Nearby our resort was yet another small town, Estepona. After our long day in Grenada at the Alhambra, we wanted a day just to relax. We couldn’t have been happier with our choice to explore Estepona, a beautiful, quintessential Spanish town. From its cobblestone streets to its hidden terraces to the many balconies and walls overflowing with vibrant flowers, it was everything I’d pictured in my head that Spain was supposed to look like. Here are a few photos from the afternoon.
Entering the city limits. Most roundabouts have fountains or statues in the center–many of the ones right off the exits would have the town name displayed like this one.
We didn’t really have a plan of where we would go, so we just started driving through the streets, and I was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over sights like the one below. Soon after this picture was taken, we turned up a one-way road that came abruptly to a dead end (yay for not reading construction/road signs in Spanish) and it was quite an adventure watching Erick make an approximately 36-point turn pretty much over the sidewalks in order to turn around… and go back the wrong way down the one-way road. :)
We made it to the edge of the city, parked and then strolled along picturesque walkways lined with palm trees and featuring a view of the sea. You can’t quite make it out in this shot but farther down we could even make out the Rock of Gibraltar. Yup, we were that close and we didn’t go. Erick looked at the brochure and all the walking involved and … yeah. We’d had enough of that. One day we’ll go back!
We wandered down some more side streets. A lot of the shops were closed already (we had spent the morning at the beach, so it was late afternoon) but we did find a wonderful little gelateria. I had some delicious lemon-lime gelato, and Erick’s was Ferrero Rocher… mmm!
More wanderings and sight-seeing… literally every street was as colorful and enchanting as this one!
We were getting hungry–around 6:30 or something local time, I think, so we stopped at a restaurant that was right off the beach. Don’t forget that we’re in Europe. There was NO ONE at this cafe–people starting eating around 8 p.m., I think. It was kind of nice to have the whole place to ourselves, though. And I pretty much love eating outside.
Remember our little story about the expensive water? Well, we got some more. Didn’t learn our lesson. LOL. Or rather, this was kind of an upscale restaurant and it would have been awkward to ask for cheap water?? :)
I was too excited about trying paella for the first time to really be worried about the water, anyway. I mean, check this out. It was deliciously creamy and savory, served in a big cast iron skillet and everything.
It was a wonderful, relaxing evening–the end to a wonderful week and our stay in the southern part of Spain. We only had one more day left to our honeymoon–and that would be spent in Madrid!
