Marbella & Costa Del Sol Post part Deux

Marbella has two parts that are tourist areas with nice beaches and restaurant boardwalks and such. One is Puerto Banus, the other is Marbella proper. Some pictures from Puerto Banus:




The Marina:


And some pictures from Marbella:





This was easily the best Italian restaurant we have been to in years if not ever:

It was tucked away at the top of the Marbella walking only area next to a really neat little church. Basically the restaurant had 6 tables inside and then an additional 6 outside in the walking only alley bordering the church.

We had five nights and four full days in Costa del Sol. As we did not have a car, we hung out at the beach quite a bit. Spain is still a predominantly topless beach going nation so this was not really a bad thing. I had to do some editing to make the beach pictures okay for public consumption:






It is kind of hard to see, but that is the rock of Gibraltar way off in the distance:

The Huskies are also representing in Spain:

We also went out at night quite a few times. You saw the best Italian restaurant in the Costa del Sol. But we also hung out at a few other places. This is a sports bar owned by Gary Lineker, he of the English soccer fame. We watched the Reading v Chelsea bloodbath and one other game here:

Obviously Gary has learned the #1 rule of having a successful beach/tourist bar, waitress hiring:

We actually talked to her quite a bit one night; she has to be the #1 MILF in all of the Costa del Sol. She has 2 year old boy and is Polish married to an English guy. VIVA POLAND! I have some things to say about this picture, but currently I can't find a way to say it without getting in trouble, so:


This has got to be the best anti hangover stand ever:

Very good and effective when you have been drinking all night and are:

In summary, the Costa del Sol is a nice place. But there are better places to visit, even in Spain. Marbella itself is pretty and ideally located climate wise, but it is almost obscenely overbuilt. And the building continues mostly unabated. The corruption between the mayor’s office, deputy mayor and the town planner was so rampart that the Spanish federal government (i.e. the FBI) stepped in and in March of 2006 arrested all the above mentioned officials. Plus, they shut down the mayors office and the area is now run by something know as ‘the best man’ government. The old mayor from the 80s through the 90s that was allegedly behind all this corruption was estimated to be worth 2.4 Billion Euros and is one of the richest persons in Spain. Now this might be hard to believe, except that part of the same article said that during the raid the deputy mayor’s safe was inventoried and there was 378,000 Euros in 500 Euro notes. This is the deputy mayor, and that is almost a half million US dollar equivalent. After reading this article, the obscene building projects make more sense. Too bad, as the Costa del Sol could have been the place to be if managed correctly.

When given the chance, visit Spain. It is a GREAT place, but head up the coast to the Costa Brava or the Costa Verde, primarily the beaches south of Barcelona. It is nice in Marbella, but far from ideal.