Marbella

The taxi driver pulls up to the gated entrance. I look ahead to see a tropical paradise sprawled out in front of me. Cual piso? The gate keeper asks me, but I am speechless..in both languages…I turn to him with a look of confused amazement. He laughs that “ooo dumb Americans” laugh and says, “What is your apartment number?” Finally my brain registers that he expects me to respond. “Oh, lo siento. 1214.” He says something else but I am lost again in the scenery: palm trees, brightly colored flowers, mountains, pools, Spanish style building with stone roofs and porches. My eyes traveled beyond the Marriott to see the ocean peaking out at me from beyond the trees. “This is it???!!” I asked mom. “Yup,” she says amused. “Dang!” was the only response I could muster.
The luxury only continues as we enter into our legit apartment with two bedrooms, two huge bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and of course, our own personal balcony. The beds each have about 5 pillows on top, but just in case none of those work for you, there is a whole closet full of other ones you can chose from. (You know how well I do with decisions. I literally had an assembly line of pillows on the bed and had to try each one multiple times before I could pick one.) From the balcony I can see the ocean, about 5 different pools, some mountains and the most amazing workout room known to man. It was basically Vanessa heaven.
The weather was a bit to be desired but we still had fun. We took some walks on the beach so that grandma could stick her toes in the Mediterranean Sea, mom had her drinks on the beach and I got to run into the sunrise. We had several interesting culinary experiences like lunch on the beach and Italian in the rain and our attempt to go in for tapas. (Mom was not into the legs of meat hanging from the wall and they did not think the pictures of flesh covered in cheese looked appetizing, I can not understand why haha). Needless to say, we sat down for about 2 minutes and then left.
Marbella was absolutely beautiful. It pretty much looked like a breathtaking landscape portrait that we got to walk around in. Never in my life have I been anywhere that amazing and wonderful and nice. Thank you Douglas, Of course we still brought our small town, American flavor to the table. Grandma and mom had a giggle about the topless Europeans and the men in Speedos small enough to make you want to rip your eyes out, we ran around in our bright pink rain jackets and tennis shoes, I gave my camera to a homeless man only to realize that he was not really offering to take our picture out of the kindness of his heart (but 1 euro for a picture isn’t too bad), we hijacked the covered beds in the center of the pool deck one morning before the rain just to try it out, we played phase ten in the hotel room, and grandma got a few snore-filled naps in on the pool deck. Over all, it was a wonderful trip.