We are very fortunate to have a family holiday home nestled in the hills off the coast of Andalucia which we can visit as often as we like.  Of course, we don’t get to visit as often as we like as day to day life takes over.  It was great however this year to be able to get out and soak up some sunshine, given that I’d missed quite a bit of the good summer in London due to my illness.  Located about 10km from the coast, overlooking the Sierra de Mijas and the Cala de Mijas, the views from the apartment are spectacular to say the least.

Sierra de Mijas Andalucia Spain

We’ve visited many times and depending on how busy we’ve been prior to our visit, we may just choose to stock up on our way there and stay at the apartment chilling or take the odd day trip out.  As the weather wasn’t quite lie out in the sun all day with occasional dip in the pool weather we did take a few trips out.  MrsQ’s parents were out this time so they took us to a few of their favourite spots, quite a few which we’d not visited before, which was fun.

Los Vinedos - La Mairena Spain

Los Vinedos – La Mairena Spain

We took a trip to Malaga as we’d heard of a “tea shop” – sounds a bit sad but hey, MrsQ likes her tea and when there is tea, with cake… you don’t suddenly say “but we can’t go, we’ll never find it etc… …”, you go and find the tea shop! In order to whet our appetites we mooched around the castle in Malaga, something we’d not done before.  Not too busy at this time of year, but if you are planning on going (and it’s really cheap admission), prepare for lots of ascending steps… castles are built on hills for a reason.

If you are mooching about Malaga and like tea and cake, check out La Teteria – well worth a stop.

Another place we visited for a country walk was the El Juanar hiking area where after a couple of mile hike you see spectacular views over Marbella.  If hiking is your thing, there are various routes that you can take to explore.

 

On second to last day, we decided to eat out in Marbella Old town.  It’s a very picturesque setting, eating in the old town square and always enjoyable.

Marbella Old Town

 

More pictures on Flickr!

Marbella / Malaga