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Eight years of silence

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  We are going for a stroll along what happens when a sun bleached coast, the home of fishermen, gets settled, accesses water for irrigation and lots of people with money and need to spend it somewhere.  We will have to nip out across the road to get the full Marbella entrance way experience. The Filipino Massage Centre https://filipinomassagecenter.com/ we give you a massage at the rate of 35 euros an hour.  I looked at the reviews.  Two identical ones, I suggest, contain more fantasy and attempts to diminish the reputation of this place than I can comment on.  A year ago Sharon said ‘I had an excellent massage with Tina recently. I asked her to concentrate on certain areas and she did exactly what I requested, including a wonderful head massage. They offer a great deal on Tues and Friday, €35 for a one hour massage. Atmosphere is very relaxing. I would highly recommend. Over the road in the Pasteleria Amaretto.   They have a facebook page - which was las...
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Glowing stars, happy scrums and sad beaches

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  We are heading downhill, back towards the place we can cross the place by foot and so we will get back to thoughts of Marbella. Marbella has generally thought of itself a bit above the rest.  This is possibly because the Marbella Club was opened by the Marquis of Ivanrey’s nephew, Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in 1954. The Club has 121 bedrooms, 16 villas, 10 acres of gardens and an 18-hole golf course.  It developed.  Time to quote wiki extensively: ‘ In 1966, Prince Alfonso hired a Beverly Hills architect and, with the assistance of the Banus family, who were personal friends of dictator Francisco Franco and had already developed the later-controversial Valle de los Caídos, developed the high-end tourist resort Puerto Banus. The resort opened to much fanfare in 1970. Celebrities in attendance included Franco's designated successor, Juan Carlos (then Prince of Asturias), Prince Rainier of Monaco and his wife Grace Kelly, and Aga Khan IV; entertainers incl...
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A walk in the wilderness

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  To get a clue as to how unconnected these resorts and urbanizacions are is the fact we are plunging north to find a way the footbound pilgrim can find to head along the coast.  We have really nothing to review en route and we’ve done rabbit holes - so let us talk about Marbella. We are heading towards Marbella. Marbella is one of those names which sits in the pantheon of places which is the home of sunburnt Brits and Irish pubs. It did, however, have an existence before the 1970s. The usual amount of Phoenicians and Romans lived here.  The Normans ravished the coast and the Umayyads built light houses and a citadel to defend the town. This was a place which cultivated figs and mulberry trees. 14th century traveller Ibn Battuta described it as "a pretty little town in a fertile district.”   On 11th June 1485 the Crown of Castile took the place. The town was declared a city and the capital if the region. The Plaza de los Naranjos was built along Castilian lines ...
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Go ask Alice

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  It is another day of wiggling around the merry hamlets of the south.  I did promise you rabbit holes and, where we have rabbit holes we need lepridae. There are rabbits and, unlike those in England, they needed no Normans to bring them in and build them rather natty warrens as their little paws couldn’t dig their own. Apparently these chaps probably involved in South-East Iberia in the Middle Pleistocene [between 129,000 to 774,100 years ago - the Middle Pleistocene, not the rabbits.] . Rabbits are important, mostly as prey.  Tough but them’s the breaks.  Apparently the Iberian lynx and Iberian imperial eagle really like bunnies.  They are also dispersers of seed.  They are keen on dry pastures, which seem to be a good thing.  They seem to range up to 300m from home, giving them a territory of 2.5 hectares.  Apparently 12 years is a good innings for the rabbit-kind. A survey of the bunnies was done in 2025, which revealed a drop in numbers by 60...
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