I spent Christmas this year in Spain which was different from the usual Christmas lunch/dinner at Nanny Wing's. We stayed in the other apartment from which we stayed at in the summer.
It was so weird, but I'm glad we did it not sure if I want to do it again though.
We went on the morning of the 19th flying from Liverpool airport to Malaga. We got to the apartment around 6pm. We got settled & went out to San Pedro for dinner.
Sunset from the balcony
San Pedro
We had tapas - anchovies & squid. Finally got to have paella after noting having it in the summer!
After having paella mum decided she wanted to make her own so the day after we went to the supermarket & bought our own seafood to make our own. We just did have the right spices to make the rice yellow but it still tasted good.
Prawn, squid, white fish (not sure what it was), mussels, cockles, tomato, green & red pepper, onion, garlic & chicken stock. I'd love to be able to make it back here in Liverpool but you can't get fresh seafood & not as cheap.
Benahavís
Went to the local village Benahavís as my mum & dad had to go to the town hall.
The new town hall
Benahavís is a cute little village, with not much. There isn't even a supermarket so not sure where people get their food from, think they have to go to San Pedro. They are cafes, bars & a bank.
After we went to Puerto Banús to walk around the marina.
Puerto Banús
Apparently some Arbian prince's yacht
It's so different at this time of year compared to the summer. It was just dead, hardly any cars or people. The restaurants & bars were empty.
When we got back we went to the supermarket to get seafood to have hot pot.
Marbella
It's just a completely different atmosphere & feels like you're in a different place comapred to the hustle & bustle of summer where everywhere is just so crowded & full or tourists. This is like the real Spain with the locals. Empty beaches with the odd dog walkers instead of sun beds.
We found out that restaurants close between 4-7:30. We've been going to Spain for over 10 years & didn't know this till the day before we came home when we wanted to go for some food. We knew they have the afternoon siesta between 2-4:30 for most shops but didn't realise that restaurants did too when people were back in work! You do learn something new everyday!
Our flight back was 7:20pm Spain time so in the morning we packed everything up & went to Mayor Plaza shopping centre which is right by the airport. We were meant to be shopping but we didn't have enough time too & just ended up having some food.
We went to this restaurant & ordered the mixed paella & my dad ordered what he thought was beef...
It was jamón on top of toast, with pork steak hidden under. Rubbish for 4.95€
This paella was disappointing but the fact it was 6,50€ compared to the one we had on the first night which was 16€ per person & you had to wait half an hour for it to be cooked. I guess this what you pay for as it was out straight away once it was ordered! At least you got some prawns & squid.
After watching Bake Off this year with one of the technicals being churros, which happens to be a Spanish street food (I didn't know this as we'd never seen them when we've been) I was craving them. A couple of bars in San Pedro had black boards advertising chocolate churros but we didn't get to try them so I finally did at Mayor Plaza.
I was actually really disappointed with them. They were greasy & basically just deep fried dough. They weren't anything like the cinnamon one I had in Florida. But then I we did only pay 40c each for them. Have to go the bar to try them properly next time!
Love a good sunset photo!
