Glowing stars, happy scrums and sad beaches

 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 included Julio Iglesias. In 1973, exiled dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, who had left Cuba with a fortune estimated at between $100 and $300 million and lived extravagantly in various Iberian resorts, died of a heart attack there. Fugitive financier Marc Rich bought a house in Marbella, renounced his American citizenship and claimed Spanish citizenship during his decades of evading American income taxes, although he spent more time in Switzerland, where he died.’

In 1974 Prince Fahd arrived in Marbella. Until his death, to again quote wiki, he was a ‘Prince Fahd was a frequent and profligate guest.’ The Wiki author clearly has views.  ‘Marbella welcomed his retinue of over a thousand people spending petro-dollars. The then-anonymous Osama bin Laden visited on a number of occasions with his family between 1977 and 1988’.

Back to our own pilgrimage.  We are crossing the A-7 again and passing the lusciously green Marbella Rugby Club.  https://marbellarugby.com/  It is one of 332 clubs in various divisions.   The traditional regions are Old Castile [Valladolid and Madrid], Catalonia, the Basque Country and now Valenica and Andalucia.  Wiki has a great quote ‘Rugby was first introduced into Spain before World War I.However, subsequent events such as the Spanish Civil War hindered its development.[citation needed]’


Spanish Rugby has a Division de Honor [11 teams from across Spain], Division de Honor Elite  [10 teams], a third league of three leagues [Division de Honor B] which was North, Eastern [including Balearic Islands] and Madrid to Andalusia.  Below that are 12 regional leagues.  Marbella, who have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/marbellarugbyclub/  [yes, I am following them], play in the Anadulucian Regional League https://farugby.com/liga-bms-1a-territorial-masculino-xv/ 


MRC have 326 reviews and gets 4.5 stars.  Pedro wrote ‘A natural grass pitch, which is becoming increasingly rare, and friendly service from the club staff. 👍🏼🏉🏉🏉 …’  Dharma Micromobilty gave the full five and said ‘Absolutely an incredible experience. We were served by the club staff. The restaurant is of the highest quality, and the management staff, headed by Magdalena, is excellent.’


We are going to end on the beach.  The Playa del Pinillo gets 4.4 from 77 reviews.  These are the reviews Google thought most relevant.

Alexandra 3* - Nice sandy beach, with plenty of space and a parking lot nearby. Bring proper footwear to protect you from the scorching sand. The blasting music from the bar nearby will, however, ruin what could be an otherwise quiet and relaxing day at this beach.


Irja 1* - Another place that has been taken over by local drug gangs and is usually a haunt for drug addicts whose sole purpose is to rob the tourists.  Nice beach, sad situation.

Mac 4* - Perhaps fine for a winter walks but in 33 degrees heat it's no bueno. Sand gets really hot and there's a strip of rough stones on the edge of the sea.

Luigi 1* - After 4 days in vacation in costa del sol we have only seen filthy waters. And this beach is not an exception.

And

Jor 1* - The council has just cut down every single tree here, it's a desert now. Such a shame.















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