what better than to celebrate Adrian's 40th birthday?
We didn't have many plans for this trip; Adrian's plan was to go to Sanlúcar de Barrameda and taste the best shrimp in the world at a special restaurant and stay in Cadiz for 4 days and explore.
From Salobreña to Sanlúcar, it is about 4 hours with no stop, but we did have plans on stopping somewhere; maybe it could take 7 hours.
It is always a little stressful to drive here in Spain. The traffic can be a little crazy some times on the road AP-7 through Málaga, but we did not have any problems except crazy drivers in the traffic as usual.😏 We did want to stop in Marbella for lunch, but the traffic was too crowded, so we just went to a gas station in the middle of nowhere to find something. We did take a look at "Miss Google Maps" to see what was around us to get some lunch and stretch a bit, and we were close to the town of Estepona, so that ended up being the destination for a lunchbreak.
There is something new to see, so why not drive all the way to the beach and just walk around and get something to eat?
We did drive into town with the help of "Miss Google", which sometimes is like she is a little drunk or just woke up after a nap, because she just takes us to so many confusing places all the time. Let me tell you, "Miss Google" always takes us to the weardest streets to get where we want, which can be fun some times but not always.😁
Estepona was so welcoming and nice after the stressfull road, with a golden sandy beach as long as the eye can see, and what a splendid site to see all the way to Africa and to Gibraltar.
We did walk around the beach line to enjoy the salty breeze and take in the magical view.
"Now lets get some food "
We did pick a restaurant on the beach ,Chiringuito "PACO",to enjoy the amazing view and taste the food wich is rated 4.4 stars in google.The staff was lovely, fast service and food was fine, good flavors and we went out happy.
We did order as a starter a scallops and shrimp in garlic, and a Pallea with no fish . Wi did like it that the servent did tell us that it does take up to 30 min to make the pallea wich means it is fresshly made , not frozen goods. That is also a good thing to know when you order Pallea in Spain, so do not hesitate to ask the staff how long does it take to make it.
After filling our belly of gourmet food, we hardly had energy to go back to car, we just wanted to lay on the beach and rest in this landcape for a siesta.😴
"Miss Google Map" is wayting for the next mission!
Well no time for siesta, so we went back on the road, AP-7, on our way to Gibraltar.
The drive itself was beautiful; the landscape started to change; and there were more greens and trees. We did not go to Gibraltar it self ,because of the time, so we did go on the road A-381 and into Natural Park Los Alcornocales. From there, we took road A-2226 to go to the town of Benalup.
We did drive through this beautiful natural park in the magical landscape that reminds us of the eastern part of Iceland. Just magical. It was just so nice to see that side of Spain. We will definitely go to this park again in the future, walk there, and camp. Spain is not all about sandy beaches and cocktails; it has so many wonderful natural treasures and historical places to see.
In Benalup, we just stopped for a strong cup of coffee, which was so needed to get ourselves to Sanlúcar. Benalup also reminds us of Iceland: a town in the middle of nowhere on a hill to see the surroundings of all the green nature.
"Miss Google" Where is Sanlúcar ?
Next, it was to ask "Miss Google" where to go to Sanlucar de Barrameda from there, and let me tell you, she does not make it easy.😂 I do miss the "old days" the time of the paper maps for traveling.
After a few fun Google Maps mistakes, wrong turns on roads, and lots of roundabouts, we finally end up in Sanlúcar, and with the help of "Miss Google", she did take us on this spooky road to go to the hotel. Let me tell you, she did give us a way through a bumpy farm road with goats, donkies, and barking dogs; the smell of the surrounding area was strong of gasoline and shit;💩 and finally, she did end up taking us to the industrial site that we did drive for a bit but it felt like hours.🤣
Our first impression of Sanlúcar was a bit shoking be couse of that ; I think she is doing this just for fun.
" Miss Google" takes us to places that no one wants to see and it's good traveling experence and a real thrill sometimes.
Well, we did get out of there and finally found the hotel. We were tired after the traveling and all the adventure, which was about 8 hours in total.
(VIDEO coming soon)
Reddy for our first night out in Sanlúcar, Chec in, shower and go explore the town and find some food
We did take a walk to the beach, which was only one minute away from the hotel. It was cloudy and a bit cold, about 22 °C, and we were just wearing our shorts and t-shirts, so we got a bit cold there,but we did decide to walk the golden beach for a bit.
It was good to stretch the legs and walk around after traveling, and it was also just so nice to tip our toes in the sand.
The beach line was amazing, long beachfront with gold sand in all directions, the land splits like there is an island there, but it is the river Guadalquivir that splits the land, and over the other side it is a national park: Parque Nacional de Doñana.
After a long, berfoot walk in the sand and seeing the light disappear over the sea line, it was time to take the stroll down town and grab something to eat.
We did not ask "Miss Google" for advice ,after her fun with us in the car,she was going to be on a break for the night. So it was time to turn on the inner human map for this night out.😁
Quotation marks on "main" because we are sure that it is possible to argue about what the main square is in each town in Spain because there are usually so many. Adrian's friend did advise us to go to a tapas bar, Barbiana, which was in the "main" square in Plaza del Cabildo with, a water fountent of course,and of course we did ask "Miss Googl"in the end where it was.😏
It was nice to sit there and take in the surroundings. It was full of life—people in every restaurant,walking, talking, eating, and drinking. Spain has this wonderful thing called tapas, which is snaking or eating late in the evening,around 21:00-22:00, and some times as a turist it is to late to eat if you are not use to.
Now what did we eat?
In Barbiana, we did order some shrimp salat, more like cold shrimp with cold ,roasted paprika in olive oil. It was such a perfect mix of oil, salt, and sweetnes from the paprika and shrimps, and of course there was bread with the food to dip in the oil mixture. You can never forget to eat bread with food in Spain; it is a must with every dish.
After this tapas, we moved on to the next place around the corner, Taberna Cabildoto, to try out the famus Camarón,shrimp cakes, and Manzanilla wine. 🤔Not our favorite; the shrimp cakes were overly salty,and the wine was, AAHHH ,don't want to be rude, We just did not like the wine at all; it was dry, bitter, and had a strong pungent aftertaste—a taste that we cannot describe, except that we didn't like it. It reminded us a lot of young red wine, which we also don't like. This wine is said to be dry, fresh, and delicate. which was not our experience. We did not finish our food so we were still hungry, we did decide to order no more tapas and try to grab some dinner before the night ended. We did stomble on a place, which did just smell so good that we culd not reciste it.
The resturant name is Gozo SlowFood.
We did order a fire-baked pizza and a beer. The pizza was realy good, the topping was fresh and tasty. The bottom/bread did have right balance of salt and yeast and just cooked right. The the crust was crispy and the sauce with good balance of tomato, the cheese was just right melted,so the pizza was delicieuse, 10 out of 10 in pizza and the beer was ice cold.
It was a nice way to end the first day of our travels that way, with good pizza and beer. Now the only thing to do is try to remember the way back to the hotel without "Miss Google," and of course we did find itwith out her.
Rakel: She is extremely good at finding her way and finds it difficult to get lost wherever she is. That's what she thinks.😁We did get to the hotel alone.
We did have a lovely day of traveling together; now it is just sleep and see what day 2 of our travel has to offer. Day 2: Adrian's 40th birthday and his secret restaurant Thanks for being with us here and reading our stories. If you liked this story, there are more to come. Subscribe for future travels, recipes, or whatever our page has to offer. Links below for other content
Happy Birthday Adrian!
What a feast of a trip! Looks delicious...