Day 15 - 6 July Friday - Fuengirola

Today we decided to catch a taxi into Fuengirola and to get on the little train that goes around town.  Unfortunately when we got into town we realised that the little train wasn’t working.  So plan B was to do a geocache.  We set off for a nearby park that had a geocache hidden in it.  Paula developed a couple of blisters on the way – fortunately we are the same shoe size, so we swopped shoes for a while, until I too started getting blisters, at which point it became apparent that we were going to be buying a new pair of slops for Paula!  We quickly found both the geocache and a shoe shop and were then all smiles again J

It was time to “find a little coffee shop” and we found such a cute one this time.  It’s a bit of a sore point along the Costa del Sol – many, many British people come to this area for their holidays and consequently there are a lot of pubs and restaurants catering to that particular sector of tourists.  You could quite easily eat British food, drink British beer and “talk British” the entire time you are on the Costa del Sol….close your eyes and you would think you were in England!  We generally avoid this type of establishment as we prefer to eat the foods of the country we are visiting and soak up the culture, we go for the more authentic experience.  But this time as the need for “a little coffee shop” was quite….pressing, we went to the nearest place, which happened to be a little British pub/restaurant called "Scoffers".  It was such a fun experience!  The proprietor was a very friendly British guy, who clearly knew all the regulars very well, to the point that with many of them he just brought them their “usual” as they sat down.  All the regulars knew each other too and seemed to be great friends  – you kind of felt as though you had stumbled into a  geriatric tea party in someone’s back-yard!  The dearest couple sat next to us and were soon joined by another regular, who brought out photos of her “bonnie wee” grandchildren back home.  When we left they all said good-bye as though they’d known us for ages.  Man it was precious!

We wandered the promenade for a while.....

would love to see this at night, when all the little candles are lit!

... and then set off to find the restaurant at which we had excellent tapas last year – took us a while, but we found it eventually.  The tapas were very good and the sangria even better – Grant and I managed to consume 2 jugs of the stuff!

We then took a taxi to the castle, so that Paula and Cal could do the geocache there.  We found another nearby geocache that had eluded us last year and then, because the hill was so steep (it had nothing to do with the lingering effects of the sangria!  Of course not.) Grant and I lay down for a rest in the sun and Paula and Cal climbed the hill to get the geocache. 

By this time I “needed a little coffee shop” and as there were no coffee shops in the vicinity, I brazenly wandered into a rather fancy hotel and used their loo.  For some unknown reason, the road back to the resort suddenly seemed steep, so I hailed a taxi and was driven the 500 or so metres up the steepish road in style.  Sangria makes you very….tired.

We were determined to have a final swim before leaving sunny Spain for colder, rainier shores.  Unfortunately the road to the beach seemed rather steep this afternoon, so Grant and I headed to the nearby swimming pool.  Paula, Cal, Dad (believe it or not!) and Carmel headed to the beach, but when they got there it turned out that thousands of jelly fish had arrived, so they came to the pool and we all had a lovely swim there.

We had a final supper with Dad at Zachary’s and then it was unfortunately time to pack…  The week sure has flown by!