From Thailand back to one of our favorite spots on the planet, Torremolinos, Spain.

We always come to Costa Del Sol along the Mediterranean Sea in the off season. It’s not crowded. It’s not too hot. And the prices for rent is less than half that of peak season. Every morning we walk along the ocean on the wide walking strip that goes several miles in each direction.

Even in the off season, the sand artists are busy all up and down the coast..

About two and a half miles down the beach we take a break from our walking at the Benalmadena Marina where there is a coffee house, Casabianca, that serves the thickest hot chocolate we’ve ever seen. Like chocolate pudding or melted chocolate bars. I’ve taken to dropping some almonds in it. Almond Joy!

The more tourist type areas are kept really trash free but beyond that we find areas where we adopt for trash cleanup.

We are early to rise and early to bed, but we are definitely up for the often spectacular sunrises.

There are a lot of ‘cherenquitos’ or beach bars along the sea and this one reminds me of a saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin. “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Apparently Buddha agrees.

There are a lot of events that happen along the sea. There was a spectacular car show one weekend. This specimen caught our attention.

We were there at the right time of the year for the annual half-marathon. A couple thousand runners.

And talk about entertainment. Here are some samples:

There is one weekend where Dutch royalty come to visit and the place goes all out for them. But there are also other famous people that have made Torremolinos a favorite spot. One person is Brigitte Bardot. In addition to this large mural, she also has a street named after her.

Just a 15 minute ride on the electric train takes us to the large city of Malaga. It has beautiful parks and a large port. Billionaires often park their rather obscene superyachts there.

During Holy Week (Semana Santa) a couple million people come to watch all the processions. This year it rained a lot that week and many were cancelled. But we were there early enough to catch some of the Christmas decorations that were still up.

The beach in Malaga is also quite spectacular.

We got adventurous one day and walked nearly ten miles along the Malaga beach out to the cement factory.

We have a favorite room at Bajondillo Apartments that we rent each time we come here. We’ve had a painting/lithograph by Benjamin Creme, an English artist, that we had been carrying around in a tube. We finally got it reframed and hung on our wall. The staff stores it for us when we are gone.