Last Night In Fronteira de la Vejer - the walled city
Clouds at Sunset - Ronda
The Precarously poised bridge at Ronda
Even here, student protests are growing. In Spain 41% of 18-30year olds are unemployed
Buildings in Ronda - as viewed from Juan Bosco
Gratzelema - another of the white Pueblos
View from the Cathedral Piazza at Arcos
The beach near Trafalgar Point
Sunrise from our bedroom at Vejer de la Frontiera
And looking out the window.....
The town at night - Vejer de la Frontiera
Plaza de Espana, Vejer de la Frontiera
From the rooftop - looking at the other side of Vejer de la Frontiera. It runs across two ridges of the mountain.
OOPs! There was a perfectly reasonable explanation....
I've been back from my trip for almost three weeks - I've moved into a unit, started back teaching, found a house in the mountains to move to permanently, ramped up marketing for Bali Art Retreats and my private art classes, started said art classes in a new hall, am hanging a new exhibition on Tuesday....and not finished my blog about my trip. So here goes for the next leg (apologies for the delay).
We left Seville to drive to the far south coast of Spain and took a route via Puerta Santa Maria, a small coastal town. We stopped for lunch (very ordinary) after hiring a car which turned out to be upgraded to a brand new Volvo. First time on the "wrong" side of the road, with a big car and reduced visibility of where the car's extremities started and stopped, resulting in a five hour wait after lunch for the tow truck to remove us from the low "balls" that unpredictably marked the edge of the wrong way to the exit... 'nuff said (partner driving!)
The day was saved by arrival at the beautiful town of Vejer de la Frontier, a "white pueblo" perched on top of a mountain with the most beautiful view to the horizon. Sunset was spectacular, and sun -rise from our bedroom window, even better. Our room was an ice-blue with a deep red trim which altered my taste for white walls forever...and we ate the best Moroccan food on my tour to date at Caliph's, where it fused with Lebanese and African to delight the palate. The best white wine of the trip to date was also discovered earlier, at a bar in the Plaza de Espana which had groovy lights standing next to every outdoor table, so we could watch the parade of locals go about their business in outstanding comfort. The walk around the Jewish quarter and back to the other side takes about 10 minutes from view to view...a wonderful discovery of a town which we want to return to some day -one we wished we had more time to explore.
After breakfast in the hostal and greeting all the German tourists - a really cultured lot - we drove south to the beaches of Trafalgar point (where he defeated the French and Spanish Armadas) on Costa de Luz, travelling through an ex hippy town, and on to Arcos. We walked the steep hill to the Cathedral Square to take in the view, and had lunch at the Parrador with the most wonderful view across Andalucia from a full length and width picture window.
We hit the road again and got lost with our small and detail -less maps, but saw Gratzelema - another pretty white Pueblo in an unbelievably precarious position - and found our way to our destination at Ronda. We stayed in a seriously old house in Riad (Moroccan) style with a pretty garden overlooking the Rio (River)... and had drinks at sunset in Hotel Juan Bosco. The skies were truly magnificent, the valleys with olives, the bridge at Rondo hilariously perched.....
We then took Lonely Planet's suggestion and went out of our way to find the Bar San Francisco (named after the plaza it's in, not the city) and realised that LP is not a reliable judge of food, let alone tapas. Oh well - we ate well last night...
