Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Part 2

Rachel has asked me to take over and cover a day or two of our vacation.  After having spent a couple of days in Barcelona, we had to pick up early Wednesday morning and grab a cab to the Barcelona airport to catch our flight down south to Malaga, with Marbella as our final destination.  We arrived at the airport as usual running "right on time" (just a little late) for our 7am flight.  We were all boarded in the plane with the doors shut ready to go on time, but realized quickly that we werent going anywhere.  About an hour of sitting on the plane and not moving, the pilot announces that there is a problem with this plane and we are going to have to get off this plane and see if we can get another one.  Long story short, we hung out in the airport for about half a day before being able to get another flight to Malaga.  When we finally arrived in Malaga we were anxious to get our car and start making our way to Marbella.  Hertz set us up with brand new sporty Renault station wagon with a 6 speed.  It was a pretty nice car.  Not something that I would buy for myself, but fun to rally around in.  With all of our luggage loaded we headed down the A-7 (Spains version of the Pacific Coast Highway) to Marbella.  I adapted to the "no rules/speed limits apply" fashion of driving pretty quickly.  About an hour later we arrived at the Condo we had rented in Marbella.  By now it was early evening and with all the days travels we were pretty tired.  While Rachel and the kids set up the Condo, I decided to take the Renault out and explore a little.  I found a grocery store close by and picked up some food to stock the Condo.

This is a photo taken the first evening from our balcony in Marbella.

This is a view of the Condo Complex from the Beach.

Andrew had fun cleaning the sand off with this Elephant/beach shower that sprayed water out of its trunk.

You can see how excited Andrew is in this picture

 The next day we woke up and decided to explore Old Town Marbella.  The people of Marbella were really friendly and stopped to greet the kids about every 10 feet.

A sweet elderly couple from Scottland took this family photo of us, they stopped to talk to us for a good 15 minutes about the importance of enjoying every moment with the kids, and congratulated us for taking these little ones with us so far away from home.

It was difficult to get a photo of Andrew stationary.  Here he is running around in the Plaza de las Naranjas in the center of Marbella's Old Town.

Andrew still running and Rachel trying to catch up.  I loved the beautiful streets, the architecture, and the flowers.  It was hard to take as much time as I wanted to look up and appreciate all there was, when it was my job to keep track of Andrew.  But seeing how much fun Andrew was having made up for it.  We planned each day and each activity around the kids.  We wanted to expose them to as much as possible and let them experience as much as possible.  We came home without an ounce of energy left.  You'll see why as we post our subsequent days and activities.

 

There were many colorful doors throughout old town as seen in this picture

 Most of the streets in Old Town are very narrow and for pedestrian use. It made it somewhat easy to keep track of Andrew who needed some time to run freely.

Stopping for lunch.  Thin crust pizza, pasta, soda, ice cream, what more could we want.

Talia was incredible thoughout the entire trip.  She just hung out and tried to soak it all in.  We are fortunate she is such a cooperative 6 month old.

About everyday we had to stop to eat "Cornetto's."  Rachel's memories as a kid living out here are filled with summer days eating Cornetto's (a brand of ice cream cones).  Andrew was more than willing to take on this tradition and share in the memories with Rachel.

After a full day of running around, we headed back to the Condo for the day.  Above is a picture of a Cat that Andrew named Milo, from the movie Milo and Otis.  We put milk out for it each day to entice it to come up to the balcony and visit.  He made himself at home roaming around the Condo at times.