Road to Relaxation

After 6 days into our tour of Spain, we were so happy to be getting into a rental car on the 7th day and driving to our next destination.  With my expert google map directions, we headed south out of Sevilla for a quick stop in Gibralter and then onto Estepona for some resort relaxation.  The road trip was going well, all enjoying not being on a train and seeing some of the countryside that we were driving through. About half way there though, there was an error in communication and an exit was missed!  We thought, hey no problem, we'll just get off at the next one and turn around. But then we realized the next exit wasn't for several km. When we finally did find another exit, it was a transfer to another highway. So we said, ok we'll get off at the first exit, turn back around and get back on the original highway. Well that first exit was another transfer to yet another highway!!  We were absolutely beside ourselves at this point and getting quite frustrated with the Spanish road systems. With a few tricky maneuvers by Travers, the driver, and lots of patience by all, we finally found a spot to turn around, about 20-30 minutes after we had missed the original exit. And with some expert memories and using our phones for live google map updates (don't want to know what the roaming charges are there), we were actually able to find our way back to the original highway and to the original exit that we needed to take. And on our way again.

The Rock

We finally made it to Gibralter a little later than planned, but still within lots of time to see what we wanted to see. Gibralter, for those that don't know, is a British territory in the south of Spain. Its famous for the Rock of Gibralter, which is a huge rock/mountain that looks so oddly placed as everything around it is flat for miles. There is only one way in and one way out of Gibralter, so we sat in a little bit of traffic to get us through border patrol. And the road that leads into Gibralter actually crosses a airport runway!  They stop traffic from time to time when planes are landing or taking off. Its crazy to drive across it and look left and look right and realize you are driving across a runway, and just hope they have their communication working so that no planes land on you and your car!  Once in Gibralter and parked, we made it into town just in time for a late lunch, at Burger King!  This is one of Mike's favorite places and we like to splurge on it when we're on holiday too, so it was a tasty treat for us all! We strolled the main street for awhile, checked out some local stores and then called it a day and headed back to our car and onto Estepona!

as good a pic as i could get of the runway

Us in Gibralter

Estepona is a beach town with tons of resorts that line the beaches of southern Spain. We stayed at the Kempinski Hotel Bahia and through connections with my company, got some fantastic rooms with some nice views of the property and ocean.  We checked in and being that the sun doesn't go down until after 9pm in Spain, we headed right out to the pool to get some sun and swim time.

Views of the ocean

Looking back at the hotel

Throughout the property there were several sculptures that for some reason I really liked, and Travers had fun posing with, so I took lots of pictures of them. Here are a few:






















We spent the rest of the day by the pool, then had a cocktail party in our rooms on our balconies, then headed into town for a nice beach-side dinner.









The next day we did more of the same, sat poolside, got tan, and relaxed as long as we could. It was a great relief to have this nice break during our trip to just sit and rest and not do any touring or walking. That afternoon, we hopped back in our rental car and drove just an hour away to Malaga for our final stop in Spain!