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Published: September 6th 2011
Greetings blog fans, its been a while
Anyway this is a quick blog for our recent visit to the Andalusia region of southern Spain. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour of 4 nights using our own unique brand of turbo tourism with the emphasis on good food and wine and seeing the sights.
We flew into Malaga Airport and landed at 9:30pm and eagerly set out to look for our hire car company. Like typical Brits abroad the first thing that hit us was the heat, even at that time of night is was still very hot and humid. We got our hire car with the minimum of fuss and plonked the sat nav on the dashboard and headed out into the night, destination Malaga old town and our lodgings for the evening. We hit the centre of Malaga after only 15mins with the minimum of fuss but once in the rabbit warren of old town with its narrow streets and confusing one way system we ended going round in circles a few times. Even with printed out maps and Sat nav it still took us 20 minutes of searching to find the tiny back street that
our hostel was located on. It was barley wide enough for a car to drive down and I clipped the wing mirror on the way down it, luckily I was only doing walking speed.
Parking in any city in Spain is a nightmare and every car has scrapes and bumps with about 30% having wing mirrors hanging off but we finally found one and got to the Hostel at 10:45pm. The place looked dead and we had to ring the bell and bang on the door before a nice old lady answered who didn’t speak any English. In our broken Spanish we managed to book in and it looked like we had the whole place to ourselves (so much for peak tourist season). We chatted with the women for a while frantically trying to remember our Spanish from our trip to South America and she told us they were in the middle of a heat wave with the day time temperatures in the early 40’s, no wonder I was sweating so much!!
As it was past 11pm and as we had a long drive the next day we decided to check out the local neighbourhood and not head
town to the tourist part of town, and this turned out to be an excellent idea. We headed to a outside café that we spotted whilst doing laps of the area and joined the locals who were sat outside enjoying the evening and ordered a couple of beers. Glancing around the other tables it was obvious we were the only non locals there and it was a nice culture shock just sitting there soaking up the atmosphere listening to the families laughing and joking and arguing in there machine gun Spanish which I couldn’t understand a word off. The bar only server one dish the local speciality called “Pescaito Frito” which is assorted sea food lightly battered and fried. Every table was eating it so we order a portion to share. It arrived in a cone of grease proof paper which they unrolled onto the table and it was a banquet of mixed sea food, I was in heaven as it contained my two favourite things, sea food and deep fried batter it tasted amazing; and it was only 6 euros.
Next day we were up reasonably early as we had a 2 hour drive down the coast to
Gibraltar. Getting out the city was easy and we were soon heading down the AP7 which is an incredible inland motorway that took years to build and cost billions, it’s a real feat of engineering and they are desperately trying to recover the costs by stinging the road users, the trip cost over 15 Euros in tolls!!
It took about half an hour stuck in traffic at the border before we could enter Gibraltar but it was no big deal as we spend the time staring across at the Rock that dominates the skyline and the Marinas that line one side on Gibraltar. Once through the border you have to drive down Winston Churchill street and across the airport runway which juts out into the sea before you enter Gibraltar town. The first thing we saw was a British policeman in British uniform directing traffic which is a strange sight on the tip of Southern Spain. We were staying on a house boat in the marina that is run by a retired English couple. The boat was really nice and right on the first pontoon opposite all the bars with a great view of the rock and the airport
runway was on the other side jutting into the sea only a couple of hundred metres away.
After a quick lunch on the Harbour of more seafood we decided to do what every tourist does when they are in Gibraltar and take the cable car up to the top of the rock for the views and to see the local Barbary ape population. To get to the cable car we had to stroll through main street to the other side of town which is about a 20minuite walk. Gibraltar’s main street is really strange, it’s a bit like a English seaside town with all the major high street shops BHS, M&S, Argos etc and loads of souvenir shops, plus fish and chip restaurants and typical English pubs. All this in a near tropical setting with the 300 year old Naval building scattered around for good measure. Talking to the locals is a strange experience as they switch from fluent Spanish to a KentEssex accent in the blink of an eye and often talk in a mixture of the two.
The ride up to the top of the rock gave us a superb views of Gibraltar and once at
the summit the views just got better and better. As it was a clear day you could clearly see across the straits of Gibraltar to Morocco and north Africa and it is surprising how narrow they are. It is no wonder that the rock is off such a high military value as whoever controls the rock can control access to the Mediterranean. As it was so hot we decided to spend the late afternoon on the beach on the other side of the rock then back to the boat to watch the sunset on the deck with a cold bottle of wine, the perfect way to end the day.
Our Next stop was the hilltop town of Ronda made famous for its two towns set on either side of an impressive gorge and the Puente Nuevo Bridge that spans it. It is also the town that Ernest Hemmingway wrote “For whom the bell tolls” about Spanish Fascist’s that were hurled from the bridge to their deaths. It is also the home of Bullfighting and has one of the oldest bull rings in the world. To get there we had to drive through the mountains along one of the most
scenic drives I have ever done. We passed countless white washed Andalusian villages clinging to the side of the mountains with a Mirador (view point) around nearly every bend. The drive was supposed to take two hours but it was more like four as we stopped at every mirador and had lunch in a beautiful village called Gaucin high in the mountains. It was such a clear day that from the village square we could see all the way back to Gibraltar which dominates the coast around it.
After a day of sight seeing and sangria we had a late meal at a local Tapas restaurant which Louise describes as the best meal she has ever had we sat outside a bar people watching and soaking up the atmosphere. We were on the road again early heading along the mountain of the cost towards Granada and the Sierra Nevada mountains that surround Granada on two sides. We stopped for lunch at Antequera which is another Lovely town (they all are) famous for its red tiled roof and thirty church spires that dominate the roofline of the town. It has a very pretty church that sits on the hill overlooking
the town and was a perfect lunch spot.
Granada is a fabulous city, a real mix of culture with a the Moorish and north African culture prevalent. In parts of the city you would swear you were in Morocco or Algerian and not Spain. It has an edgy exciting feel to it that I really enjoyed. Malaga is polished and stylish where as Granada is a real melting pot of culture with a large student population that means its has an excellent nightlife full of bars and Souks and tea shops. Granada is dominated the UNESCO Alhambra the former rural residence of the emirs who ruled this part of Spain in the 13th and 14th centuries. It’s a fabulous Moorish palace that is huge. Its take a good three hours to enjoy it properly and is one of the best examples of Islamic architecture anywhere on earth. It’s a shame we only had one night in Granada as it’s a city and region that I would love to explore in a little more detail.
For Our final day we took a scenic drive through the breathtaking scenery that makes up the national park outside of Granada and headed
to a small seaside resort for a late lunch, before heading back to Malaga for a stroll along the beach and an ice cream in the old town. It was a fabulous trip and we are already planning our next visit to Andalusia to see the other incredible cities and countryside that make up the region.
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Emma McClement
non-member comment
Wowsers part 2
So my favs are panaramic ones of alhambra and the night one of it and i really like the light on the mosaic ones. Other favs are the villages ones and Ronda 21. Did you use any filters or anything? I might get a print of one of them if that is ok?