MANILVA AND RONDA

Monday 28th April.

I picked Jane up from the airport in Malaga and came back to Manilva along the coast road,not on the Autovia so I was able to show her all the place’s along the coast on a very warm and sunny day.We then had a bottle of Pink Champagne and Club Sandwiches at our house to welcome her to Manilva.In the afternoon we went up on the roof terrace and had a couple of bottles of White wine including the excellent White Rioja that we were given when we went to the Spanish seven course meal a few weeks ago.Janes drink is white wine as you will see later ! In the evening we went down to Sabinillas to a local restaurant and had Sole Meuniere washed down with the local Vino Blanco.

Tuesday 29th April.

We got up to a beautiful sunny day and had our toast and coffee on the roof terrace before we set off to Ronda for lunch.We went up past Casares to Gaucin and then found the road to Ronda through the mountains which we had not used before and it turned out to be a very good road with spectacular views as you can see from the pictures below when we stopped at a Mirador and then went onto the small and very hot village of Algetocin and had a coffee in the Meson la Ermita before we went into the old town of Ronda past the city walls and parked in a underground car park which keeps the car cool- the hire car that we had delivered on Monday afternoon to the Aparthotel is a little Fiat Panda 4 door estate and is ideal and also it goes! The temperature was 26oc as we went to look at the cliff views and the Bull Ring before going down to the Old Bridge over the gorge.We had a late lunch in the Restaurant Don Miguel which is built into the gorge and is famous for The Roast Leg of Baby Lamb which Jane and I had whilst Brenda had The Brochette of Monkfish and Prawns and a very nice bottle of the local chilled Rose We then crossed the bridge and went into the old town and we found for the first time The Hotel Montelirio which is the sister hotel to The La Menorah restaurant and is also built into the gorge opposite the bridge, we also called into The Bull Fighters Hotel-San Gabriel which has the smallest cinema in the world-five seats only! The drive back down to San Pedro is very exciting as it clings to the rock faces and shoots you around the corners on the way back to the coast.The picture shows Jane and Brenda on the road to Ronda.In the evening we went out for supper to a small Chef- Proprietor run restaurant and we had a very nice meal of Roast Duck Breast on Plumbs and Fillet Steaks on a very crisp Ratatoulie with the house recommended White Rioja which was rather nice ! “ Restaurante Adare “ in Sabinillas is on the list ! Jane has also broken in the guest room and says that the service is Five xxxxx !!