Marbella & Costa Del Sol Post

Editor's note, I have spent most of Thursday trying to get these darn posts done. So you had all damn well better leave some feedback. I have been kicked out of three coffee shops, drank 5 espressos to buy time in said coffee shop and have now landed in that elusive beast of internet cool : Irish Sports Pub that offers free (but slow) internet. Needless to say this is going to get done tonight now that I have "settled in".

Editor's note part 2 : As I am already done with my first Guinness and only two pictures have been uploaded I might not get done with the post after all. That and now I have apparently befriended a 4 year old name William. Apparently he is visiting from Dublin and turns 5 around Christmas. He wants to use the laptop to use MS Paint. Needless to say, not the quickest work environment. Plus the internet is really slow.

We spent 7 day in the Costa del Sol. Basically Spain’s southern coast. We flew into Malaga and took a one hour cab ride to Marbella. We stayed up the coast from Marbella at the Don Carlos Golf resort for two nights for Paty’s company European sales kick off. The hotel was nice, but it was an 11 Euro cab ride to Marbella. The beaches were nice, not Cancun nice, but still nice. The entire trip it was about 77 degrees for a high and mid 60’s for a low. Great weather for October!

The first day we arrived late on Monday October 9th, yes our anniversary. Thanks to all of you who sent greetings! 7 years has brought quite a change for the Tobin’s. Heck, the last 7 months has brought quite a change, but that is another post. We hung out with a bunch of Paty’s co-workers at the hotel’s terrace bar, it was pretty nice. And we were proud to close down the bar at 4 AM.

I was planning on golfing the next two days, but the 4 AM thing with open bar pretty much nixed that idea. So I decided to walk on the beach to Marbella. How far can it be?

Yes, that is the view from out room, Marbella is off somewhere in the haze. View from our room towards beach and on site clay tennis center:

So the walk to Marbella took 2 hours and 15 minutes on soft sand to the edge of the town. Needless to say, the hangover was gone when I finally got there. But there really wasn’t anything going on in Marbella even the seagulls were having a slow day:

Pretty slow Tuesday at the beach:


Marbella proper:

On Wednesday I golfed. Here is the view from our room at 9:30 AM for my 10:45 tee time:

Luckily the haze lifted:

The Rio Real Marbella golf course. I played with Sami from Finland and shot a respectable 89.
My new friend Sami dropped me off at the hotel and Paty and I changed hotels as her conference was over and now it was time for HOLIDAY!
Our new hotel:


Nice place, except for the fact that it was way the heck outside of town in the other direction. The expedia website said it was 1 km from the beach, incorrect! It was 3 km to the beach. The website said 3 km from Puerto Banus, the place with the cars, incorrect! 6 km to Puerto Banus or 9 Euros in a cab. Needless to say we spent a lot on cabs these 5 days. New post for the holiday portion of the trip.