A Trip To Spain – Our Passport Tales

We are not frequent holiday visitors to Spain, other than for long weekends or a bit of out of season sun. So we decided to take a quick trip and have a look at a couple of places of interest.

Landed into Malaga and hired a car, SIXT seemed to be efficient enough and with extra insurance cover we set of to our first destination Ronda, 100km West of Malaga. Scenic drive and with traffic roughly 2 hours away.

Ronda is a mountaintop city in set dramatically above a deep gorge. This gorge (El Tajo) separates the city’s circa-15th-century new town from its old town, Puente Nuevo, a stone bridge spanning the gorge, has a lookout offering views. New town’s Plaza de Toros, a legendary 18th-century bullring, is reputed to be the oldest functioning in Spain, but now has more tourist than spear throwers.

We had chosen to stay at Villa Zambra with stunning views over the gorge.

Lovely small hotel located down a cobbled street more suited to old fashion transport rather than todays vehicles.

Car parking is offered some distance away at La Merced, which most definitely is not suitable to modern cars, there is free overground parking close to this which would have been a much better option.

Rhonda is compact with great wine bars and restaurants, we went traditional overlooking the bullring, Restaurante Jerez looked after us well.

The main focal point in Ronda, other than the gorge where they used to throw undesirables to their death, is the bull ring where similar misfortunate was meted out to four legged undesirables. Sport has moved on, although the odd bull fight still takes place.

These days the ring is more a museum and showcases its 16th century history from the spectacular to the gruesome in equal measure.

Extracting the car from La Merced, we headed to Estepona on the coast for some sunshine, sporting some additional stripes after an encounter with a whitewashed pillar.

Temperatures noticeably increase as you start the decent some 70 km, but with every twist and turn it feels much further and takes a good 90 minutes, with few places to stop on the way.

We had chosen to stay at the Estepona Plaza centrally located, so once the car was parked up, we could walk everywhere. Sat in a picturesque square complete with fountain the hotel was modern and staff very welcoming.

The area around the hotel is the quaint old town with plenty of bars and restaurants, so spoilt for choice, Restaurante El Cortijo was the highlight, with Bella Ciao offering Italian dishes overlooking the beach.

It might have been late June but the guy in the beard is ready to fill stockings!

Overall Estepona’s modern beachfront is tired, and seen better days, slightly away from the promenade there is a very attractive Trocadero beach club, affording great views over the beach, but little else developed in the area makes it somewhat isolated.

A few nights in Estepona are enough, and we headed to our next destination Cadiz, some 150Km away but with better roads, progress was swift. Cadiz is a large enough city with two distinct parts the old and the new, we were staying in the heart of the old town at the Senator Hotel, complete with underground parking via a side street and elevator–with inches to spare and an enthusiastic concierge we descended unscathed into the hotel car park, checked in and headed out into town.

The town is a made up of a warren of streets, but it’s not long before you get your bearings and meet some of the celebrated locals.

Like so many of these old cities in Spain there is a central cathedral and no shortage of churches to visit , but the walk along the coast is more rewarding with great views over the Atlantic.

And a fine botanical garden is defiantly worth the walk.

Spectacular colours

Cadiz is a beautiful city blessed with a rich mix of authentic tapas bars and celebrated Michelin restaurants such as Codigo De Barra, but is very affordable compared with many more touristy parts of Spain, and a great place to practice your Spanish, as English is the second language.

Time for home !