Laurence Andrews
Quick trip to the Costa del Sol
14 Jul 2018
Halfway through the year and time to catch a breath! A trip to Spain was the perfect opportunity to get some sunshine and relaxation time. We’d both been to the Costa del Sol before, Victoria many times more than I and can’t fault it, beautiful weather, delicious Spanish food and great places to visit. We couldn’t wait to get on that plane!
We were staying with family just outside of Estepona right on the coast in a beautiful private villa complex. It was a very peaceful area and the surrounding gardens were immaculately kept. On the first day we followed tradition and visited the local Carrefour for supplies, I absolutely love this shop, it is stacked full of amazing food and drink. We walked out with more beer than it is possible to drink in a week, all of which I had never had before. The beer was mostly macro-brewery specials but I managed to find some locally brewed craft beer from La Catarina which was the star of the show.
On the second day, I had arranged to go diving with Gibraltar Dive Charters. After having visited Gibraltar before I was desperate to get out in the bay and see some of the wrecks. Lugging all of my dive equipment from home to here was a bit of a pain, especially carrying it on the DLR(!) but I was confident it would be worth it. After turning up I discovered that my 3mm wetsuit wasn’t going to cut the mustard and my lovely warm dry suit was, unfortunately, sitting in its bag at home. Luckily the dive shop offered up a thicker wetsuit and all was fine, lesson learnt! With a group of about 14 divers, we visited the SS Rosslyn and the Seven Sisters dives sites, both were interesting and worth checking out.
Another highlight of the trip was watching England’s world cup battle against Columbia in the quarterfinals. We timed dinner perfectly to be able to watch in front of a huge screen in Jack’s along the Peurto Banus marina. The game went to extra time and then penalties which thankfully we won! Peurto Banus is a place that shoudn’t be missed on a trip to Marbella, it is a smaller but has a Monaco-esque vibe and plenty of super yachts and cars to match.
