Torremolinos with Tante Gisela

Spain celebrates October 12^th (Columbus Day) as its National day. This year it conveniently fell on a Friday giving us a 3-day weekend. The timing was even more perfect as we had already arranged to meet my Aunt and Uncle from Germany in Torremolinos, a city along the Costa del Sol very close to Malaga.

We booked travel by bus as it is enjoyable and simple. Knowing that the students would take advantage of the holiday to leave town, we purchased tickets in advance. The extra time we had allowed for traveling to the bus station via city bus evaporated when Zoe forgot her ear buds and went back to fetch them. What a difference 10 minutes makes. JT and I watched an empty bus pass a minute before Tom and Zoe caught up with us. When the next bus arrived, it was nearly full. It seemed like everyone who had a 5pm bus out of Granada was on our bus. With luggage, there barely room to stand. With each successive stop everyone was shoved together tighter and tighter and the driver would yell, move back. I was having flashbacks to the Beijing train station on a Friday night.

Fortunately, we arrived with 15 minutes to spare and our bus was actually a little late getting into the station. The trip itself was uneventful with the exception of the 30 minute break in Malaga. As the hotel was only 5 minutes from the station, we asked the new driver if we could collect our luggage (as we planned to just catch a taxi) and oddly he refused. The rest of the passengers had disembarked just minutes before. Generally, people are quite helpful in Spain. Not always effective, but helpful and with the best intentions. This man was clearly an exception.

Upon arriving, the hotel made a great first impression. We booked an apartment, which was in a much older apartment-style building located near the rear of the property. The hotel’s open air bar was quite close and it was playing loud music. We couldn’t figure out how to start the air conditioner, when Tom noticed a sign on the back of the door stating we’d have to pay by the day which we were happy to do both for the coolness and the white noise to drown out the music. But after inquiring, we learned the system was “off” for the season.  It turned out that the rooms in the main building, which were less expensive and much newer, had fabulous ocean views. I would have gladly traded off the extra space for the view.

The hotel itself was quite popular with the packaged tour crowd and it seemed the great majority of people were on the full board plan ala cruise ship, except here alcohol was included. Most of the guests were retirees from England and Germany, some from Spain. The plus side of the “resort” was its daily activities, which were quite popular with the kids. Each day the hotel offered some kind of exercise, weapon oriented activity: archery, pistol or air rifle, game and a movie or show. Tom showed his true Sagittarian colors by scoring the most points in archery and air rifle. With Tom present the “cruise director” let JT try his hand at archery and air pistol also.

We found my Aunt after some initial confusion as their room was registered under my Uncle’s legal name, not the one I’ve always used. Actually, she found us. It’s been just over 10 years since we’ve last seen them. Zoe was just 4 months old. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. Mostly that consisted of lounging by the pool in the warm sun, punctuated by quick dips in the freezing pool…which was colder than the Mediterranean itself.  It’s hard to feel self-conscious about your figure when you’re surrounded by 60 year old women in bikinis and 65 year old men wearing speedos. Europeans are not afraid to show some skin, no matter what shape their bodies and seem equally unconcerned about skin cancer as they all baked themselves for every possible moment that the sun shone.

Unfortunately, Saturday night we awoke to the sound that every parent dreads, especially when in a hotel, that of loud retching.  Of course Zoe had spaghetti Bolognese for dinner and chose the sink instead of the toilet in her delirium. Let’s just say it was a rough night. We weren’t sure if it was flu or food poisoning, but both Tom and JT had eaten some of her dinner. Knock wood, enough time has passed that it looks like the rest of us have escaped unscathed. Sunday we spent keeping Zoe quiet and well enough to travel home. Suddenly the bus didn’t seem like such a good idea. She did manage to make the trip without incident and by Monday was well enough to attend school.