Drive the Costa del Sol

Nancy departed the lovely Casa Olina with some wistfulness, definately a 10/10 rating on this one. Left before 10 am with the intent to stop at Marbella and Malaga on our way to Granada - estimated total driving time about 3.5 hrs. Hwy A-7 is the Mediterranean Highway, over 1000 km along the Mediterranean Sea. As Doug noted, not really a highway in the sense that we know it as drivers basically area waiting full stop at yield to come on and in one case a bus was stopped in the Rt lane and it was occassionally punctuated with a round about. Busy all along this and we were concerned enough about getting on and off and lost in the process that we ended up bypassing both the big "Ms". Marabella is a "for the rich and famous types" and Malaga Nancy knows has a lot of interval timeshare availability. Extremely developed area all along the seaside hills with many many high rises and cranes from the ocean to the highway and then from the highway up the hillside. Shortly after Malaga we decided to take an exit as a rest and bathroom break was really needed and ended up on the beachfront in quite a charming place from the looks of things: La Cala del Moral. It has a quite a wide flat waterfront and city area with the highway set significantly back on a rise. Quaint cantina on the beach and and a nice looking boardwalk and curved protected beach. Very pleasant. So we decided to have an early lunch; it is hard to find any "fast food" in Spain although Burger King and MacDonalds are here - have not tried thus far, We can accuse no one of "rushing us" through a meal....usually we have to track down someone to get the "la cuenta" and this spot nwas no exception.

After leaving the seaside lunch, our drive got progressively easier with an impressive uncrowded four lane (divided) highway, multiple tunnelling through mountains and very large bridges, the longest being 1 km long: great highway: high level of engineering. A lot of agriculture reappeared as soon as we left the Costa Del Sol, many greenhouses and agriculture that had sun protective sheets on them. We saw the Sierra Nevada mountains as we came into Granada; Doug was preparing for some craziness getting into the city. First an almost 360 degree turn off the highway (?ie aren't we re entering the highway) into a round about to reach the entry into the gas station, then out into the round about again which was very crowded with cars going every which way.....and we saw why - tow truck loading a stalled vehicle. We then ended up doing two runs around the same circuit trying to enter a parking lot where we were to deposit the car. Mission accomplished! We formally returned the car to an office nearby, then had a 1+ km walk (30 deg C) through a leafy Granada University into the old town. Our hearts fell as we realized a demolition had been done right next to our hotel and there was a lot of drilling and noise. Reception was pleasant and informative. The room in this "quaint" hotel and it is quite small for the two us. There is always going to be accommodation that looks different than anticipated and thus far this is the one that is furthest from ideal for our needs as we really miss having a desk/chair to do our computer stuff. On the upside, check in was easy and the water and air conditioning works well. We had our missed packed lunch in the nearby Trinidad Park and then visited one of the oldest sites in Granada, basically a central square and two stories with balcony and rooms coming into that. We had some of our bottle of sherry and enjoyed the rooftop views and that ended a busy day.

From Estepona by Marbella around Malaga. Stop in La Cala del Moral. Then past Nerja and Motril before heading up to Granada.Read more