Friday, 6 June 2014

Ronda on my birthday

4/5/6 June

On Wednesday we travelled to Ronda, up a steep road until the vegetation ran out. A little stressful trying to find the out -of -the- way hotel we had booked using the GPS on our phones. We passed a sign to it: Hotel Alavera De Los Banos, thinking it was pointing along the main road we were on, but it did not appear. We then realised the sign pointed down a narrow cobbled road which we had thought led to a farmhouse. All this was well worth it when we arrived at this Moorish styled hotel with pretty gardens overlooking a horse paddock and the hills beyond, well outside of the bustle of the city and a short climb up steps to the old town.

Photographs don't capture the dramatic drop of the ravine. We have walked ourselves silly - lots of steep roads of worn cobbles. Fantastic churches and palaces. On my birthday, we sat in the park by the bullring, then had a swim at the hotel and finished the day wandering around the centre, a beer at a bar in a lovely square where people were meeting up for the evening and children were playing, then tapas at a place recommended by the hotel - really good food, but we felt still not strictly authentic; slightly nouvelle with Brie and marmalade, pork cheeks with foam potatoes, wagyu beef burger, tempura prawns and veg. Tasty, but Spanish?!

27 degrees and only a gentle breeze, not the hot African wind up here. Ah.






                                          Breakfast here


                                                      'Our garden'



The harpist was playing in this bandstand





3 comments:

  1. Happy birthday..Pete I presume..!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, my birthday on 5th June - Pete wouldn't be so crass as to broadcast his!! - Sara

      Delete
  2. Oh sorry...Many Happy returns!!! xx

    ReplyDelete