Club La Costa offered a promotional holiday in there flagship resort at Costa del Sol in Jan 10. It turned out to be quite a nice trip as lying just north of the coastline filled with resorts is Andalucia and its jewels like Granada and Seville. 17/01/10 – Flight to Malaga: Winter 09-10 had been quite miserable in UK with frequent snow and freezing temperatures right through. Flying out from London Luton I had no idea that the weather in Costa del Sol will be sunny 20C. No wonder British expats have made this part of Spain their home. So on arrival at Malaga the first thing we did was to stow away our heavey jackets. Not to mention Mayank who had been suferring from a cough and cold all through he winter months magically recovered in 2 days as well. We were picked up by the resort people and transferred to posh san diego suites. These are really nice appartment and they take good care of you. Rest of the evening we explored the resort on foot and tried out the resort resturant. 18/01/10 – Exploring Fuengirola: First task next morning was to get a rental car. I had to settle for a Ford Focus which isn’t the nicest of drives but in automatics there was not that a big a range of choice. We then made our way towards the beach. On way we found a supermarket to do the grocerry shopping. Finally on the beach we spent time making sandcastles and dipping our toes in the water. Although the mediterranean was not very cold, it was cold enough to stop me from going in for a swim. 19/01/10 – Club la Costa’s pitch: This was the day when Club la Costa do there pitch to sell there wares. The only thing they ask for in return for the holiday is a day that we have to spare to listen to them. It is quite a smooth operation. One of there reps took us around in a car while he was gathering intel on the kind of holidays we do, earnings, what we spent, etc, etc. They even match the family circumstances of the rep with the family they are trying to sell to so that the rep and the tourists have something in common to talk about. And to keep the kids entertained, the trip is in a car as if we are exploring the streets of Costa del Sol. Then they take you around the resort on foot and almost amke you feel that by not taking up there offer you are stupid. They dont say it and are extremely professional but it is implied. Being a Psychiatrist I could see all the mind games at play but still I was quite tempted. Anyway I did not sign anything but suffice to say that I came very close. Since the day was gone in the evening we drove out to posh Puerto Banus in Marbella. Unfortunately by the time we reached everything was closed or shutting down and we did not hang around for long. I had also managed to book tickets for the Alhambra at Granada. 20/01/10 – Trip to Granada: This was the highlight of the trip. Palacios Nazaries or Nasrid’s Palace at the Alhambra is a stunning piece of work. Its amazing that it has survived to this day. Built lightly from wood and brick its buildings show a brilliant use of light and space. Since this was our principal target on arrival at the Alhambra we directly headed for Nasrid’s Palace. The reasoning being see the best of the attraction while the kids are in good humor. Actually they were surprisingly well behaved all through and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I had a great time photographing the Serallo, unfortunately the Court of the Lions was being restored so the iconic fountain was surrounded by glass. After spending a fair bit of time in the Nasrid’s palace we made our way out. We then explored the Palacio de Carlos V and while Monjistha and the kids had a bit of rest I went exploring the Alcazaba. From the walls of the fortress there are amazing views of Granada and its Cathedral in the distance. By this time we were starving and after having an extremely late lunch at Hotel America we made our way back to Club la Costa. 21/01/10 – Trip to Seville: After the trip to Granada the day before, Monjistha wanted to take it easy the next day. However I had my heart set on going to Seville. Fortunately Mayank who had been suferring from a cold all winter seemed to be in fine frettle due to the warm weather and this tipped the balance in favour of going. It was a bit of dull start to the day and it is quite long drive from Mijas La Costa to Seville. Half way through quite dense fog descended and I started rueing the decision to come to Seville. Fortunately by this time we reached Seville weather had warmed up quite nicely. It was a nightmare to park in Seville. Finally we found a spot by the river. We made our way to the Cathedral which is astonishingly huge. Apparently new calculations based on cubic measurement have pused it ahed of St. Paul’s in London and St. Peter’s in Vatican as the largest church in the world. We climbed up the beautiful Giralda and the stunning views from the top were worth the effort of carrying the children up the 35 gently inclined ramps. We then visited the Alcazar, this does not compare with the Alhambra at Granda but is beautiful in its own right. We almost missed the beautiful Patio of the Maidens and all the rooms surrounding it. Fortunately it was pointed out by one of the officials and we spent a fair bit of time around this area. We were all starting to feel quite tired and we started the trek back to the riverside where I had parked. 2 long trips back to back had worn us a bit and the fatigue was telling on the way back. 22/01/10 – Trip to Ronda: This was the day that I had pencilled of for Cordoba but Monjistha flatly refused to budge. Even convincing her to go to Ronda which on paper did not seem that far was quite a job. However the trip to Ronda was worth it. It was a lovely day and from the coaste as one cuts through the mountains there are some lovely views of the barren rock face of the mountain side. Ronda in itself is quite beautiful. I will actually rank it next to Nasrid’ palace in this trip. The gorge and Puento Nuevo over it is a stunning construction. I did go of the beaten path to get some stunning photos of the bridge. The town in itself with its narrow alleys is quite nice to explore on foot. It was here that I stepped into an art galley and ended up buying a big oil painting of a valencian artist. On the way back from Ronda the weather deteriorated and it almost seemed that I was driving through clouds and visibility was quite poor. That evening I went to bed with fingers crossed that if the weather improved we might make a trip to Cordoba on our final day. 23/01/10 – Trip to Mijas: The weather did not improve and got a whole lot worse. It was extremely windy, cloudy and then the skies opened up. However I really should not complain. I reminded myself of the horrible weather we had in UK and that really this was the first bad day we had in a whole week. So Cordoba was out of the question. It also get Monjistha the perfect excuse to go shopping at Corte Ingles. Previously from a Madrid trip I had bought Monjistha a jewellry box from Corte Ingles. Since then she had been looking for one that was simillar to it but had not found one in UK. So this time around there was no stopping her, infact she ended up buying four pretending one was for me, and the other two were gifts and only one was for her. After the trip to Corte Ingles Monjistha and the kids retired back to the resort and I went of to see Mijas, one of the white towns that was close by. It seemed quite simillar to Ronda, unfortunately the weather went from bad to worse when I was there and I had to make my way back to the resort as well. 24/01/10 – Flight back to London: This brought our holdiay to a close and we were back from the sunny 20C in Souther Spain to freezing London. It was a nice trip and I did not expect the kids to cooperate to the extent they did and saw almost all the jewels of Andalucia, barring one, Cordoba. Maybe next time…
