Lazy day trip to Marbella
Taking a bus from Banús, Paul managed to work out that we needed to get off after 11 stops. “This looks very like the centre of Marbella!” I shouted as we passed the 5th bus stop. Paul made us stay on board and was awarded the title of “knob of the holiday” when we finally alighted in the slums, some 2.5 kms past the centre.
On reflection though, I always say if you want to experience the true culture of a place, go into the back streets where the locals live. We found Bar Parquesol on the Avenida Navel Una first – very “local”. The owner of the tabac/newsagent across the street was cheerily drinking his profits at the bar.  Overheard voices were unsurprisingly Spanish and I imagined the word mañana being the most common in use. We had a couple of beers then decided to move on to the more touristy part of the port.
After a full tour of indecision, Castillo del Gourmet on Paseo Maritimo Marbella was the next stopping point.
A nice atmosphere was found here.
A few plates of tapas were accompanied by various wines including this Barbadillo from Cadiz – floral but weak. Didn’t taste of much but I guess your expectations are pretty low when you pay less than 10 Euro. We also tried a bottle of Diego de Almagro, Valdepenas Tempranillo at 7.25 Euro which, not surprisingly, turned out to be what I call a Ronan Keating wine in that it “said nothing at all”.
No shortage of tapas, though, which was all excellent.
Moving on after lunch we dropped into Bar El Bodegón on Avenida Buque de Ahumada. Funky islands amongst a sea of cheap plastic chairs were constructed from old wine barrels with trees growing politely through the middle of each table. This made for an atmosphere of shady olive groves, albeit with the social interaction problems of talking though a prison cell railing.
A bottle of Marqués de Cáceres Rioja rosado had the usual insipid strawberry and cream cliché but was nonetheless a very pleasant diversion from the heat of the sun.
Waiting for the bus home at Cafe Creme, it was unclear how many stops we should pass, or indeed which bus we needed to get. After so much wine I am not sure anyone was particularly bothered…
