I have just finished four days of skiing in Spain! How did I get there? Well, after Portugal I had only three days of sunshine left before a week of heavy rain. So my planning needed to be well timed. I decided to continue my Andalusia trip, driving trough Cadiz, Jerez and Ronda, all the way to the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Coming from Faro (Portugal), and back into Spain, I briefly stopped in Huelva and Cadiz on my drive through. I didn’t find Huelva worth the stop and I had 40km/h icy winds in Cadiz, so I can’t tell whether I liked it. The sky was amazingly blue however.
Cadiz
Jerez de la Frontera
Jerez de la Frontera is 30km inland from Cadiz and an old Sherry town. I really liked it. There were plenty of nice bars and restaurants to sample all the Spanish tapas, accompanied by local wine and sherry. Shame, I am already in bed by the time the restaurants open in Spain.
A recurring issue for me personally when travelling. Because, while Spain is on siesta between 4-8pm (sometimes until 8.30pm) there is nowhere for me to have dinner around 6.30pm (my usual ‘last meal’ for the day time). I think I will try more of the Spanish restaurants in summer, when sunset is much later? Or maybe not?
Gibraltar
I felt I had to stop in Gibraltar just so I could say I’ve been there. There is not much I have to say about this spot and I wouldn’t recommend it either. Although it was pretty cool to suddenly drive through customs just to look at a rock and the coastal town. Not to mention being back in an English speaking country and eat some English lunch of course.
Having had enough of the weather, after Gibraltar I decided to go inland, away from the strong winds.
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Ronda
Oh beautiful Ronda! What a unique city in the middle of nowhere Ronda is. Sitting atop a deep gorge (El Tajo) and spanned by a stunning stone bridge, the Puente Nuevo (dating back to the Moorish rule), Ronda is definitely worth a trip. Even if you have to drive over the mountains to get there. Especially when coming from the coast and the town of Estepona.
In Ronda, it is easy to park and walk the old town. Furthermore, to get your best photos, you can walk across, along and under the Puente Nuevo bridge. It is a stunning view regardless of the angle. The landscapes over the mountains are breathtaking as well, and the blooming trees add to the contrast. A really gorgeous and certainly unique town!
Zahara de la Sierra
I had a few little towns marked to visit nearby Ronda. However it took a while to drive the windy roads so I only stopped in Zahara de la Sierra, a gorgeous little town with a small fort on top of a hill. An idyllic look that I found a lot throughout my Andalusia trip. What a beautiful countryside it is! I have to come back to this part again.
It was the last sunny day so I am glad I made this trip when I did!
And then….
Storm Gloria
And then storm Gloria hit! Apparently the worst for the past 30 years along the Spanish coast line. So all I could do is wait it out in the hotel room in Estepona. With little walks in between rain falls (mainly to go to the supermarket), there was not much else I could do. For 5 days. Malaga would have to wait for another time.
But I knew that with the rain comes the snow in the mountains. So once it stopped raining, I continued my Andalusia trip, heading towards Sierra Nevada Granada! Let’s see whether it would be worth the wait! Because, after my previous skiing experiences in Poland and Slovakia, I was ready to give Spain a go. Stay tuned… (blog post coming soon…)
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