Costa del Sol
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2007
1
31
58
Trip End
Apr 15, 2008
Estepona, Spain
Friday, November 9, 2007
Our little 2 bedroom villa/condo is located right on the beach. We have a view of The Rock of Gibraltar and on clear days we can even see the north coast of Africa. It is truly amazing. The town itself has it's pros and cons, located on the Costa Del Sol (Costa Del Golf), it has a wonderful climate with average temperatures in the low 70's right through the month of November. Sorry to say we never went swimming but we loved jogging on the beach, walking into town, and collecting sea glass. We spent many a day lazing in the sun poolside and writing in our journals and reading. The town of Estepona is a mix of old and new. The old winding streets with it's little plazas and fountains were exactly what we were expecting, the Spanish locals were all great to us. The beach promenade in town and the port area have a newer quality. There is a huge British ex-pat community, not what we expected at all. At times we felt like we were in England. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but it is very British. Not judging it, just noting a fact.
We had been here for less than 2 days when my brother Jeremy arrived for a nice long visit. Our time with friends has always been special on this trip but to be with family was just awesome. It meant so much that Jer came so far, alone, to spend time with us. I think we made it worth his while though.
The brothers got out for a round of golf on the very first day. It wouldn't be a proper Deitz family holiday without a round. We had great weather. For those of you who care about such things, the younger beat the elder. It was a lot of fun as always.
While Jer was here we traveled to Seville, Granada, and Ronda (next sections). It was a blast.
When we returned from our road trip we were pretty beat. Jer got a pretty good idea of how our lives have been as we've journeyed through Europe. We got back to our place and took it easy for the last few days he was here. We jogged by the beach, had several great meals (some out and a few at home). The meals at home were lovingly prepared by Desma. She vowed to get her Spanish cooking skills in check once we settled into our new home and she lived up to her promise. She bought a great Spanish cook book and loved dog-earing every page that she successfully completed. We've loved eating it all.
The day before Jer left we drove up to Malaga to pick up our next visitors, Michelle and Alex. They are very good friends from Philadelphia, Des and Michelle have been friends since college. We have felt so lucky to be able to spend time along the way with the people we love. It was a blast having M & A with us, unfortunately they brought their Philadelphia weather with them to Spain. It rained some part of every day and grand plans of day trips were washed away with the rainy conditions. We had fun though. So many laughs and drinks and meals. Desma was so psyched to have her buddy with her in the country they both love so much. We cannot thank M & A enough for spending a portion of the vacations with us here. We will never forget it.
After all of our guests had gone home or off to the next part of their travels Des and I were left alone, again. Just the 2 of us. We've had lots of time to contemplate how far we've come and how far we have left to go (man do we have a long way to go yet). It's been really nice. We've been cooking at home and watching DVDs and smiling a lot as the cool ocean breeze blows in through the open french doors. We took a road trip to Gibraltar one day. It's officially a British territory (did you know that? We didn't). We played with the monkeys that inhabit the rock, it was an amazing experience. Mostly we run short errands in our little blue Chevy Matiz piece of garbage and prepare for what's coming next.
We head to Madrid tomorrow for 3 days and then to Marrakesh for 4 and then it's over, Europe that is. We board our flight to Bangkok on the 13th and then we start all over again in S.E. Asia. How lucky are we? Don't worry we know. We think about it every day.
We miss you all.
-J
