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| The oldest bullring in France! |
Have had a really interesting day, swimming in the
Mediterranean at lunchtime then wandering around the old town of Ronda this
evening, experiencing Andalusian lifestyle.
Surprisingly overnight we had some rain, not much but enough
to hear it on the roof, the first for weeks. It is still pitch black at 7 am,
saw a brilliant orange sunrise at about 8am. Hard to get out of bed!!! Found a
Lidl supermarket this morning and a big stock up. Then with our destination of
Ronda we drove along the Costa del Sol using the non-toll road, the A7. We
hadn’t been on it long when we spotted some motorhomes parked on a rather quiet
beach, turned around and drove down a bumpy old beach track and joined them. I
had to have a paddle in the Med and it was so warm and beautiful that I was
back at the van putting my togs on and back to the water. Just blissful, could
not believe how clear it was, the sand was not really white like on the
Portuguese coast, but quite a bit coarser. Really enjoyed our lunch stop here
as it was quite a laid-back place with no high-rise buildings.
Then it was back on the A7 on a two-lane highway that passed
through endless holiday resorts with high rise apartment blocks, retail centres
and heavy traffic. Must say that when we turned inland to head to Ronda we were
not disappointed. This is not really our scene.
The hours drive from the coast was almost all uphill,
winding and climbing to 1100 metres. Back into some really great scenery and
rather wild country. We met so many tourist buses coming down the hill, it
should have alerted us to what was ahead of us in Ronda!! Ronda sits in a huge high-altitude
basin with some pastoral, olives, grapes and arable farming. Went to a motorhome
spot on the outskirts of the city, really just a parking lot but with
facilities and its okay and about 20 others here as well. It was three o’clock and found that we could
get a bus into the centre of town at 4.45 – the buses stop between 2 and 4.30
for the Spanish lunch break!!! Spent half an hour at the bus stop waiting for
the “correct bus” (I made a bit of a blue deciphering the Spanish bus
timetable!!) but finally got ourselves into the centre of town. Ronda is one of
the oldest towns in Spain and is famous for the bridge over the Rio Guadelevin
gorge, as well as its whitewashed houses, and a favourite place for Ernest
Hemmingway and Orson Wells. Guess that will have been before the tourists took
over!!
We really did enjoy looking around the Bull Ring which is
the oldest in Spain along with its museum, and it was really quiet at 6pm. We
meandered around the streets before catching the bus back “home”, a bit easier
thankfully with the help of the iCentre staff.
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| Had to include this shot of last nights sunset! |
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| Swimming spot on the Med |
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| Costa del Sol....holiday apartments everywhere! |
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| The hills of Andalusia |
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He was making good coin with his
beautiful voice singing Spanish songs. |
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The bullring had an indoor dressage arean
with horses stabled outside. |
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| Ronda |
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| Views of the countryside. |
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| Sign of the times. |
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