Feb 28, 2012 - Patanca and The Spanish Inquisition

Hi Everyone We stopped in Cabopino, 15 kms east of Marbella, planning on staying for a night or two and ended up staying 9 days !! The camp had activities on everyday from Spanish lessons, Spanish cooking, rumba classes, yoga and Paul’s favourite – archery and target shooting (with air rifles). We gave the archery and shooting a try. Mano, our games instructor, was very patient and gave very good instruction. We found our new neighbours were Paula and Ian, a couple we had met a week prior in Almeria. We spent many nights sitting outside our...

Oct 4, 2011 - Ronda

Ronda is one of those picturesk (sp?) whitewashed towns that is on all the travel ads for Spain. It is located on a very high plateau above a river that curves around it. Because of this the Romans located there fortress here. There are still two Roman bridges that are in use. We had a great time discovering all sorts of wonderful back streets. We had quite a time getting through an area where the children were being picked up from school for their siesta. What a life! We went to the bullring where we got a detailed explanation of a...

Aug 30, 2011 - seaside to hillside

This morning we picked up our hire car and we got an upgrade which is always nice. Brilliant Grae he's such a natural, gets into the opposite side of the car and drives a manual on the wrong side of the road in Spain. Bravo! We drove through Malaga's leafy boulevards up to the Castillo de Gibralfaro, a castle built in the 8th century and rebuilt in the 14 century by a Cordoban emir. The ramparts gave us sensational views down to port of Malaga. We ate lunch and drank sangria in the cool shade of the terrace. In the afternoon we headed for...

Jul 1, 2011 - Ronda

Thursday 6/30 ..... Goodbye Arcos hello Ronda.... The 2nd and last city of one day stays The 2 hour bus ride seemed short due to the beautiful scenery of the countryside. Up and down the winding roads we pull into the Ronda bus station without a clue as to where the Hotel Francisco was located! After consulting the map and 2 locals we are headed in the right direction. Okay, so I forgot to get directions from the station to the hotel .... A minor detail! We check in and head for the sights in what we think is another sleepy town. At 4,000...

May 24, 2011 - Driving in Andalucia, Spain

First a note about the first picture - the Toro de Osborne. The Osborne bull is a 14 meters high black silhouetted image of a bull in semi-profile, and is regarded as the unofficial national symbol of Spain. The Osborne sherry company (founded by Thomas Osborne Mann in 1772) erected large images of bulls starting in 1956 to advertise their Brandy de Jerez. They were in black (with the brand "Veterano" in red on it) - advertising located on sites near to major roads throughout Spain. The original image was smaller and in a slightly different...

Jan 18, 2011 - Ronda

Welcome back to my journal for 2011 – Happy New Year. As most of you know i have departed Australia and am currently on holiday with my friend in Spain. We are staying at Brett’s place in Calahonda on the Costa del Sol and yesterday we headed out in his A5 to tackle the long winding road into the Sierra Blanco to Ronda. As we left the coast, the humidity even though the weather was a cooler 20 degrees, encouraged the clouds to hang and the tan mist of pollution to hug the coast well into the mountains. From Calahonda, where the English...

Jul 19, 2010 - Exploring the White Hill Town of Ronda

Saturday, July 17th This morning we rose early to check out of our delightful little hotel in Seville to head for Ronda, the largest and perhaps most dramatic of the White Hill Towns of Spain. They are probably called this because from a distance, in the hilly terrain, their gleaming white stucco buildings are a splotch of whiteness. We walked along the Paseo in the Murillo Gardens from the Barrio de Santa Cruz to the bus station which was only about 10 minutes away. Arriving early to ensure no problems getting tickets (we had no Plan B for...

Apr 28, 2010 - Ronda

Hi all, We're in Ronda, the white town on the mountain with a beautiful high bridge over the deep river in the middle of the town. Very spectacularly ! They've been building 42 years over this bridge, which collapsed the first time they finished it ! We walked the town, and made a motor trip in the surroundings, the Sierra de Ronda, which are very nice. Now we're on our way to Malaga...... Love & blessings, Dini

Apr 15, 2010 - Ronda

@@@@@@@ We first heard about the little town of Ronda, and it’s incredible setting when we were checking out of our hotel in Seville. Another couple our age was just checking in and they were raving about Ronda; they had just come from there. We read about it in the Lonely Planet and looked it up on the internet. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to visit it in September, when my sister Donna was with us, but as we were coming back to Spain in April for our flight back to Canada, we put it high on our list of places to see in Spain. The...

Oct 14, 2009 - India and flight to India

Day 1 We were leaving to India this morning so we woke up at 6 in the morning so we could return our car back to the car hire and so we could get to our terminal. Luckily we were staying in a travel lodge right next to the airport. We drove to the Europcar depot and dropped our car there. We then caught one of the shuttles that went to terminal 1. We found our airline (Austrian airlines) and checked in. We made good time and so we had a look at all the shops and dad and I decided that it would be great to have a better camera then what we...

Sep 17, 2009 - France 2

Day 52 We found a gite to stay in and we were planning on staying for 6 days. We settled in and then we went and checked the house out. Mum and dad went out to look for groceries for the night but everything was closed. When they came back our host gave us some food to cook with so we could survive the night. Day 53 In the morning we went shopping so we had food to last us over the week. After that we came back to the Gite and played a few games. We also went in the pool but it was freezing. We were relaxing for a day just to get back to...

Sep 15, 2009 - Spain 2

Day 49 We drove our car off the ferry then we continued to drive to a little town of Ronda. There was a festival on and there was many things going on. As soon as we got there dad and I went to the ticket office for the bull fight. We managed to get really good tickets for the next day. We had a look through the town and the whole town was just amazing. We went and found our hotel and it was one of the best hotels ever it was very fun and exciting. We were actually staying a house that was owned by the Hotel. We went out for some dinner in...