Clearly I wasn't creative enough the first go around. This time...we're going to have to think BIGGER.
No more of this simple stuff like partying on a yacht off the coast of Spain.
Of course I could just be lazy and amend it to be partying on a bigger yacht...or maybe even "a private plane over the coast of spain." Hmmm...that rhymes. Maybe the new list should be written in iambic pentameter or a series of haikus?
Either way...the bucket list is done...we are naming the new list "the tankard list"...because a bucket is just not big enough anymore.
The last week was one of the most surreal experiences I've had. I spent practically the entire week walking around with a grin from ear to ear.
Before I go into detail about Spain, let's just recap the trip getting to/from.
Sunday 11:00am PST -
I get a call from my friends demanding that I get my ass to Spain "Right now" because "you cannot miss this". With a tremendous amount of help from their frequent flyer miles and Hilton Rewards points, I'm booked on a flight for that evening.
Sunday 7:00pm PST -
I board my flight from San Francisco to Zurich
Monday 3:00pm CET - land in Zurich
Tuesday 10:00am CET - flight from Zurich To Malaga
Tuesday 1:00pm CET - Rich picks me up in the airport in Malaga
Friday 5:00pm CET - Flight from Malaga to Mallorca.
Friday 8:30pm CET - Flight from Mallorca to Frankfurt
Friday 10:45pm CET - Land in Frankfurt
Saturday 10:00am CET - Flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles
Saturday 1:00pm PST - Land in LA
Saturday 5:00pm PST - Flight from LA to San Fran
Saturday 6:15pm PST - Land in San Fran and start driving the pacific coast highway south to Monterey.
The traveling was actually kind of fun. It sounds like it was crazy, but it was an adventure...business class also helped a lot (After traveling 22,000 miles in the last 28 days there was nothing quite like the taste of a glass of Artemis in the First Class lounge at LAX). Take a look at the Sprocket Chair in my hotel room in Frankfurt. "This is the time on Sprocket when we dance!"
Ok...ok...so on to the actual trip!
The "castle" in the sky...
Where shall I begin? I'm not going to go too crazy to describe the house. The pictures really show you what we were dealing with. The views never got old. We had a pool, more bedrooms than I could count, armed guards, a ferris wheel, an underground cave system, a personal elevator, two acres of putting greens, a wine cellar the size of an airplane hanger, live moonlight violin serenades, a pit of wild boar in case anyone got a little "cheeky" and a young boy to fetch our tennis balls in case they fell off the cliffs (...funny thing is, I only had to make up 2 of those).
Marbella and Puerto Banus...
The Costa del Sol is a very popular European vacation spot. Marbella and Puerto Banus are very popular vacation spots if you own a Ferrari. The best way to describe the dynamic is if you took East Hampton, NY and merged it with Seaside Heights, NJ. You basically have tremendous wealth surrounded by working class Brits and Germans getting drunk all night.
The Cars...
I've never seen such a concentration of luxury and sports cars in my life. It seemed like every car that passed by was worth over $200k. If you drove a BMW, you were probably the "help". The cops patrolled the streets in yellow Lamborghinis (sorry...inside joke). I would have taken more pictures of them, but I didn't want to appear to be one of the "huns".
Day 1 - Tu vuo fa l'americano...
The "days" in Spain are mostly spent relaxing and waiting for your economy to collapse because nobody works past 1pm. The nights don't really start until 11. There wasn't a single night where I went to bed before 7am. I won't bore you with stories of clubs and partying. It was fun and it went late. Enough said. (To my future children...daddy did nothing but read poetry and sip apple juice all night).
Day 2 - "I'm on a boat like Leo if you on the shore then you sure not me'o"...
We rented a 35 foot yacht with a full cabin and skipper to pilot it for us (See kids, we were responsible and didn't want to drink and drive...it may have also been the one Spanish law that anyone cares about). The boat was pretty spectacular. What wasn't spectacular was the projectile vommiting that ensued because I only got an hour of sleep and still had a stomach filled with Vodka-Red Bulls when we set sail. In my defense, I initially started getting sick shortly after the drive down the cliffs in the Mini Cooper Rich and Dutch rented. I didn't know I was going to be sick for 6 of the 8 hours we were out in the boat. Those last 2 hours were pure paradise though. Rich kept calling our skipper Fabio even though his name was Donato and the 3 of us rode the bow into port like rock stars (See photo).
Day 3 - A little time for recovery.
We decided to give our bodies a little reprieve and take it easy a day. I spent 70% of the day in the pool and burning away my farmers tan. So now my arms are a golden brown and my back is lobster red. The pool had this giant articulating umbrella so I didn't burn as bad as I could have. It could have been much much worse. We hit the town around 9 and had another 7am night...just in time for us to clean the house and head to the airport around noon.
P.S. Please excuse the lack and/or poor quality of pictures. I'm not naturally in "take picture mode" when I'm moving around. Also, my iPhone was inaccessible during much of the trip because the battery was dead or nearly dead.
My next update will be on my drive down the Pacific Coast Highway so keep checking out the site. I will be updating the blog daily again now that I am back in the states and have data...that doesn't cost $20 per m/b
So basically, you spent an entire day on a boat and vomitted for hours over the side? I am sure Captain Fabio loved that.
ReplyDeleteI am also glad that you have come clean and admitted to the world that your travel across the ocean was not spent in a middle seat in coach, rather sitting in biz class on a mostly lie flat bed...