Getting up like its a workday, we’re well advanced by 10:00. After all, there’s little packing involved for this holiday, no suits, just one jacket and a couple of trousers, the rest is casual stuff plus the usual payload of technology. We’re not even taking a suitcase, but there’s another reason for this, having previous experience with convertibles, a few years ago in California it was a Mustang, we know how limited the boot space can be.
This year in Europe it’s an even smaller Waterfall, well actually it’s a Cascada but we might as well try and get into the lingo straight away. So it’s a suit bag and my trusty dive bag for everything. Nevertheless it easily fits in our boot, but that’s just showing off, and we get going early to MAN. It’s just an hours drive and within a total of ninety minutes we’ve dumped the car at meet and greet, checked in and fast tracked, and we’re sat in the lounge looking down over duty-free and the food courts.
Around 13:30 hours we enjoy a leisurely lunch and a couple of Spanish Chardonnay blends, before a bit of work and then heading down to gate 44, just as they call the first boarding. What good timing we thought, until we’re left queuing on the air bridge for 15 minutes because “the computer is down” - that universal excuse for anything and everything these days. Little did we know it would be another ninety minutes sat in our seats before we could eventually depart - bloody computers, who’d have one eh?
Finally we get on our way, and after a bit of a bumpy start it’s 17:00 and time for some more provender. To start is a lovely crushed potato and minted pea salad with prosciutto, followed by poached salmon, curried rice, eggs and spring onions, a sort of un-constructed kedgeree, unfortunately the rice is a little bit too al dente, but given the food science behind getting airplane food correct at the point of delivery, I’m not complaining. We finish off with a lemon cheesecake. It’s all lovely and perfectly accompanied by Castelnau champagne.
We’re slightly worried by our late departure, as we have to drive from the airport to our hotel in Marbella, some 40 minutes, and the reception closes at 21:00, which would have been fine if we were on time, but being 75 mins late could make things interesting, we will find out soon enough. Meanwhile the champagne continues to flow although I have to say “no” as it’s not good form to arrive at a car hire kiosk half pissed!
Our BA Embraer 190 is a small but lovely aircraft with decent leg room and surprisingly quiet - not as much as an A380 but still impressive. We follow our journey on a combination of Google maps and an app I wrote recently that plots locations and altitudes, its amazing how scorched the countryside is after the recent heatwave.
An impeccable landing by the boy in short trousers (actually he was first officer!) and we quickly taxi to our stand, then a very speedy exit, baggage collection and car collection, and we are bemused to have been allocated a VW Beetle instead of the GM Astra Waterfall we’d booked. I admit I my scepticism about this unexpected change in plan but our glamorous Europcar operative is insistent we’ll be pleased with the Bug. We soon find that she (the car, not the operative) has 77k on the clock but the 7 speed DSG box is really smooth and I think we’re going to get on well!
A minor wrong turn by either the driver or the navigator gets us into a huge traffic jam on the motorway, and then it isn’t long before it is raining cats and dogs, so the roof has to go back on for a while. It isn’t long before we are topless again for the rest of the 50km journey to Marbella. I don’t think there is going to much motorway driving on our tour, but I note that the British prats are here too, hogging lane two when lane one is totally empty, or maybe it’s just a universal disease? They are still prats!
Our hotel, the Old Townhouse, turns out to be smack bang in the middle of a pedestrian square, but I embraced my inner Spaniard and just parked blatantly in the centre whilst we unload and check in, before luckily snaring the last parking space in the nearbyish underground park. We quickly change from Yorkshireman to holidayman and head downstairs in search of the third meal of the day. Going no further than the aforementioned square, we settle on a neighbouring restaurant for a simple but wonderful steak sandwich - a sort of posh burger, all we need at 22:30, and a very nice Syrah to complement the food.
Finally it’s a walk down the promenade on either side of midnight as we marvel at how late everyone is up and all the bars, restaurants and shops are still open!
I’m sure you’ll find the motorways much more pleasant once you leave the Costa Del Sol!
ReplyDeleteEven in February we found the traffic really heavy there. And, few Spaniards would even realise there is an inside lane �� ........ Happy motoring!