Andalusian Adventures: Rocking the Costa Del Sol

The end of the English football season meant that I now had more free time on my hands and I couldn’t wait to get away for an extended period with my parents.

I was able to bag some cheap flights giving me two weeks in Spain from early – mid June and began making some plans. Largely this would be a relaxed break with the promise of sunshine and would revolve solely around the plans that I had arranged for both weekends of my trip. With summer approaching, it meant that there was plenty going on in the Costa Del Sol whilst I’d be holidaying…

(The Rock of Gibraltar and Morocco are viewable in the distance from Estepona)

The first trip of the holiday was to Málaga. This was a really enjoyable day with us all getting a chance to explore more of the city including its historic museum.

As the evening drew closer, me and my Dad remained in the city where we’d be staying overnight, the reason being that Málaga CF were playing Elche CF at 8pm that evening in the final game of the regular season in the Segunda Division. The late kick off meant we wouldn’t be able to get a bus back to my parent’s afterwards, but spending a night would mean that we had plenty of time the following day to visit a number of places we didn’t have chance to before.

We found that tickets were surprisingly easy to purchase for the game, you can buy them online through the club who have an extensive seating plan guide which is translated into English, but my Dad opted to get ours from an official ticket office located in Fuengirola. The tickets we chose were only €17.50 each and located in the lower section behind the goal which offered a fantastic view of the game, with all of the seats raised up above the pitch.

Málaga’s La Rosaleda is quite a typical Spanish ground, being a two-tiered bowl shape with only two stands having cover, but it has to go down as one my favourite “big grounds” that I’ve visited on my travels. Similar to my experience previously at Cádiz CF, everyone seemed close-in to the action and it created a very good atmosphere. One again the fact we weren’t under cover was by no means a bad thing, as we were able to bask in the late evening sunshine.

(Málaga CF’s La Rosaleda ground)

 

The game itself was great, being full of flowing, passing football and lots of chances for both teams, it was simply a pleasure to watch and a great choice for what would be my final game of the 2018/19 season.

Málaga took the lead early on, with Boulhroud scoring in the 5th minute, before the match went into a stalemate with both teams finding a way to cancel each other out. Chances were aplenty though and it certainly felt like they’d be more goals in the game. I was really impressed with the standard of play and quality of the game, there was a chance that this could have been a bit of a “dead rubber” game, with Málaga already making the play-offs and Elche missing out, even with a number of changes in personnel the home side looked at their best and seemed like they wanted to take good form and had a point to prove ahead of the play-off campaign.

(Match action from the Segunda Division)

 

The home side began to take control in the second half of the game, with two further goals scored within five minutes of each other effectively ending all chances of the visitors making a comeback. The crowd were loving it after quite a tense period where the result could have swung either way and I was pleased to see the impressive Hicham get himself a goal. Elche might have felt hard down with a final score of 3-0 as they certainly worked hard throughout, but full credit to Málaga who pressed well and were clinical when they need to be. After heading back to our hotel, we rested up and left early the next morning with a full day of walking ahead.

The first destination was the impressive Gianfranco castle that overlooks the city, it is quite a hike to get up there following the main path and would be tough in the afternoon sun, thankfully once we were up there you did get lovely views looking out towards Málaga’s beaches and harbour areas which made it worthwhile. After an easier walk back down to the city, we had some lunch and continued our walk exploring the around old town before heading towards the harbour where we found a food festival and some live music playing, we were able to get some free soup and bread in the process and at these whilst listening to bands play a mix of cover songs from English bands and traditional Spanish music.

(View from the Gibralfaro castle)

As the day was drawing to a close, it was soon time to head back down the coast and be re-united with my Mum and Sister.

I’d have another few days together with my family relaxing by the pool and beach before I was joined by Elisha who was making her second trip here, for a week long stay. We had ideas for a couple of trips together, mainly revisiting places we’d been to in April and enjoyed for a variety of reasons, plus we were simply looking forward to just having a break away from our regular lives.

(Elisha in Marbella’s old town)

 

Our first trip was to Marbella, in particular to visit the lovely old town, It’s a wonderful place where you can easily spend a couple of hours walking, eating, drinking and relaxing. After heading to the beach and walking in the direction of Puerto Banus, we decided to head inland and opted to get the three course meal of the day at a lovely cafe called ‘The Farmacy’.

Following our meal, we wandered to the supermarket, headed back to the apartment and prepared for what was to come on the next day.

(Rock the Coast Festival’s line-up)

Me and my dad had been waiting a while for this day to come. It was time for the inaugural (and only) Rock The Coast festival, which took place in Fuengirola in the Costa Del Sol. The line up looked great, the venue was unique, the tickets were very reasonably priced and it was relatively close to where my parents were living so it had the potential to be special.

(Sohail Castle, Fuengirola)

(Waiting for the first band)

 

It was an amazing experience all-round. I loved the variety of music, listening to bands from Russia, Sweden, Germany, The UK and Spain which covered every sub-genre you could imagine from Rock to Heavy Metal. It’s set the bar very high for any festivals I attend now on, the timings worked well with quick change overs between bands (shared between 2 main stages), there was plenty of seating and covered areas (much needed), food and drink choices were good and the stage inside the castle itself was like nothing I’d seen before. As the day went on the crowd built and the atmosphere got better and better.

(Rock the Coast festival stage set-up)

 

Night drew in and it was coming towards the headline acts, interestingly the timings given actually meant that the headliners were to finish at 11pm, perfectly normal, but there were then 2 bands playing afterwards for a finishing time of around 2am!

The 3 most well known bands playing on the day I went were UFO, Europe and Scorpions, all real throwbacks to my favourite era of music. Headliner Scorpions were the stand out for me, they had a great presence and the crowd were loving them. Their set was a perfect blend of the old and new for me, I thought it represented their discography well, with moments of intensity and power in some songs being well balanced with softness in others.

(Scorpions)

Iconic songs like “Winds of change” and “Still loving you” were well received from the crowd and I’m glad I was able see them, but they soon finished their set with “Rock you like a hurricane” and it was time to move over towards the other stage to get ready for Europe only 10 minutes later.

A number of people decided to leave at that point, it was 11pm after all, but there was still plenty of music left to hear as the Swedish band came onto the stage. I can almost guarantee that if you ask anyone to “name a song by Europe” then they’ll instantly say “The Final Countdown”, for good reason I’d say, but I liked a lot of their set including some newer songs, showing that they are more than just that one song / album they’re always associated with. Of course everyone sang along to “Carrie” and “The Final Countdown” is a great closer but they were a good classic rock band. To finish the night, we wandered up the hill to the castle stage, had some food and drink and punted at watching Spanish band Debler. We’d never heard of them but they were really good and much more to my music taste than Carcass who were on the main stage.

(Rock the Coast’s “Castle Stage”)

 

It was a great sight looking over the sea from the height of the castle at night as well and way past 2am we left the castle and headed for our overnight stay on the Fuengirola beach. Not a hotel, just have a kip on the beach and get the first bus back to Marbella. We actually got no sleep on the beach, but somehow made it back home and went to bed at around 9am…

(Night sky over Fuengirola)

 

The final few days were pleasant and peaceful, with no pre-planned trips we were all able to relax and unwind. Me and Elisha returned to Málaga, for sight-seeing, shopping and food before spending more time in the pool, sunbathing and down at the beach. A successful trip all round!

(Elisha returns to Malaga)

(Elisha relaxing in the pool)

This wouldn’t be the last time that I visit Spain in the year, but it was probably my most memorable. I’m glad that I was able to have the luxury of a 2 week trip, without having many solid plans beforehand. Sometimes it’s best to take things day by day and maybe I don’t do that enough, as usually I just like to cram everything into as little time as possible.

(Evening view from the balcony)

 

Helpfully I’ll get some new posts out soon and thank you for checking this out.

 

Chris Sharp