"Marbella, Marbella"

I planned my last two days on the Costa del Sol to be beach days, and that's exactly what I did...well mostly. I found a really nice campground by the beach and hoped it would work out that I also had a good beach nearby.  I did! It was a beautiful long sandy beach backed by dunes and pine woods. There were wooden boardwalks to take you over the dunes because they are protected. There was also a Torre, or old tower there, but it was a shape I hadn't seen before.

I spent one afternoon and then the following morning at the beach and it was fantastic.  But then I needed to get out and do something. The town of Marbella was only a few miles away,  so I hopped the local bus to get there. I didn't really know quite what to expect, as I had heard it called the "Beverly Hills " of Southern Spain.  As I saw, the suburbs do indeed remind you of Bel Air or Beverly Hills,  but the old city is rather something else.

I knew as soon as I stepped into the old city that this place was special. There was just this romantic, laid back and somehow perfect ambiance that hit me instantly. Granted, the shoppers and restaurant goers were a little better dressed than the average, and there was no shortage of the beautiful people either. But it was the streets, the tiny, tiny little alleyways that somehow were able to fit in delightful places in uber-small storefronts and then be lined with flowers and pots that made this setting near magical.

I wandered aimlessly for a bit, stumbling across some beautiful ancient walls and delightful little plazas such as the Plaza de Naranjas which was surrounded by orange trees. I then got a glimpse of the church tower and headed to see it. A pretty, little church on the outside, not ostentatious at all. But go in, and it is amazing in its gold leaf! Oh my, there has been money around here for a very long time.  Inside is a simple white, which certainly sets off the massive amount of gold in the church.

I wandered some more and even found the two things I had been hunting for, a very particular item for Tim and something nice for me to remember this trip. Something very cute about the old town is the blue pots they use to line the walls here and there, I wanted one but also didn't want to lug it back to Hawaii, so no pot for me. I saw amazing fountains (my favorite was Medusa riding a dragon) whimsical tiny plazas in the many small parks and a little chapel on a side street that was so pretty. I walked down to the seafront and it was just as lovely as I'd hoped, a perfect Mediterranean view and I just sat and stared for a good, long while. Then it off to have a pizza and a long bus ride home.

I kept saying one thing over and over all afternoon as I wandered Marbella... "I want live here,  I want to live here!" And I still do. You never know...