Day Twelve - Málaga and Home

Thursday 28 October

Our flight home was early evening, so we had a pretty much a full day to explore Málaga.  We left our cases at the hotel and headed towards the cathedral.  As we'd done most of the other cathedrals we'd come across, it seemed churlish to miss this one.  

Málaga cathedral is relatively modern, being constructed between 1528 and 1782, although sited on the same area as medieval Moorish walls.  It is a typical Renaissance cathedral with beautiful, lofty ceilings and tens of individual chapels.

Although I'm not into this style of architecture/decor, I did like the modern decoration of the altars.

We then headed to the Alcazabar.  As per Granada and Seville, these are amazing buildings.  I love the architecture, the tiles and the history.  

Built in the 11th Century by the governing Muslims, it hosts three concentric walls which increasingly protect the interior.  Its gardens were a delight, with small channels of water flowing down from one garden patio to another.

And this was a familiar style of archway and courtyard.  Love it.

It also had a small tea shop complete with Mediterranean view.

130 m up the hill stands Castillo de Gibralfaro.  It is connected to Alcazabar by a walled corridor, to protect its inhabitants from hostile fire whilst transmitting between the two.  Gibralfaro was the original site of Málaga fortifications, being occupied from circa 770 BC.  This latest castle was built in the 14th Century to protect the Alcazabar, and gained renown as being the most impregnable fortress on the Iberian peninsula.    

Wonderful views down to the harbour.

I spied a lighthouse so off we went down to the harbour area.  We didn't linger as we were running short on time but it is always nice to see one of these maritime lovelies.

We went back to the hotel, collected our luggage, then it was a simple train ride to the airport to catch our flight home.  We hadn't accounted for a Spanish train strike.  We bought our tickets, went down the platform and only then, after wondering why our train was late, did we start to google and discover the news.  A sign before buying the tickets would have been helpful!  Fortunately, whenever I travel, I always built in a wide margin for dodgy transport, and this time the hour extra was used standing on the station platform.  A train eventually appeared and we all bundled on.  We made the flight in comfortable time but it's not the most stress free way to catch a plane.  

Flight home was smooth and we went from 25 deg C to a late October British cold, wet deluge in 2 hours.  Welcome home!

Day Eleven - Gorge Walking Extraordinaire

Wednesday 27 October

Today we walked el Caminito del Rey.  We'd managed to buy ourselves tickets by monitoring when the tickets were released and sitting in the internet queue for an hour.  Totally well worth it!

This path, The King's Little Path, is a walkway down the Gaitanes gorge, pinned to the steep walls.  It was built to provide access to the Hydroelectric Power station that was built in the early 20th Century.  Although it is safe, and you are equipped with helmets and entry is timed and ticketed, it's not for those who fear heights.  

The walk starts at the northern end, through a tunnel, and then a walk by the reservoir.  

At the gated entrance you are kitted up with helmet and sent off in small groups.  The actual elevated gorge element is only 2.9 km but it's not done at a pace, mainly because you cannot overtake on the narrow sections and, quite frankly, the views are so amazing that you want to linger to take it all in.  

It's not long that you start to see the remains of the previous walkways.  This walkway is a 100 years old and has been variously built, repaired and abandoned by generations of engineers.  After a series of fatal accidents in 1999 and 2000 the walkway was closed and totally overhauled, re-opening in 2005.

After a kilometre or so walk in, the walkways commence.  At times the gorge is only 10 m wide and the walls soar up to 300 m high.

Some are less precarious than others.

But I certainly wouldn't have crossed this one.  It was the lack of a handrail that spooked me.

As you can imagine, the views were wonderful - both on enclosed gorge sections and areas where it opened up.

This gorge also hosts the railway from Málaga to Córdoba, which was built in the 1840s, and the tunnels occasionally popped into view.

On many occasions you could see the former walkway, and it's dilapidated state.

Towards the south end there is huge cascade of water spewing out of the rocks.  It made beautiful rainbows.

The path crossed over via a suspension bridge, and you could see, hear and feel the spray as you wobbled across.

The elevated walkway continued a few more hundred metres, encountering a railway bridge and vertiginous views.  

Once off the walkway at the south entrance, it was helmets off, and a €1,85 bus back to the start.  All very well organised and maintained.  

Once back at the car we drove to Málaga, dropped the hire car and made our way to an uninspiring, but central, city hotel for our last night in Spain.  We wandered into the city centre and treated ourselves to a paella which seemed a very fitting last meal.

Andalusia Day Ten - Ronda Fest

Tuesday 26 October

Today we explored the 'old Ronda', the 15th century part south of the gorge.  We walked from the new, north side, to the south via one of the original bridges, Puente Romano, and could see across to the other old one, Puneto Viejo which is the oldest (built in 1616) and smallest of the 3 bridges in Ronda.  

We first visited the Casa del Rey de Moro, a fantastic house set overlooking the gorge with amazing views, and access to the Masrid era Water Mine, one of the best preserved water mines in Spain.  

Built in the 14th Century, the water mine has over 120 steps down to the river and, when Christians were ousted by the Muslim conquerers, they had to carry the water up the steps to the town.  

It was amazing to be down at the river's edge, and the reflections were beautiful.  

Then we visited the Baños Arabes, Ronda's Arab Baths.  They were built in the Moorish style, similar to Roman Baths, except that steam was use to sweat out pollutants from the body, rather than soaking in hot water as the Romans would.  

The baths were fed by water from the Guadalevín and there was a clever design drawing it up from the river and channelling it down to the baths.  

Next we visited the Palacio de Mondragón (Mondragon Palace), the Municipal Museum of Ronda and home to the history of Ronda from the stone age to present time.  It hosts some beautiful Moorish architecture.  

Then we then walked down the the Arabic walls and city gates in the south, back past the Plaza Duquesca de Parcent, via the Jardines de Cuenca and back to the Puerto Nuevo - stopping for various coffees and tapas on the way.  

Andalusia Day Nine - Cádiz to Ronda via Zahara de la Sierra

Monday 25 October

We left Cádiz and drove into the Sierra de Gazalema.  This National Area hosts Arcos de la Frontera, one of the Pueblos Blancos (White Villages) we'd already seen on our way south on the Friday.  We drove across the Sierra stopping at the Mirador Puerto del Boya for a gaze. 

The vistas were wonderful.

And the drive was hairpin after hairpin for much of it!

We stopped at another Pueblos Blancos, Zahara de la Sierra, for lunch and a stroll.  This is renowned for its stunning setting with its castle built on a rocky peak and a turquoise lake beneath it.  Once inside, you find more narrow, cobbled streets with beautiful white houses and the requisite plant pots hung from the walls. 

After lunch we walked up to the castle and, finding it was locked due to refurbishment, we walked back down.

There is a huge lake hugging the east side of the village.  It was clear how much water loss there had been and, like the other bodies of water we saw, far from full.

Back in the car and off to Ronda for our next stay.  Once again, we managed to lose ourselves in a narrow one-way system.  My google maps just isn't smart enough to know the difference between a narrow street that a small car can fit down, and a narrow street that only a moped can.  We ended up circling the newer part of Ronda, JC driving and me trying to direct him whilst messaging our AirBnB host for more directions.  Eventually we headed in what we thought was the right direction, only to be blocked by a guy on a moped speeding out of the road we were turning into.  I wound down the window to hear him say "Ruth?"  It was our AirBnB host who had come out to find us!  What a star.

Our AirBnB accommodation was the nicest we'd had of the trip, when it came to space and views. It had an easterly-facing terrace over the hills.  Our host had stocked up the fridge with beers, chocolate, breads and juices which was such a lovely touch.  There was also some strong looking liquor which we figured was sherry.

Once vaguely unpacked, we headed out towards the old city to find the bridge.  The Puenta Nuevo bridge is one of the main tourist attractions across the Guadalevín River, providing the main link between old and new towns.  As the sunlight faded it was lit up.

Then we enjoyed a stunning sunset from the western terraces.