Category: Portugal/Spain, Fall 2018

The drive from Gibraltar to Ronda takes you over some very hilly terrain and past a bunch of small towns called Pueblos Blancos (White Towns) due to every building being painted white.  They were dotted all over the route we took, with little turn offs to view them called miradors (lookouts).

Here is a graphic layout of the numerous Pueblos Blancos.  Note the “You are Here” arrow.

We checked into our hotel in Ronda and hit the bar for a well deserved beer and a snack.  Driving in these little towns is quite stressful!

Our hotel has an excellent view of one of the oldest bullrings in Spain.  Orson Welles and Ernest Hemmingway were big fans of bullfights in Ronda, as they are depicted everywhere around town, with plaques, hotels, restaurants and streets named after them.

We took a quick walk around the edge of a portion of the “new” town, which literally sits on a cliff.

The new town versus the old town is really not that accurate, since the new portion dates from the 1700’s.  They are both old.

Sunset from the top floor of our hotel.  This would be a very cool infinity pool if the water wasn’t about 60 degrees!

We found out there was a Michelin Star restaurant in town (Bardal) so we ate there the first night.  Sad to report it was just ok, but they were heavy handed with the wine pours so perhaps they are compensating!  I’ll spare you the photos.

We took a tour of the “old” town the next day, and it’s got some great cliff views.  As a matter of fact, in Hemminway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” he describes the execution of Nationalist sympathizers (friends of Franco) during the Spanish Civil War.  They were apparently thrown from the cliffs of Ronda at this spot.

There is a very famous spot to take a picture of Puente Nuevo (new bridge, again built in the 1700’s….guess that makes me newer!), which was blocked off with directions on how to get the same view, albeit by hiking a few miles.

Screw that!  You could pull back the left side of the fencing and walk around it.  Just a few more impediments on the way down.

I don’t speak Spanish, I have no idea what that sign says.

Dangerous path, real risk of death!!!  As you can see, there are two other people down there besides us.  One of them was certain I was a cop when he first saw me…looked like he was ready to bolt!  The view at the bottom made it worth it to convince Kim to break the law.  This wasn’t the first time…but that’s another story.

This is the same view the Nationalists got right before they hit the ground, so it wasn’t ALL bad.  The canyon the river runs through is called El Tajo, and there are gardens planted above it with great views.  Here is a view from the other side of Puente Nuevo bridge, taken by Cory and Spencer from San Francisco, who we met at this spot.  Say hi if you see this guys!

We ate at this great little restaurant in the “old” city called Santa Maria.  The food was excellent, and the staff was so welcoming and fun.  Great dinner experience.  The owner, Antonio, wanted to know what city we were from and had us spell it out.  We found out why when he brought us a free dessert after our meal.  Definitely a “must do” if you are in Ronda!

The last view of Ronda, Puente Nuevo bridge lit up at night (btw, the “old” bridge was rather boring by comparison, hence no photos).

We are back!  The laptop went down and I had to do some research and find a Torx T5 screwdriver (not the easiest thing to find in this little Spainish town we are currently in) to remove the back cover.  Some tweaking and we are back up and running!

We picked up our rental car in Cadiz that we will have for the next 29 days.  The cost of a manual was way cheaper than an automatic, but after 2 minutes of trying to figure out how to get into reverse, I think I’m good.  I drove a manual for years, so it was a quick learning curve.

We were then off to GIbraltar, which is it’s own country.  It’s actually a British Occupied Territory.  Fortunately they drive on the right side of the road.  Unfortunately they don’t use euros, but will accept them albeit with a terrible exchange rate.

We drove into Gibraltar after missing the entrace the first time around.  The sign pointing to Gibraltar was very small.  Fortunately, Kim saw it the second time and we made it in the correct lane that curves all around in case there is a long line.  We had heard there could be a long wait to get across the border, but we encountered no line upon entering.  One quick look at our passports and we were on our way.  If you are coming to Gibraltar, avoid entering in the morning (around 6-10 AM), when 10,000 Spaniards are entering to work for the day.  Alternatively, avoid 4-6 PM when going back into Spain.

Here is the approach to the queue, with The Rock in the background.

When you cross the border the first thing you have to do is drive across the runway of the airport.  They shut the runway down for 15 minutes whenever a plane arrives.  Fortunately it’s not frequently.

We found our way to The Rock Hotel, which is actually located on “The Rock”.  Here is a view from our room at sunset.

The Rock Hotel is really nice, and the staff is super friendly.  Best of all, they all, for the most part, speak decent English….since this is a part of Britain.  The only downside is the beds are the hardest we have ever encountered.  It felt like were sleeping on a boxspring versus a mattress.  I actually had to take off the sheet to make sure it wasn’t a boxspring!  We did see them moving new mattresses into the hotel when we were leaving, so maybe they got the hint from other customers?  A little too late for us.

When we first arrived Kim pointed out they have Tesla chargers here!  There were actually 3 of them.  Of course, there were non Tesla’s parked there.  We saw one Tesla in Madrid, but that was pretty much it, so I doubt these get used all that often.

There was a sign in our room advising us to only tilt open the doors versus leaving them wide open.  Pretty funny why.

We purchased our “skip the line” tickets in advance for the cable car to the top of The Rock, only to find nobody in line.  6 minutes later and we are on the top.  Nice little place for breakfast on top, with an excellent view.

Don’t think we are going to get around to Christmas Cards this year, so here is the obligatory shot.

Here is a view of The Port of Algeciras from the top.  Brings back Port memories.

The Macaque Monkeys were everywhere!  We saw several people getting jumped by them from above.  One of them managed to get into a ladies backback and stole something.  We spent the rest of the day walking around  wary of being pounced upon.

This one jumped on this taxi as soon as he stopped and starting pounding on the wind shield….basically demanding food.

There were about 8 of them around the Skywalk, a large glass platform that was opened by Mark Hammill in March 2018.  It’s already got a huge crack in one of the panels from a large group jumping up and down on it.  One of the monkeys at this location was called Dracula because he has bitten so many people.  He gave us the stink eye so we decided to move along.

The cracked panel is the one directly behind Mark…err….Luke.

We then walked over to St. Michael’s Cave.  This cave has been written about as early as 45 AD.  It is now a huge tourist attraction, and the place is lit up like the 4th of July with music blasting.  Seemed very odd since every other cave I have been in has gone out of it’s way to preserve the natural atmosphere as much as possible.

Ohhh…green.

Kind of felt like Disneyland, but those are real stalagtites.

A stalagmite in the cave that became too heavy on one side fell over about a thousand years ago.  To show how they form they cut off the top of it and you can see the resulting cross section.  Pretty cool!  The darker lines are said to be heavy rain years.

We then decided to test our mettle and hiked the “Mediterranean Steps”, which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.  It was worth it however, as we got excellent views from the south side of The Rock, and we passed some caves about 500 feet up that were at sea level at one point.  Here is a view looking out of one of the caves.

This is a view up from the Mediterranean Steps.

In this view from the Mediterranean Steps you can see Africa in the distance.

We ran into more of of our monkey friends on the way back down The Rock.

A view of Gibraltar from the east side of The Rock.  We covered the entire thing.  It was an all day adventure.  Highly recommended!  Our legs are going to kill us for days.

Remember that this is part of Britain?  They have to remind the visitors from Britain so they don’t get killed walking into traffic.

Hang in there…almost done!

On our way out of town we visited Europa Point, which is the closest point to Africa in Europe.

Gorham cave is where they have found 3 Neanderthal skeletons.  This cave and others around it were well above sea level thousands of years ago when the ocean was much lower.  You can tour these caves if you sign up a year in advance and then get lucky.  I don’t see us coming back real soon.

Those are the caves off to the right side.

We got lucky crossing the border.  No lines and no planes!  Off to Ronda!