The English discovered Costa Del Sol in the late 1950’s when linguists were able to translate Costa Del Sol into “Coast of Sun” and realized that long sunny days are great break from short gray days. We went for a week during Easter Half-Term and stayed for a couple of days in a holiday resort in Fuengirola and then toured the great cities of Ronda, Seville, and Grenada.
We landed on Saturday and Easter was the next day and we went to a local church – the prior year in England people were wearing jeans and sweatshirts. So this year, we didn’t take really nice dress clothes, just regular nice clothes. Although the little girls and I got away with it, Sharon was given a lot of looks by the locals for not being in her Sunday best.
After almost getting my eye taken out with a curtain rod, we had a nice relaxing couple of days in Fuengirola. We spent time on the beach, did a horseback ride, a boat ride, and visited to the local amusement park – Tivoli World. We also went to the “white town” of Mijas in the mountains above Fuengirola.
Tivoli World 
The mark above my eye from the curtain rod
After leaving Fuengirola, we stopped in Marbella which was much a more upscale town and beach. Picture below is cloudy in the morning but sunny later in the day. Sharon insisted that we go to an expensive beach club to check out how the rich live – I was initially put off by the expensive drink menu but when the topless waitresses arrived, I had to admit that Sharon was right. Sorry no pictures.
We then went to Ronda for a stop on the way to Seville – another Spanish hill town.
We spend the day walking around Seville, visiting the sites that dated from when the Moops (or the Moors – still debated) occupied Andalucía and had a strong Islamic influence on architecture and design.
La Giralda 
Real Alcázar
Our final destination was Grenada where the primary attraction is The Alhambra. The Alhambra is a fortress complex and was originally constructed as a small fortress in AD 889 on the remains of Roman fortifications, and then largely ignored until its ruins were renovated and rebuilt in the mid-13th century by Emirate of Granada. After the conclusion of the Christian Reconquista in 1492, the site became the Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella (where Christopher Columbus received royal endorsement for his expedition), and the palaces were partially altered in the Renaissance style. In 1526 the Spanish King commissioned a new Renaissance palace better befitting the Holy Roman Emperor The Alhambra was the last of the Islamic palaces was built for the Muslim emirs in Spain (a lot of help from wikipedia on this recollection…).
For Sharon, this was the part of the trip that she had been looking forward to the most and the main reason we chose to go to Andalucía. As we arrived, we found that the tickets had already been sold out for the day. Sharon was not happy – as we were planning our next move we came around a corner and found some people selling tickets….so we were in.
Picture from Internet
(This was written during the Great Shutdown of 2020. My memory isn’t this good, used internet searches to fill in a lot of holes. If there’s huge fat foot below me, it not my fault – that an advertisement I can’t control).
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