July 20: Memory in Marbella, a Palatial Pool Floatie, and Carting Off to Cartagena

Before checking out of Benalmàdena flat, Beth called a family meeting where we would have a state of the union moment and discuss the rest of our trip together.

It was a spirited discussion in a lovely setting, on the balcony overlooking the Spanish Mediterranean coast. We have such great kids, and it’s often a good thing to include them in decision making. Thane was particularly helpful in articulating our need to define the goal of this Spanish trip leg. Is it to relive our honeymoon, with similar stops as 25 years ago? Is it to keep packing in as many sights and attractions as possible, like the London and Paris legs mostly turned out to be? Is it more like a Bayfield trip, where it’s about rest and beach and connecting together? We landed on it being a bit of all these things, but mostly the latter. Part of the wrestle was how to make it a restful trip when we don’t have a ‘home base’ for the week here, and we had initially planned to make upwards of 11 hours driving between Malaga and Barcelona over 6 days. After talking through the goals, it was easier to settle on the logistics. We will aim to be have 3 bases, each for two nights: Benalmàdena, Cartagena, Valencia, then Barcelona.

Before starting on our journey up the coast, we decided to include one more stop to compare to 25 years ago: a beachside meal in Marbella. I was looking forward to re-experiencing my memory of the highway drive from Malaga airport to Marbella; I remember it being a winding road with rolling hills on the right and dramatic drop offs to coast below on the left. Turns out the highways are now much more developed than I remember, and Marbella is a much larger city than is in my memory.

Driving here takes full concentration. I get the fun of driving a stick shift for our rental, and we have the blessing now of GPS on our smartphone which we didn’t have 25 years ago. But I can’t remember ever having to contend with so many roundabouts! They don’t have the inside-vs-outside lane conventions we have back home: you can enter and exit from whichever lane you like, and some roundabouts have up to 6 exits! There is always a risk of misreading GPS instructions, requiring a recalculation. At one point in the day, I made a wrong exit off the highway that resulted in having to unnecessarily pay a toll twice! So frustrating.

We ultimately did find a nice beachside spot to have our brunch, called Palms. It was run by a couple of British or Aussie ex-pats. Lots of choice on the menu, and Beth and I shared the dish I was most anticipating: a Spanish paella! For those of you who have never had it, paella is a mix of saffron & tomato rice mixed with peas and bell pepper and some kind of meat, most often seafood, served on a hot skillet. Maybe not everyone’s first choice on a hot day, but it was SO yummy!

After this memory, we backtracked toward Fueringola beach again, with the intention of having more beach fun, and for Beth and Faith to potentially check out some of the stores Beth and I had seen the night before. Faith, in particular, was interested in playing on a huge inflatable structure erected on the water just off the coastline, visible from our flat the night before. Apparently they are often called ‘wibits’, after the most popular brand of these structures. The kids and I spent just over an hour playing hard on the wibit, while Beth stayed at the beach to watch people with their various body shapes and states of beach clothing (or lack thereof - some topless ladies and naked kids here). We spent just over an hour there, which meant we didn’t leave time for shopping.

We drove to a large mall complex in Malaga (‘Playa Major’) that included a McDonald’s, to add a third nation to our list. Unique menu options here included gazpacho - basically a cold tomato soup, served here in a bottle like a drink (I found it pretty refreshing), and Thane’s burger (the ‘Grande McExtreme’) had deep-fried cheese sticks inside.

4 hours drive to Cartagena, with Thane in navigator seat (Luke had a turn earlier in the day). Backseat gang watched Disney’s ‘Tarzan’ on the iPad. Stopped for petrol and gas station snacks in Almeria: not exactly a tourist stop, but we did see another cool Moorish fortress (alcazaba) is there too.

The biggest surprise was driving through a MASSIVE collection of greenhouses in the area; apparently the largest collection of its kind in the world! We’re talking over 50 driving kilometres, where all you can see to either side of the highway are hundreds and hundreds of these structures. The surface area taken up by these structures is so huge, it apparently affects the local climate; scientists have reported a lowering of the average ambient temperature due to the reflection of sun rays off the gray-white roofs. Crops apparently grown here are tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and peppers; sufficient to serve the demand of over half of Europe’s population (roughly the same population as the whole U.S., or 10x that of Canada)! Apparently it’s a difficult work environment - can get up to 45 degrees inside - many locals refuse to work there, so they are staffed largely by legal and illegal immigrants. Amazing and disturbing all at once.

Checked into our new AirBnB condo near Cartagena around 11:30p.m. and crashed to sleep.