On the Beach at Mijas-Costa

Arrival: 3/22/2008
Our arrival in Malaga is uneventful until we get to the Avis car rental place. They are on break.
When the girl comes back things go poorly. We want to extend the contract we obtained in France to April 6th, the date of our final return to Malaga. After she tears up the paperwork 4 times, we finally get the price we agreed to in France as a daily rate, extended to the number of days we want now. We are given a lousy map, a ticket for the garage, vague directions to the car, and out the door.
Then we can buy the train tickets from Malaga to Madrid to San Sebastian to Paris. This takes 2 ticket agents, a supervisor, and a long time.
Then we try to find the car. Finally. Of course all the operating instructions are in Spanish.
As we try to exit, the ticket the Avis girl has given us does not work on the unmanned gate. Avis is closed. William buys another ticket and the machine eats it. As William is trying to pry the ticket back out of the machine with a pop top from a soda can, a worker comes by and opens the gate for us.
As we exit the train station, we immediately head in the wrong direction and circle around in Malaga. Every time we try to head toward what looks like a highway we are stopped and redirected by road construction. Signage is minimal. A sign to Cadiz points a way, then no more signs. Finally after numberless rounds and rounds we enter a highway and immediately get on A7 in the wrong direction. We drive a few miles until we find a place that has a clear off and on as that seems the simplest solution.
It is dark as we arrive near the resort, but we spot it, get off at the proper exit, and arrive unscathed at our destination.
As William is unloading the car a wind storm starts to howl.