Andalucia, Spain - 2018
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Day 7: Ronda
Everyone we'd spoken to about going to Southern Spain had said "Go to Ronda", so we drove across twisting mountain roads to Ronda. We could have taken the main road, but it was much nicer (and quieter) to drive this way.
Lovely scenery on the back roads to Ronda
Even the odd picturesque village along the way
We parked on the edge of town, not really sure where the places of interest lay, but spotted an old section of wall and gate just before we started to drive out again, so decided that was as good a place as any to start.
Old gateway was our entrance to the town.
We wandered around the walls of the old town, following signs for the Arab baths.
Tower along the ancient town walls
One of the main churches in the town
The Moorish Baths were impressively complete, but a little less ornate than we expected.
These were very similar to those in Cordoba, being small, but these were more complete, although they looked more ornate in our guidebook than they proved to be.
View of the Arab Bridge from near the Baths
Attractive streets wind their way up and down through Ronda
From there we headed up past the Arab Bridge and up to the main part of town and the Puente Nuevo, the famous bridge in all the photos of Ronda.
Puente Nuevo
Puente Nuevo from the other side.
After taking photos from top, we wandered down the hillside (lots more steps) to find a viewpoint looking back up, passing a sign promising ‘Real risk of death’ - thrill seekers or what?
The view from the 'danger of death' viewpoint - Worth the risk!
The view, though, was very impressive and worth the walk and the risk!
A pretty town throughout, but busy even midweek in October
We headed back through the old town after grabbing a snack for lunch,visiting "The Mine", a Moorish fortification/refuge/prison that descends all the way to the bottom of the Gorge!
Descending into the Mine
The view from the bottom of the Mine and the Gorge the Puente Nuevo spans!
It was a long way down (and felt more back up), but provided an interesting viewpoint of the Gorge and was an impressive piece of mediaeval architecture - Effectively a skyscraper of its time!
The Mine is a steep climb - down and up!
Ronda's famous gorge
The walk took us back past the oldest buildings in Ronda, including a Tower, which formed part of a church and then the main square, with the Cathedral.
The tower is one of the oldest buildings in Ronda
The main church in Ronda, on the main square.
Then we drove down another twisty mountain road back to Marbella, where our hotel was 5 star, with a lovely big room and a pool, which we used, but we agreed the previous night’s was more welcoming and we’d have stayed there again had we known!
More lovely scenery on the road back to the coast.
Still we both slept well after a Paella (A bit overcooked, but tasty) in a beach side restaurant looking at the sea which looked more like a rough night on the North Sea than the sunny Spanish Med!
15,073 Steps
Day 8: Costa Del Sol and home
For our last morning Mandy wanted to visit a butterfly house near Fuengirola. It was fairly small, but quite well stocked and we spent an hour spotting and trying to photograph them. More Mandy’s thing than mine, if I’m honest, but it was a pleasant diversion for a while.
Temple next to the Butterfly house
Birds feature in the Butterfly house
There are many different species of butterfly here and most are bred in the centre
Some are colourful and exotic, but most were a little lethargic when we arrived early as it was cool
Oddly, there's even a Wallaby!
Then we stopped to look at a fake castle monument, she’d seen on TV on a stage of the Vuelta D’Espana, but it was shut on Mondays and Tuesday, so she suggested we could pop to look at the mountainside village of Mijas.
Strange monument to Christopher Columbus, but it was closed the day we were there.
Pretty hill village of Mijas
We drove up and parked (underground again, but only 1 Euro for the day!) and then wandered through the village, which is pretty and white in the usual Costa Del Sol way, but was pretty busy with tourists, many riding on donkeys or riding in horse or donkey drawn carts.
Lots of villas with pools - I wonder how many are UK criminals?
As we were flying at around 5PM, we decided to have lunch and had a really excellent Pizza in a place called for Di Nico’s near the Chapel of the Virgin of the Rock. Even better, they have a special price of just 5 Euros each on a Tuesday, so we had great Pizza for a great price!
Bull! The local ring is now a museum...
We also visited the now disused (Except as a Museum) bullring, which gives you a flavour of a bullring, with just a very tame Bull involved.
...which gives an idea of what it must be like in use, something I could pass on.
Views down to the coast are good and this is definitely the nicer place to be!
We spent another hour or so exploring the village and admiring the views back down to the sea, before heading down and rejoining the A7 for the short drive back to Malaga, where after filling the Fiesta’s fuel tank again we returned it and took the bus back to the airport.
Ancient looking waterways on the cliffside - I don't know anything about this really!
Square with yet another church.
Horse (and Donkey) drawn carriages are 'a thing' in Mijas
The airport was pretty stress free, although we left about 30 minutes late.
We got very lucky on return to Gatwick, passing quickly through passport control, our luggage appearing on the conveyor as we arrived and then the Valet Parking proving very quick and stress free!
11,485 Steps.
Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Andalucia. I think we both had a quite negative impression of the place from brief visits in the past to Costa Del Sol locations, but the cities inland are, as we’d hoped, bursting with cultural and historical sights very unlike anything I’d seen before.
We had high expectations of the Alhambra, but it exceeded them, both in scale and impressiveness.
Cordoba’s Meskita was personal favourite of mine and Seville’s Alcazar Real was almost worth the 1.5 hour queue.
I enjoyed Cadiz, both for the refreshing sea air and the characterful streets, although Mandy was less enthusiastic about it.
Gibraltar’s town has little of beauty or great interest to it, but the views from the top of the rock are rewarding as are the caves and tunnels and I’m glad I’ve been there. The novelty of a crossing on an airport runway and of spending Pounds in the Iberian Peninsular was also an experience to be had once. Mandy enjoyed spotting some rare butterflies here and seeing the Barbary Apes was certainly an experience!
Ronda was universally recommended to us and certainly delivered some stunning scenery, whilst Mijas was certainly more attractive than the coastal towns of the Costa Del Sol.
I felt we’d had a great week, seeing lots in a short time. Mandy felt that travelling to a new hotel each night was a bit too much and that it would have been more relaxing to visit a couple of towns from each hotel over a couple of nights stay, but I’m not sure we would have been able to see so much if we’d done that.
Certainly we haven’t see all that Southern Spain has to offer, but we certainly saw a lot of the highlights and they didn’t disappoint.