Before heading out of Ronda on Friday morning, we took a stroll through town to view the Puente Nueve, the 18th century bridge that spans the 100m El Tajo gorge. It is truly spectacular, and one feels quite dizzy peering over the thick stone walls into the gorge that plunges down below.
We also visited Ronda´s Plaza de Toros, the famous bullring which is the oldest in Spain. There is a small museum attached to the bullring, and this gives a brief glimpse into the history of this controversial sport/cultural activity.
It was then back on the road, and by this time I had figured out my navigating role, and we managed to stay on track and get from A to B without any major detours. We took the mountain road connecting Ronda to Jerez de la Frontera which winds through the Pueblos Blancos, or white villages. These are amazing little towns, whitewashed with red-tiled roofs, that cling to the mountain side. One of the most quaint was the village of Gramazela - with a name like that, how can you go wrong!
We stopped off for lunch in the town of Arcos de la Frontera...the town was lovely, the lunch was interesting! We ordered the "local dish" of meat and chickpeas...the Spanish have a very wide interpretation of the term "meat". We´re not entirely sure what the dish consisted of, but it definately wasn´t any sort of meat that either of us could recognise!!
We finally arrived in Jerez, a town which is famous for its sherry and its horses! As we had mistimed our visit somewhat, we didn´t end up visiting a traditional sherry bodega. We did however have a fantastic meal overlooking one of the main plazas, and R. finished off his meal with a Senor Lusta brandy, made in Jerez, and served by a very proud and photo-happy waiter!
In both Ronda and Jerez, we had simply arrived and looked up a hotel recommended by the Let´s Go Guide. On both occasions we found excellent hotels at amazing prices. Arriving in Cadiz on Saturday morning proved to be a different story! We tried serveral hotels and were informed that everything was "completo" or full. As a last resort, I went into an internet cafe and did a quick search through one of the sites I had been using in organising our other accommodation. The fact was, there was nothing available in Cadiz. So on a whim, I booked us into a hotel in the nearby village of San Fernando.
Before heading out to find our hotel, R. and I drove through Cadiz. The city was founded in 1100BC by the Phoenicians, and is thought to be the oldest inhabited city in Europe. The city is located on a penninsula, and we drove through the old town and along the beaches of the new town. We eventually stopped and took a walk onto the beach for a drink at a little beach cafe. We ended staying for lunch and enjoying the best-tasting, freshly cooked seafood paella ever! What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon, sipping Sangria, eating paella, and looking out on the sand and sea of a Spanish beach. Oh, and the people watching was pretty darn interesting too!
After a very long and lazy lunch, R. and I took a slow drive to San Fernando. We arrived in the town just after 4pm, and as we drove along the eerily deserted streets, we wondered whether we had stumbled into some sort of ghost town. There was not a person in sight, shops were closed, cafes were empty with chairs stacked up outside their doors. The main street was completely desolate! It was not until we noticed that there was not a single other car in sight, that it dawned on us that we might just be driving along a pedestrian avenue during siesta! The appearance of a police car, and a surprisingly friendly copper, confirmed this suspicion! We did however manage to find our hotel, which was conveniently located on the pedestrian avenue. At 7pm we decided to venture out in search of a drink and some tapas. The hotel was located on a main plaza and as we strolled around, the area slowly began to fill with people. We settled down at a table of a little cafe overlooking a large square and spent a hugely entertaining hour watching the local toddlers and pigeons terrorize each other in turn. As Barcelona was playing Manchester U in the UEFA Cup final, we decided to find a bar in which to watch the game.
The tapas bar we ended up in was probably one of the best we´ve been to - the food was not free as in Granada - but the staff were just fantastic! We ended up staying to watch Barca win the Cup, and we had such a great time chatting with the barman/owner. It´s been these sorts of expereinces that have made our time here so special.
