Andalusia, the grand finale

We’re home again and missing the deep blue Spanish skies. It’s cooler here, we’ve had our first rain in 15 days, and we’re thinking back to all the beauties of Andalusia. To round things off, here are some final Andalusia pictures from our holiday (as always, you can click on images to enlarge).

We drove through the mountains down to the coast, to Marbella. We actually drove through that cloud that we could see from afar.

We visited the town of Marbella and after we had lunch there walked down to the beach to take a look.

We then drove on to just outside the actual town of Marbella, to where the villas are located, parked there and made our way to a beach there for some swimming and lazing away in the sun and reading. No celebrities spotted. The water was far colder there than what we remembered from Greece last year, but I guess that’s because we were closer to the Atlantic coast as opposed to the Mediterranean.

We stayed in ‘our’ village of Montejaque the next day, which was also Assumption of the Virgin Mary day in Spain. There was a procession in town with 4 Spanish ladies dressed in their finery leading the procession to church where a service was held after.

That evening, after spending time at the pool, we went into Ronda for dinner (and did that Armitage forensic walk). By the time we went back it was dark and we had a beautiful full moon.

We went to Antequera to visit Dolmens there, prehistoric burial grounds that are some 5000 years old! The entrances of the Dolmens are directed at hills that are shaped as a face profile of someone lying down.

We also visited the town itself where we had a late lunch…

… and on our way home we caught sight of a flamingo colony we had read about, the only one in Europe apparently, where wild flamingos come to breed in summer. We trudged through an empty field to get a closer look but didn’t want to get in too close for fear of disturbing them.

We were back in the village in the evening where there was a procession with the Virgin Mary statue, with marching band and all.

We also went to Sevilla again to visit the castle there, called the ‘Real Alcazar’. Very beautiful, also with Moorish influcences, and a center for explorers like Amerigo Vespucci at the time. It was busy but less overrun than the Alhambra and maybe that is why I may have liked Alcazar more than the Alhambra…

… or maybe I liked it more because of the initials on their souvenirs?

I didn’t get any of these Richard Armitage… erm… Real Alcazar souvenirs, though.

It was so hot in Sevilla that day (41°C) that we decided to not hang around there for dinner after all, but return to our apartment and take a quick dip in the pool before closing time. We were also planning on going to Gibraltar for a day, but while researching found it all too expensive (with parking fees, bus shuttle fees, cable cars, entrance fees and meals), so ditched that plan and opted for another cool poolside day instead.

Festivities were still happening in Montejaque (last day), so took a peek again at the final party.

And, almost before we realized it, our last day came! Our flight was going in the evening and we had to vacate our apartment by 10.30 a.m. As we were flying from Malaga, we spent that last day in Malaga. When we got there we found ourselves in the middle of a 10 day festival, the Feria de Malaga! Very festive and we also discovered that Picasso had been born in Malaga, so we walked by his birthplace (the last picture in this collage).

What was fun about the festival is that many ladies and kids were dressed in fine Spanish dresses. It was a great way to end our stay in Spain before we caught our plane back to Amsterdam.

Now that we’re back home we’ve been busy with family visits and laundry and sorting through pictures. Luckily work doesn’t start again till next week, so we have some days left to hold on to that holiday feeling. 🌞

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