TUESDAY 26th/ JANUARY 2016.
We had a quick breakfast and then got
ourselves ready for the day; we shot across to the “ H10 Estepona Palace **** “
and met David & Jane in the foyer, it was so nice to see then both after a
little while since they were last over here. After a good catch up with all their
news we sorted out the day ahead, we discussed the various options and David
said that he would like to go to Ronda for the day as he had so much about it
from Jane when she came over for the first time back in 2008 when we gave her
the ‘royal tour’!
David had hired a rather special car from
the airport over in Malaga, a “ Mini Cooper ‘S’- its very fast ( sports mode! )
with all the latest gimmicks including a very good Sat-Nav ( not needed! ) –
the only problem that we had to push/shove/squeeze Jane & Brenda into the
back seats and then get them out again when we arrived anywhere!! I took us up
through the mountains through Casares and then down and up the valleys to the
white mountain village of Gaucin and then past Algatocin coming into the back
streets of Ronda and across the famous bridge into the underground car park
that we use in the centre of the town, excellent driving by David and the co-driver/navigator
was not bad also! See the first pictures as we arrived in Ronda ( little Japan
!) taken across from the famous Bull Ring!
We then walked into the old part of the
town to the main square and soon found a nice table at the main bar for our
first bottle of Cava, in fact it was a rather different Spanish Sweet ‘Prosecco’
style Champagne! It was a glorious day down here on the ‘Costa Del Sol’ – as forecast,
the skies were blue and the sun was out early, by lunchtime it reached 19 degs and
there was no breeze, in fact as the day went on it got even nicer; we then went
for a walk to take in all the sights of Ronda, fighting or way through the
large crowds of ‘Japanese’ visitors to the bridge & gorge, the old town and
churches, the Bull Ring, the old boutique hotels on the cliff face etc.
It was
then time to find a bar in the old town for a ‘light’ Tapas style lunch, we
ended up in a very old ‘Taberna’ just off the square where we had a very nice
lunchtime ‘session’ with this time ‘Cava’ – which soon became our chosen drink,
for the next two days, we had a selection of the tapas with also a Roasted
Shank of local Lamb to share!
We then set off back down to coast on the
famous & spectacular A-376 ‘drivers’ road through the mountains, one of the
‘top ten best drives’ in Europe! It comes out in San Pedro de Alcantara so we
then went around the new ‘ Boulevard’ to give then a taste of the new addition
to the town, we then headed along the coast past a sparkling Mediterranean back
into Estepona where we went up to the new Orchid House, which was sadly closed
for five days for essential maintenance!! – you can’t plan everything!! We then
passed the new and controversial ‘Gold’ statue on the new island in the centre
of the town, which the Mayor commissioned without anybodies permission! See the
picture below, not very good so I will take another one another visit!
It was then time for some refreshment, so
we ended up in the ‘Champagne/Sushi Bar’ on the promenade where we had a bottle
of their excellent ‘Cava Rosdao’ with fresh local Strawberry garnish sat in the
hot sunshine outside at 6-00pm!
We then retired to hotel where we then ended up
in the lounge overlooking the views across to Gibraltar & Africa – more bottles
of ‘Cava’ appeared as we reminisced about the good old days!! One ‘Helluva ‘
day with great friends – with more to come!
NB, For all the family over in Australia!
Thoughts for the Day, See above.
..
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