A Pleasure Trip to Spain.
 

My family and I just returned from a 2 week trip to Spain. What a joy!!!

I redeemed 320,000 Alaska Air points for 4 British Air tickets, Biz Class for Transatlantic flights and 1st from London to Spain and back to London. We rented cars from Avis for the the duration of our Spanish visit.

We left SEA at 6:00 pm. Very comfortable flight--we ate dinner, we slept, we woke up, ate breakfast and just like magic, there we were in London. BA's reputation for excellence in comfort and service is certainly well deserved. Our 3 hour layover was spent in the Club Lounge at LHR's Terminal 1. My son (22) and I hung out on the free internet terminals (sadly no Flyertalk available) and Hubby and daughter (24) read Spanish history and plotted our trip.

We all agreed that our 1st class trip from London to Malaga (GB as franchisee for BA) was about the same as a 1st class trip on NWA narrow body jet in the USA--marginal. Oh well, it's not a long flight.

Our 1st week was spent in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath Gold Crown Condominium at the Barratt Dona Lola, just west of Fuengirola. We received it in trade for a week of our timeshare in Maui. Very nice--right on the Straights of Gibraltar.

My favorite parts of this week were a Trip to Granada to visit a college age friend. She and a Granada History student were our guides through the elegant Catedral and the Alhambra. The temperature was 98.6 F (37 C) but we decided to rough it and hike up the back way to the Alhambra. None of us died and the Alhambra itself was well worth the effort. Truly Amazing--Not To Be Missed. After hiking down, the main road, we had the world's best tapas in a small bar close to the catedral. Seven of us ate and drank our fill and talked for hours for a total of about $50.00 US. Wonderful adventure.

Another highlight was a trip to Gibraltar. For those of you who have never been, the main road (only road) into Gibraltar crosses their main air strip. I loved it--little gates come down across the highway when the planes are taking off or landing. The roads and drivers are crazier than the Spanish, but again, the history makes it well worthwhile. All the food we had was English, which I have never really understood. Our driver to the top of the rock was a native Gibraltarian who spoke a charming mixture of English and Spanish as a native language. The cave monkeys understood him perfectly and at his request would offer kisses and jump on our shoulders. CAUTION: The Spanish are trying to reclaim Gibraltar from the English and, as a result of that political process, make crossing the border back to Spain very difficult. The lines are long so having lots of cold water is very desirable. We froze 2 bottles each night and took them along with 2 bottles of very cold water. Early in the day we drank the cold water and as the frozen bottles melted still had cold water into the evening.

The main square in Fuengirola is a delight. Lovely place to sit, drink, eat and people watch on Friday night after Mass. My daughter sketched a few of the children, much to their delight. The square also had live music and an internet cafe where I was able to get on line with my offices via ICQ for an hour for $6.00. Sadly, again, there was no Webflyer available. This evening made me long to move to Spain.

We actually had to buy tickets from Malaga to Palma, Majorca (via Barcelona). As it was short, we chose to get coach tickets for this portion and was I ever glad. The 1st class seats on Spanair are identical to coach and drinks are free in coach so no reason for flying 1st. We were in row 7 on a 2/3 configuration plane. Hubby kids on the 3 side and I on the 2 side sat next to a lovley 70 year old Spanish lady who seemed to enjoy my efforts at communication. She gave me her card and asked me to write, so I will.

On Majorca, we stayed at the Cala Pi Club, again in a 2 bedroom Gold Crown condominium for which we had traded time in our Maui timeshare. Majorca is truly one of my favorite places. The historical sites are abundant. One day was spent exploring the Catedral and 12th century castle in the heart of Palma. Below the castle is a wonderful little street with great resaurants. We chose one called La Cueva. Marvelous food. Great squid and some of the best Tortilla Patata we had on the trip.

To the east of Palma is the small beach town of Bahia Grande. It has a wonderful family-owned restaurant called Mansion Bahia Grande where the homemade al y oli is exquisite and the leg (whole leg) of lamb is unbelievable.

No trip to Majorca is comlete without a tour of the pearl factories in Manacor for the purchase of gifts. On the way we stopped at the Gordiola glass factory, watched the glass making and toured their family museum which covered 3+ centuries of glass. We stopped at Orquidera pearl factory to watch the pearl making process and had wonderful Majorcan soup at the restaurant next door. From Manacor we took the backroads through the mountain villages and down to the southeastern beaches.

Bicycling in Majorca is a joy, as was the dancing and entertainment provided almost every night at the hotel. My kids hooked up with the Dutch Animacion Girls who worked for the resort and a record producer from LA and his wife, so even they had a ball in a crowd of otherwise middle-aged English, Dutch and German vacationers. We only got to see about half of the island which is great because we really want to go back.

The only glitch in the whole trip was a delayed flight from Palma to London. We were unable to clear airspace over Barcelona. My husband swears it was another Spanish/English political ploy because of Gibraltar. We actually arrived in London AFTER the exchange booths had closed so we had to pay our taxi driver in US Dollars. He was cool with it. We spent 5 hours sleeping in a very common lodge at Gatwick (Forte I believe it was called) which had surprisingly comfortable beds and heated bath sheets. NOT FANCY at all but very convenient, very cheap and very comfortable so I won't complain.

It actualy turned out to be the most cost effective for the 4 of us to just take a taxi from the lodge at Gatwick to Heathrow, so that is what we did. At Heathrow we checked our carry-ons at the Club, and had a very leisurely breakfast in the terminal. When we returned to the Club we had a lovely chat with a London couple on their way to their 1st New York visit (our favorite City) and a travel agent from Dubai. Nice people.

On our return flight we were on the upper deck, which for some reason picked up a sort of a party atmosphere. None of us Washingtonians really were ready to return to to work and neglected gardens so instead of sleeping everybody drank, chatted and swapped vacation stories. Not surprisingly, the BA service was superb and the food was great.

When I got home again, I still couldn't sleep so I spent hours on the internet looking for condos I can trade into for our next trip. Can't wait.



[This message has been edited by Punki (edited 05-23-99).]

Good report Punki. Welcome back!

Lucky You. Majorca is my favorite place on earth. Like a little continent of paradise.

What a wonderful trip report Punki! Makes me long for some paella and the cool Med breezes. Thanks so much for sharing and welcome home!

Punki,

I am glad that u had a good time in Spain…. I went over your trip report and I really enjoyed it so much… I have a very nice memories in Spain…I used to spend every summer vacation in Marbella,Spain with my family (parents, brother and sister )…we do own a house over there… I haven’t been there since 1995 because of my studies in the US…. Cant wait to go back there . The sad part in your post is you didn’t mention Marbella at all http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif… you should’ve been trough Marbella while you were in your way from Fuengirola to Gibraltar
I can say that you missed The Great Peurto Panous nights and the great Italian restaurant Tony Dally.

The funny thing is although I went to Spain for more than 10 times but never been to Granada, Alhambra or Majorcaa.. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif…. Every year I say the next one… but the next one never comes… http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

thanks for the great report…if u have spent some time in Marbella Please post it.

KSA_USA


[This message has been edited by KSA_USA (edited 05-31-99).]

[This message has been edited by KSA_USA (edited 05-31-99).]

Actually we did spend some time in Marbella. My husband had to check out the marina as he still dreams of sailing around the world someday. There is a huge new shopping center right off the highway which might sadden you, but the selections were impressive and the prices were reasonable. Right on the waterfront, however, the prices were very very high. Almost $8.00 for 2 single dip ice cream cones.

Because I had heard Marbella compared to Palm Beach so often before our trip, I was a little let down by the reality. I spent every winter in Palm Beach until I was 18 and still think of it as the most beautiful place on earth. Maybe I am being romatic about it because that was the first place I fell in love.

Actually Estepona was my favorite town in Spain. We are trying to decide between Estepona and Majorca for next year. Decisions, decisions.

great report - thank you punki.

Near Manacor and the pearl factory (by the way the "El Majorica" is costlier but also considered "classier" than "La Orchidea") 10 car minutes away is Porto Cristo (and the resort Porto Cristo Novo where my mother lives since 25 years as a widow) you find the worldfamous "Cuevas" (stalactite caves) which have been discovered by the swiss geologist MARTEL in the last century (my grand-, grand-, grandfather). The hidden lake inside the Cuevas, which you (and 450'000 other visitors) cross each year by boat (when they play the Barcarola) is named after him "lake Martel".

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 05-31-99).]

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 05-31-99).]

Rudi,

Thank you for all your sharings. You are so very fortunate to have travelled so extensively and to have such a well-preserved family history. What magnificent gifts. I hope they bring you tremendous joy. You had better be careful, or all of us Flyer Talkers will be turning to you as our private travel/restaurant consultant. I was even thinking of asking you about great restaurants you have experienced here in Seattle.

Let me know if you have any time when you come to Seattle in September. If the weather is fine, we would love pick you up at the airport and treat you to a sail around Elliott Bay, or a scenic bike ride or walk around our beautiful Queen Anne Hill--taking the relatively level routes. Our office is only 12 minutes from SeaTac, so even stopping by the airport for a quick drink is an easy option.

We actually did go to the Majorica showroom in Manacor, but never did find the factory where they had a production tour available to the public. My feeble Spanish leaves a great deal to be desired. The Perlas Orquidea factory where we were able to tour the production facility was on the highway east of Manacor, not at the showroom in Manacor. It loooked like it might be a new facility. In any event it was very impressive so we decided to buy our gifts there, to thank them for they wonderful exhibition they provided.
It was at the restaurant next to this factory that we enjoyed the wonderful Majorcan soup, all soaked up in the bread. Yum, Yum, Yum. I think I could get very very fat if I lived in Spain.

http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif thank you Punki

Saturday, sep-4-99: I am scheduled to arrive in SEA (from HNL via YVR) at midday 12:04 (UA 6852), staying Saturday/Sunday at the SEA-TAC airport Marriott, and going on that Saturday afternoon to the Mariners-Boston baseball game with a local diretor of the Rainier brewery (we already have tickets). I am free after that game till Sunday morning sep-5-99 (UA 2109 to SFO departing at 09:00AM). I have a Hertz car during my SEA stay.

May be you accept my invitation to my favorite SEA steakhouse (the Metropolitan Grill) for Saturday night? followed by a music-club crawl in the Old town (Fenix etc.?). May be (still pending) Mileageaddict and megamiles will join? (I must confess, that I don't eat, unfortunately, any seafood - what a shame in Seattle!).