbella we immediately boarded the bus which was ready to leave.  The estimated time of travel was four and a half hours, the same as Malaga to Cadiz, although we were only going as far as Marbella.  We soon found out why.

This bus stopped three times and picked up passengers before leaving Puerta Tierra.  The main road curving around the Atlantic coast in Spain and turning toward Algeciras and Gilbralter on the Mediterranean coast runs a few miles inland the entire way.  Along this route, but right on the shore are several small Spanish towns (pueblos) which our bus turned and visited.  Every single one!

It took three and a half hours to travel the distance to Algeciras which had taken us less than two on the way to Cadiz and we were becoming worried that we would be late for our date with our friends in Marbella.  No worries, however, the bus then drove directly to Marbella from Algeciras arriving on time.  We had just learned the meaning of “semi-directo”. 

Dragging our bags to the front of the Marbella bus station we hailed a cab; at this point not caring what size it was (another lesson learned). The hotel was located on an awkward corner less than two blocks from the beach, we hauled the bags up the stairs to the lobby and checked in.  We needed two trips in the tiny elevator but were absolutely astounded at the large, modern corner room we had been given.  Our hotel, the Hotel Lima is a two-star hotel, with great ratings on Trip Advisor; that cost less than $100 per night booked through booking.com (hard to find in the Costa del Sol, Marbella in particular).  It was spotlessly clean, we had a balcony that over looked the main drag right down to the beach!  

A short note may be in order here.  For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Costa del Sol and the cities along this beautiful coast of Spain; it has been referred to as Spain’s answer to the French Riviera.  It is beautiful and expensive.

Although it was threatening rain we met our friends Ash from our TEFL class in 2010 and his lovely lady Donna, at a sidewalk café in the Plaza de Naranjas and enjoyed an evening of tapas with them and some other friends at Tapas and Tintos, a nice corner café located in a tiny cul-de-sac in the old town.

 What a lovely evening.

I awoke the following day with a very painful stomach condition that worsened throughout the day.  It was raining heavily so we didn’t explore Marbella figuring that we could do that another time.  In early afternoon, a worried Marilyn ventured out to the Farmacia and after some discussion with the Farmacista returned home with some anti-gastrospasmodic medicine for me.  These were not over-the-counter drugs and we were impressed that potential solutions could be found this quickly and cheaply without the need of a physician.

Still feeling poorly we met our friends at a café on the beach where we had a quick refresco and were joined by a couple more delightful friends. We finished our evening with a long relaxing dinner in an Argentinian restaurant called Tangitos enjoying the marvelous food and quality wines. 

We called it an early night because I was still a little uncomfortable and we returned to the hotel after saying goodbye to our friends.

Amazingly, I was feeling much better in the morning and of course, since we were leaving, the weather was perfect.  This time we felt prepared and decided that we would simply purchase our tickets at the bus station for the “directo” to Granada.  We arrived at the bus station a half hour prior to the scheduled departure and found that the bus we wanted was sold out and that there wouldn’t be another for three hours; and it only had a few seats left.  Decisions.

The lessons were coming hard and fast for us now as we unhappily evaluated our options.  Revisiting the ticket counter the clerk suggested that we catch a bus to Malaga and travel to Granada from there.  After learning that there were buses to Granada leaving Malaga every half hour and that the combined price would be similar to the directo from Marbella (about 15 euro) Marilyn took a 50 euro bill and got in the suddenly long line at the ticket counter while I stood with the large pile of our luggage.

Twenty minutes later she returned with our tickets but she blanched when I asked for the change from the 12 euro purchase.  We looked with dismay at the line at the counter and Marilyn urgently returned to wait in line yet again.  No problems; the ticket agent remembered her and had set her change aside knowing she would return.  We ran for the bus.

The rest of our trip to Granada was uneventful.  We arrived in Malaga, used the station restroom, bought our tickets and boarded the bus five minutes before it departed.  We knew exactly where to go in Granada, having been there before and after a quick stop in Centro we arrived at the Residencia and found our room ready for us.  We made a quick trip to the nearest mini-mart, ran a load of laundry and turned in early in anticipation of our first Spanish language class at 9:30 the following morning. 

The rest of Cadiz

Day three of our stay in Cadiz began with rain but soon after breakfast the sun broke through and we headed outside.  We had decided to try and find a lavadero (laundromat) to get our clothes washed and turned south towards the center of much more modern Punta Tierra.  Unfortunately, we could not locate one of these small, family owned laundries and we returned to the boardwalk along the Atlantic coast for a quick lunch.

We returned to the old city in the early afternoon determined to explore every street and alley of this beautiful old Spanish city.  Just inside the old city gates we visited the charming Iglesias (churches) of Santa Maria, Santa Cruz and Santo Domingo.  The Teatro Romano and Carcel (jail) Real are also in the immediate proximity of the old city gates and on the way to the beautiful cathedral which, it is said, was inspired by the cathedral in Granada.

Stopping for a beverage and a tapa of pickled carrots and onions in the cathedral square we waited for a cloudburst to abate while practicing our “bar” Spanish with the very amenable waiter.  Later, we crossed this narrow part of the city and visited the bus station to see the schedule for the autobus to Marbella.  After ascertaining that there were plenty of buses that would get us to Marbella we angled back to what was becoming one of our favorite places in Cadiz, Plaza San Juan de Dios for another refresco and where we found a wonderful old Spaniard playing the guitar beautifully.  We convinced him to play a few more arrangements after which he stopped by our table (we gave him a couple of coins of course) and chatted with us in his rusty English.

The following day found us crossing into the old city early under clear, sunny skies.  We delved deeper into the city on this morning with our first objective, the busy Plaza de las Flores which was alive and colorful with every type of blossom one can imagine on this beautiful spring morning.

  Crossing the city our next goal was the Inglesia del Rosario and the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva to see the wonderful marble altar pieces in the former and three magnificent paintings by Goya in the later.

Once again, the mixed bag of weather we’d been having in Spain turned for the worse and chased us back to our hotel.  In nearly four full days we had explored less than half of this incredible city.  One cannot walk down the streets anywhere in the old city without being distracted by the beautiful architecture, the history, the artistry, or simply the ambience of the quaint narrow streets with their sidewalk cafes and potted flowers in almost every window.

Cadiz, like Granada, generated in us the desire to explore and the feeling that we could spend weeks there before we might possibly see most of what this historical city has to offer.  This is definitely another part of Andalucia that we plan to visit again and again.