Day 5
Wednesday October 29th 2008

Our last day, there is no real rush as we don't nreed to be at the airport until 8.30pm so we lazed around te pool for the morning, handed in the keays at lunchtime but stayed there for another hour or so afterwards.

Hotel Diana Park

We then headed up the coast to Marbella expecting to find all the mastermind criminals from the UK. Instead we parked in another beachfront underground car park, walked through a shopping centre right onto the beach promenade in glorious sunshine. Headed straight down to the sea for a proper paddle and stroll along the sand, we then ate lunch sitting outsie the centre before walking inland a couple of streets to see the town centre.

Africa & Gibraltar

Admiring the view we realised that we could see Africa more clearly today than we could from Gibraltar which is 50 miles closer.

It appears that the beach is the centre of it as apart from an odd cafe or two and a chiropodist there was not much else there so we made our way back to the promenade and headed up it. The further we went the more crowded with both people and cafe's it became until we reached a sheltered bay area. Nobody was swimming but there was a paddle boat out with a slide on it. Idling away an hour or so watching the boats, people barbequing fish on open fires on the beach and just soaking up the atmosphere we eventually headed on further up the coast to the next town Fungirola.

Spotting a castle at the entrance to Fuengrola we turned off the highway and parked beside a school where football practice was taking place. Couldn't see any timelimit so we ambled down to the beach, across a suspension bridge with a solitary tower and up the castle.

After a shorty rest we came back down to the beach wher we lay in the sun gathering the last warmth of the rays. As the cafe was closing we grabbed a quick latte and gave ourselves plenty of time to reach the airport.

This was fortunate since I thought we could drive along the beach for a while then strike inland back to the dual-carriageway. We must have travelled miles along the seafront with it turning more andmore downmarket and tacky with every block. This is most definitely a lower class and cheaper resort than Marbella. Getting frustrated that there were no signposts to anywhere or even any major junctions the next street that was wider than a horse and cart I turned up hoping to find a main road. A couple of blocks in we found the N340 that we had been travelling on and headed up the coast. The N340 was not the major thoroughfare it was lower down, though still a dual-carriageway it had roundabouts and vicious speedbumps. I was forced to slam on the brakes alarmingly when I spotted the first one, I'm glad we didn't come this route on our first night when I was less confident about the driving.

This road going through all the towns was going to take forever to reach the airport so on the first sign to the Motorway I turned off and headed inland once more. Getting from the N340 to the Motorway involved a good deal of guesswork and a significant degree of luck. There was no indication of how far it was and at major roundabouts in residential areas signposts would be omitted forcing a wild guess then backtracking at the next roundabout when you'd spot a sign going back the way you'd just come. At one point I was shouted at by a local driver I think for something to do with residential driveing rules but I'm not really sure. Was I glad to reach the Motorway which they call either Autovista or Autovia, there probably is a difference but by that point I couldn't care less.

After dumping the car we were over 2 hours early still but the checkins were open so we got our boarding passes and remembering what had happened at Canada found a cafe this side of customs wher we ate meatballs as nothing else was left on the menu. The number of shops were limited so once repleat heade through customs and found a large area full of shops and cafes, and duty free. In the crentre of the area was a large section of tables and chairs all full and a few tables without enough chairs, these for some inexplicable reason had been pushed to one side grabbing a chair whereupon an agitated cleaner came up to me gesticulating and saying something grabbed the chair and took it away. Huh, Finding a table just vacated I grabbed it before he could nick those chairs. He seemed to be going around collecting any chair without a bum on it and whipping them away. I protected Jude & Davids chair when he came over and even the spare ones at our table.

We'd had to dump 4 litres of water just before the security check so was forced to buy more here at ridiculous prices for the plane journey.

Bumpy flight and arrived home in the pouring rain - Ahh good old blighty :-)

Tried to find a car park payment meter but missed it hidden away behind the dustbins and builders boards so when there was none in the actual car park I was forced to come back through the rain again.

Home, our own (freezing) bed.

And cats

Nota Bene :

Whilst we were away it snowed in Dorset, the first October snowfall in living memory (well mine anyway) and we were stuck in the sun - the hardships we put up with . Oh boy was the house cold.