We decided that we should take a trip to the coast via this route so the next day we booked in at the Hotel Sol Los Fenicios at La Herradura for a couple of days. We drove down on Sunday and the traffic was light and apart from the windy road down to Velez Malaga the roads were excellent - much of the way being on the A7 Autovia. The hotel was very comfortable and only 44 rooms on just three levels. Some pics of the centre of the hotel are in the gallery and the rooms are built around this garden.We had lunch and then took a walk looking for the Marina del Este but succeeded in finding only heaps of luxury houses and gated estates. I suppose the word 'Marina" should have alerted us.
That evening we found a charming little bar/restaurant called Mesón El Tinao. We dined at the bar and on the TV viewed the demize of Australia in their first group match against Germany going down 4-0. My pre dinner drink was a beer but Mary had a Sangria in a wine glass that must have held half a litre. We shared a skewer of lamb with French fries and chatted in Spanglish to the two barmen.
La Herradura is a lovely bay, with a grey sand/pebble beach so it not particularly appealing, but the Germans and the Brits seem to love it. The hotel was full of Germans all lapping up the sun, and most of the Brits seem to be expats living there. The only English station at the hotel was Fox News but there were at least four German stations. We decided that the Hotel owners must have done a deal with German Travel Agents who promoted the hotel as the place to stay.
Having spent I don't know how many years travelling in buses and trains, I was having withdrawal symptoms, so suggested to Brian that we should go by bus to Almuñécar - the much larger coastal town on the Costa Tropical. It was really a case of deje vu because as usual we could not find out anything about the bus services. All along the front there are bus stops with the same route marked on them. The timetable stated that it ran from Almuñécar, but there was no timetable for the opposite direction, and on the other side of the road, there were no bus stops.
As usual nearly everyone we asked never travelled by bus even the man at tourist information office knew nothing about it. We did a couple of circuits, and finally asked at the petrol station and the lady on the desk there as well as an expat put us in the right direction. We decided that the lady we had seen sitting there was not just having a rest, especially when several others started hanging around in the general vicinity. When it arrived, it was a very large bus which would not have been able to get through the narrow streets to where the other bus stops are, so we decided that the others must be a special holiday run during the holidays - like the park and ride service run at Noosa.
Almuñécar is another beach resort with lots of high rise and hotels and another grey sandy/pebble beach. When we arrived we decided to have a coffee at a cafe that had lots of people sitting at it. The waitress greeted us with "Hi Guys" so our attempts at Spanish disguise are definitely not working! Then spent a bit of time trying to find the monument to Laurie Lee which had been erected by the Mayor of Almuñécar as a tribute to the Englishman who put his town on the map!
We asked Hi Guys and she found out that it was close by. But of course we didn't find it first off, so again we went to the tourist information office and asked where it was, but she had never heard of it. She was helpful though and gave us a map and as we were leaving Brian discovered that it was on the map - so we went back and showed it to her. I got the distinct impression that she was not very happy with us for pointing out to her something that she should have known.
We eventually found it and took a photo.
Returned to the bus station and back to La Herradura for siesta, and then back to the same restaurant for dinner. Our two Spanish waiters from the night before told us that there would be music by a Dutch guitar player and when we arrived it turned out to be a Dutchman and two Englishmen, one on drums, and the other on the electric guitar. We enjoyed both the food and the music.
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