Day 11 – Hola Espana!
Not much sleep with a 5:45 alarm, and we are up and moving on our ferry to Spain! Getting out of Morocco was interesting… tickets checked three times and passports checked twice in a short amount of time. Guess they don’t want Moroccans to find a way to leave without going through the proper channels that sadly many can’t afford.
It was a quick ferry ride, just about an hour, from Tangier to Tarifa, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar. Conveniently, we hop on free bus from Tarifa to Algeciras to pick up rental car.
Just a one hour drive from Algeciras to Marbella, to find a slice of paradise. Amare Hotel in Marbella is basically the opposite of Morocco; a European resort on the water that even at only an hour away, it had all the amenities of the Western world. Not a knock on Morocco, the people, culture and history of Morocco shined throughout our visit and we loved it. At this point, this resort in Marbella was exactly what our minds and bodies needed after 11 days exploring Morocco, R & R.
Since we arrive so early, we settle for lunch on pool deck while waiting for room, yearning to get in our room so we can enjoy the beach and pool.
Jackpot! We have a room with an incredible view of the Mediterranean Sea for three nights! We immediately head down to beach for a swim in Mediterrean Sea and some relaxing by the pool.
Quick nap and it’s time to walk the promenade toward the city center. We are honestly blown away with how much we love the scene in Marbella. We immediately begin wondering, how long can we stay, and when can we come back! After seeing an enormous amount of feral cats in Morocco, it is also fun for us dog owners to see lots of residents walking their dogs along the promenade as we explore. We miss our babies!
We settle in (little challenging to find an open table around town) for dinner at Bodegas La Venencia for some tapas. A common theme for us over the next week, searching for tapas (specifically papas bravas). Great first day in Marbella!
Day 12 – Chillin’ in Marbella
Morning starts with a beeline to breakfast, so we can quickly get ourselves a prime resort spot to enjoy our day. And that’s exactly what we did… food, wine, and plenty of sunshine! It gets crowded early around this resort so we had to plan accordingly to start our day.
After a perfect day, we are eager for tonight. Tonight is what we’ve been have been hoping to happen for weeks. Watching, tracking all of Spain’s success throughout the Euro Cup, knowing we would be in Marbella during the finals. Lucky for us, it came to fruition. We even found some locals selling knockoff jerseys on the promenade so we could join the fun cheering on Spain.
Side note: The matches leading up we were lucky to be able to watch in Morocco, and we also had our new friend, Hakim, rooting for Spain in the quarterfinals and semifinals. He is an avid futbol fan and played for years through his time at University in Marrakech. Fun for us to stay in touch with him and get messages during the Euro Cup finals.
We’ve also been scouting the best place to watch with the locals. Success! We ‘settle’, more like successfully squeeze into the exact spot we were hoping to find to watch the Eurocup finals in Parque de la Represa. An incredible match, with Spain scoring the deciding goal in the 86′ for the victory. Simply put, it was a wild scene in the plaza all night (and into the morning)!!
Watching Spain win the Euro Cup in the plaza while in Spain certainly gave us a night we will remember forever! Throwback to 2006, when we were in Italy with 50 of our best friends from NJ watching Italy in pool play of the World Cup in which they would eventually win. Scott somehow in the mayhem of celebrating a victory for Italy in Rome, ended up on the front page of the newspaper! Throwback pics incoming…
Day 13 – Chillin in Marbella, take 2
It’s like deja vu this morning: breakfast, pool, bottle of wine. It’s a recipe for a wonderful day overlooking the beach in Marbella! Pics may look familiar, but we tried our best to replicate yesterday :). BTW, we love our ‘press for service’ button!
We switch it up a bit this afternoon and decide to take the hotel bikes for a spin. About a 10 mile ride, up & down the promenade. North a few miles till the promenade ended and we switch back heading south close to Puerto Banus. A gorgeous ride, with a mix of boardwalk, concrete paths, and hard packed sandy stretches allowed us to aw at more of the Marbella scene we are enjoying!
Tonight, we spoil ourselves with dinner at El Patio de Marbella Club. A place Katie had scheduled us a reservation for long in advance, due to the pristine and allure which makes it challenging to get a table for a meal. But first, a cocktail on the rooftop of our hotel with amazing views!
A classy, beautiful property serving a delicious meal cooked for you on a massive grill right on the patio. Just a few miles south of our hotel, this gem is worth the visit for a meal and experience you won’t forget!
Get back to our picturesque hotel, and we take a stroll back into Old Town to cap off our day with churros! Probably worth mentioning that the sun doesn’t set until 9:40 pm each evening. Making days long, and we are loving the extra light each night.
Day 14 – Marbella to Granada
Sadly, we wake up today knowing we only have a few hours left in Marbella. So we make the most of it, breakfast once again overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and head down the promenade for a little shopping before we head toward Granada.
Easy to say you want to go back when you visit a place, but to be honest, we loved Morocco and loved our first stop in Marbella. Hope we to see these beautiful places again!
In the meantime, we are off to Granada with a stop in Nerja on the way. And maybe a surprise change in plans upcoming. Drinking wine at the pool has had an influence on our travel plans!
Two Wayfaring Wanderers 
Looks, interesting !!!
Love the pictures!!!
Are you doing alot of shopping?
Thank you! A little less shopping in Spain than in Morocco, but it seems we are shopping more this trip than usual.