Explore europe in a campervan

This week we’re living the Costa Del Sol life in Marbella! Our friends, Sarah and Dave, have kindly invited us to spend the week with them in their rented apartment. Well the pictures looked pretty impressive, but now that we’re here we can truly appreciate what a great find it was. The resort is called El Soto De Marbella and it’s not more than a few years old. It’s situated almost at the top of what has to be described as a small mountain, rather than a hill, and overlooks a valley leading down to the sea and to the coastal town of Fuengirola. We seemed to continue up and up and it seemed unlikely to have a development so high, but it was worth the drive as the views are stunning and it’s so peaceful and secluded.

The apartment is beautifully finished, with marble floors and chunky wooden furniture, very much in keeping with the Spanish style. It’s air-conditioned, has two bathrooms, a huge kitchen and a big terrace. Not to mention the five pools in the very-well-kept and leafy grounds. Also worth a mention is the obligatory ‘Costa Del Golf’ 9 hole course and the adjoining club house with restaurant, spa and gym. Sounds idyllic? It is! We’re tempted to stay forever, but that’s not really the style of our trip and would be a little harsh on the purse. It’s certainly something to aspire to owning, just to stay for a few warm months of the year or perhaps during the British winter, when we’ve made our millions obviously.

An added bonus is that we have a wi-fi connection. There’s a hot-spot that covers the whole Costa Del Sol, from Malaga to La Linea, provided by a company called y-internet. So we’re trying to strike balance between having a luxury holiday and making the most of the facilities to do some work on the laptops and online. (With breaks for sunbathing and swimming too!)

Although we’re reluctant to put the van through too many trips up and down the mountain (we were struggling in second gear on the way up so will have to scream down in first I think) we’ve had some days out with Sarah and Dave in their hire car so we’ve been able to spend some time with them and see some of the sights of the area. The first essential trip when visiting Marbella was to the nearby port ‘Puerto Banus’ which may sound familiar as it’s a popular hangout for celebrities from footballer to tv stars. There were some amazing yachts, including a couple of Sunseekers (made in my home town of Poole), and some impressive cars parked near them - a Hummer, several Range Rover Sport which had the boys drooling, along with Maseratis, Bentleys and a Lamborghini. The boats were the size of mansions, with vast wooden decks with plate-glass patio door leading to sumptuous interiors and, of course, many staff members bustling to maintain the standards their employers are obviously used to! The shopping was equally excessive with all the major names represented, along with those that I’m clearly not stylish enough to be aware of. We strolled past Gucci, Jimmy Choo and dolce and Gabbana to name but a few. Clearly a playground for the rich and famous.

Yesterday we returned to Gibraltar. Although we’ve visited twice we’ve never managed to see anything of the British territory - except the Morrisons supermarket and the petrol station - so we were pleased to have a chance to visit in a much smaller vehicle and with time to see the sights. Driving was still not easy, even in a ‘city car’, so we had a good look around from the car before we managed to find a very lucky parking space.

From there we took the cable car to the Upper Rock where the wild Barbary Macaques lives. There are over 200 of these apes living on the rock and they’re the only wild monkeys living in Europe. There were many warnings about them snatching plastic bags or ice creams, yet one seemingly unsuspecting man had his supermarket bag ripped open and nuts and apples stolen before he knew it. Although you have to wonder if he had shopped for himself or specifically for the apes as I don’t know many people keen on eating shell-on monkey nuts?! The apes are very obliging and will sit still for photographs; they don’t seem aggressive, but that didn’t stop Sarah jumping out of the way when one grabbed at her skirt!

The rest of the day was spent wandering the shops on Main Street. The vast majority of them are selling alcohol, cigarettes, jewellery and electrical goods - all the items that benefit from the VAT free prices in Gibraltar. It was also strange to see so many British brand represented at this point far down Spain - British Home Stores, Topshop and, of course, Marks and Spencers!

Gibraltar’s fascinating, but there’s too much to tell here - have a look at the wikipedia entry.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.