ANDALUCIA - Diversity that inspires

Our flight took us from Munich via Rome to Malaga where we first got our rental car. Booking a car through an agency might be the cheapest but not the easiest way. First of all they charge you 50% extra for a second driver, which were 70€ for 10 days compared to the rental fee of 145€. Then they ask for a deposit of 1.400€, which will be taken from your account immediately. You will receive it back if there are no damages to claim after the rental time, but it might take 2-3 weeks before you get it back because of the agency. If you don‘t agree to the deposit, well feel free to pay an extra 190€ insurance, which will not be refunded!!

Anyway we managed to give the deposit and being 6 o’clock already decided to drive straight away towards Marbella to have dinner in the old town, which is really cute. It takes about 40 minutes to get there and there are several public parking places you can use close by....for example Plaza Victoria. Walking through the narrow streets made us stick to a small place called Marbella Patio in Calle de los Dolores. Main dishes with rice and vegetables are about 10-16€ and really good. Make sure to at least stop by at the beautiful Plaza de los Naranos even if you don’t want to have dinner at the touristy place. The little plaza in middle of many orange trees is a quiet place to hang out. Walking towards the sea you cross the main street and head to another park with fountains and benches covered with colourful tiles to have a rest. We were simply to tired to have the rest, we rather headed further to Ronda where we were about to spend the first night. It does take an hour from Marbella even though it’s only 60km, but all curvy streets, so prepare to be awake!

We arrived around 10 pm in Ronda and first unloaded our luggage at the hotel „El Poeta“, which is located directly at the Puente Nueva and with its two gallery floors with a chandeliers hanging in the middle of the atrium. Through booking we paid 40€ per person incl. breakfast. The room was clean and comfortable, even lots of space in the bathroom. As we simply wanted to go to bed, the receptionist explained to us that we were not allowed to park our car on this side of the bridge, only for residential. Now we knew why we were taking each and every street to look for a parking until we stopped in front of the hotel to unload, hoping we could just leave the car for the night. Anyway he tried to direct us to a public parking two minutes away, but 12€ for 24h....no way we wanted to pay that amount in a little town since 3 hours in Marbella were already 10€!! So we took another round in the non-residential area and managed to find a spot in Calle Pastor Divinio and walked back to the hotel. We fell asleep really fast to get new energy for walking off Ronda and heading to our next destination vibrant Sevilla!

Woken up by the sunshine, we started heading to the old part of Ronda. It was the perfect temperature to just walk around the little streets in flip flops. You can also take the path down to the lowest level of the canyon, which starts just behind the Plaza Maria de Auxiliadora, where you can walk down some steps and then a dusty path. Make sure you wear good shoes because the steps can get a bit steep. With our flip flops we decided to walk around the higher level ;). The round took us past Plaza Mondragon and several churches to the edge where you could overlook the beautiful landscape and parts of the city.

On our way back we stopped by in a little street where one restaurant after another had set up their tables just in the middle of the street, so we ate there. Trying sorts of tapas and a small beer, we were ready to head to our next location....so got the car, loaded our luggage and travelled through beautiful landscape to Setenil, half an hour drive towards the North East.

This little city is unique, built in and amongst rocks. The houses reach into the rocks, so that they have natural roofs and even inside some shops you still see the rocky façade. Mainly two streets North and South, but just opposite from each other, you can walk up and down quite quickly, having a coffee or sneaking into some boutiques. Not even an hour later we carried on our journey to Seville....ready to spend a vibrant fun night, it was Saturday!

Having some great views of olive trees fields and sunset, we arrived in Seville at 8 pm. Did I mention that it was difficult to find parking in Ronda? Oh well here we are, old town of Seville on a Saturday evening is nightmare! We nearly curved around the area of Alameda, which is located North of city centre, about 30 minutes until we simply chose the comfortable solution of a parking garage....20€ for 24h but we didn’t have a choice! We got ourselves some beer at the supermarket and entered the place of Mr. Alejandro, a really warm hearted gay Spanish guy around our age. Very clean neat place and his hospitality was amazing, told us right away where we could have dinner and breakfast next morning.

After that we made our way 15 minute walk towards Plaça de la Encarnacion with the Metropol Parasol covering the place with lots of shade. Walking along the road Calle Laraña to Plaça Nueva we stopped at Plaça Salvador for a beer, which most of tourists and locals do, and further to the area of Triana by crossing a bridge over Rio Quadalquvir. The area was and still is famous for Flamenco, where it started and the former poor people established it. Daytime is quiet and so we walked back passing Plaça Cuba over the bridge on the way to the Arena del Torro. Of course you can visit it for little entrance fee. Since we had tickets for a Flamenco show in the evening, we headed back to the flat and got ready. Fastest way was to take a 1,40€ bus ride.
Santa Cruz area to reach after 15 minute bus ride is a great place to choose out of many tapas places one after another. Either quick bite at the bodega Santa Cruz or a nice restaurant to sit in one of the little streets. Most tapas are between 2 and 3€ each.

Try to make it to the café La Cacharreria and the little place with only 2 tables outside,

6 tables and a bar inside with individual decorations serves great muesli with yoghurt

and fruits for 3,50€, or choose bagels from 3,50 to 6€ and you can start your day just right!

At 11 o‘clock we joined a historical walking tour at Placa Nueva. The free walking tours are offered daily with different routs and topics, they are free and you pay after the tour whatever you think it was worth it....we gave 5€ each, which is ok for 2 hours. It took us along the town hall to the cathedral, old Jewish area and passing the Alcázar with the park. Just opposite, which was the former outer part of the city centre, the university is a sight on its own....beautiful walls and arches showing images of the past, when Seville used to be the capital for economic negotiations and discoverer like Columbus or Cervantes. After our tour we wandered a bit through Santa Cruz and the shopping area around Plaza Nueva.

Now it was time for the next destination, Cadiz! After 1,5 hours drive on the almost empty highway, we reached Cadiz just in time for the sunset....grab a beer and enjoy the view when the sun disappears little by little into the ocean...

The endless beach on the Atlantic coast of Cadiz simply makes it impossible to miss out starting the day with a run and some workout. Just in front of our Airbnb place there is a workout area with monkey bar racks and some other tools to improve your fitness.

So we ran along the beach and ended up deserving good breakfast close to the Mercado in the city centre. The market is accessible from all sides and overwhelms you with fruits, fresh fish and seafood....so yummy and cheap!!

Wi-Fi at the restaurant made it possible to book our next accommodation in Zahora, just 1 hour from Cadiz towards South. Motivated to crash the city of Cadiz, we drove up to the centre and parked our car close to the Parque Genoves. From there you can take a 5 minute walk into the old town. Best thing is to walk up Calle Enrique de las Marinas followed by Calle Rosario just behind Plaza de Mina and you‘ll find one restaurant and bar after another.

The road South brings you to some nice spots along the coast. After 1 hour drive you reach Zahora, a cute little town at the coast before Caños de la Meka, home to lots of adventures like kitesurfing, surfing, hiking and mountain biking. As we got to our hostel Los Pinos we were immediately impressed by the well kept place with two story houses, a garden and pool. Since we could check in before 10.30 am, we took a ten minute drive to Vejer de la Frontera up on a hill. This town is worth taking a half hour walk through the white village, which offers a church, the castillo and some nice views down on the village houses.
We spent the rest of the day at the pool. Feeling hungry you can cross the street to the supermarket at the camping place.
For the evening we found a restaurant at the beach of La Palmar, which was open earlier than all the others....mostly 8.30 pm the restaurants open for dinner, which is quite late, at least for us. The seafood specialized place Restaurante El Alferez is located directly at the beach, so best sunset view is guaranteed. We had fresh fish, which was not the cheapest, but quality and service were excellent!! Maybe it was because of the holiday, but elsewhere there was no other place that had much more of entertainment....in Caños de la Meka everything was closed, so we drove back to La Palmar Beach, where a little Beach Bar / Cervezeria served us our good-night-beers before we headed back to our hostel.

We spent the rest of the day at the pool. Feeling hungry you can cross the street to the supermarket at the camping place, where we bought some food for our breakfast next morning.
For the evening we found a restaurant at the beach of La Palmar, which was open earlier than all the others....mostly 8.30 pm the restaurants open for dinner, which is quite late, at least for us. The seafood specialized place Restaurante El Alferez is located directly at the beach, so best sunset view is guaranteed. We had fresh fish, which was not the cheapest, but quality and service were excellent!!

Maybe it was because of the holiday, but elsewhere there was no other place that had much more of entertainment....in Caños de la Meka everything was closed, so we drove back to La Palmar Beach, where a little Beach Bar / Cervezeria served us our good-night-beers before we headed back to our hostel.

I had discovered several hiking trails in the Parque Arconocales, which starts in the North just behind the village Vejer de la Frontera towards Alcalá de los Gazules. The trip estimated with approx. 3-4 hours was the hike up to the mountain of Picacho on 1.000m. You first need to drive towards Alcalá and follow the sign to the tourist office, where you need to sign in for a permit to enter the path within the national park. There is no fee, only your name number and reason for visiting and you’re set. Then you drive further towards Alcalá and through the town. After exiting the town you follow the sign towards Ubrique which take you 15-20 minutes along narrow serpentine roads until you reach a parking spot on your left. You park right there and enter the trail opposite the road. Well, there is no one to check your permit, but we guessed it was in case of emergency that they know who is entering. To Picacho you take the 3,3km assigned trail and follow the path, pass the lagoon and leave it on your left until you go further always checking for wooden columns with white arrows or the white/green signs. At one crossing you will find the signs of different routes and you continue the Picacho trail.

It takes you through cork tree forest and after the first view point you follow another half hour through pine tree forest to the top. Make sure you have good shoes because the last park can be slippery with the loose rocks. On the top you will be rewarded by the amazing view overlooking the park and up to the cities of Alcalá and Barbete.
On your way down there are several crossings, so keep your eyes open or better remember the trail when walking up. In total it took us 3 hours, but we are experienced hikers, so plan about 3-4 hours.

On our way back we drove around the park via Algeciras and stopped for Tarifa. We had heard about an agency that offered climbing tours, but since our arrival it was impossible to get in contact with this agency named Girasol, a German owned company. We wanted to go climbing on the rocks above Betis, the Southern most climbing area in Europe. There was supposed to be a shop in Tarifa also owned by them, so we hopped to find them there. As we reached the shop, it was closed! Everything empty, as if they had closed forever. So now our hopes were destroyed completely...maybe something had happened and we wouldn’t be able to get in contact with them at all. Well be it, we drove back to our hostel in Zahora. As we were on our way back, Caroline suddenly got the message from the agency that we could go climbing tomorrow!! What a surprise, we hadn’t thought of it at all...
We spent the evening relaxing for tomorrow. Since we had arranged the meeting with Chris from Girasol at 1 pm, we could sleep long and take care of our next accommodation in Tarifa. We found a really cute place through Airbnb in Calle Jerez, in the old town of Tarifa. We luckily could check in before climbing.

Only 15 minutes North of Tarifa along the coast is the little village Betis with its rocks of San Bartolo, an Eldorado for climbers of all levels. Over 240 routes from 3 to 8a, so there is something for everyone. After we dropped our luggage in Tarifa at our Airbnb place we met Chris at PuntaSur hotel to go up the mountain road to Betis, park the car and walk up through the bushes. When you get up, you’ll see a parking spot on the left that brings you to one of two main areas, the Zona de Arriba....this one different variations with boards and good sandstone, some for arm strength and some where your feet need to do more where there is not much to hold on with your arms. The variation is huge! The other rocks on the right side called Tajo del Buho are mainly in the sun and closed from April until August to protect rare species of birds, that are around that rock during that season. Our rocks had shade and sun sides, so we could choose. The weather was ideal, warm with a few clouds and nearly no wind, only a slight breeze. In the so called „habitacion“ we started short routes, but with a view to the ocean and beaches from the top! After three routes we wandered around the rock and found different rocks and therefore different technique.

We were ready to head to the city for a bit of shopping, food and drinks. Simply through the Torre de Jerez and you follow one of the roads going downwards and that area will offer many restaurants, tapas bars and shops that open from 5 until 10 pm during the week. Dinner times are again late, but after one week in Spain we got used to the habits and made them ours....so after a short walk through the streets, we got ready in our flat and stepped out around 8 o’clock when it started raining with thunderstorms. The restaurant terraces were now less and so people crowded all restaurants, at least the good ones.

In the street Calle de la Luz we found a wonderful café that opened just a year ago and offers breakfast, smoothies and homemade bakery and cakes, delicious and price worthy.
Since we had decided short notice that we wanted to stay another night in Tarifa and drive early morning to the Málaga airport instead of spending the night in Málaga and loosing the evening for driving. In this case we booked the next hotel during breakfast and brought our luggage from A to B and spent the rest of the day shopping on the main street with lots of surf shops continued by walking at the beach promenade watching the kite surfers. At Cafe del Mar Beach we found out that there was a concert the same evening, so we reserved a table also for dinner. In the small street next it, we chose one of the small cafes/restaurants for a lunch snack. The Stoked surf bar even offered Açaí bowls, so we were in for a second breakfast.
Our hotel „De la favorita“ had given us a room on the top....which means, we had our own private roof top terrace with hamacas to lay in the sun, which we did then. After the rain comes the sun, so thunderstorm was gone and it was a beautiful day to catch the last sun for this holiday...
Caroline went horseback riding on the beach for 30€ an hour while I had a sunset beer at the beach, Waikiki bar perfect location to do so and watch the last kite surfers while the sun sets just behind the surfers, stunning view to enjoy!
Having our last drinks, good food and live music at Cafe del Mar we had the perfect final in Tarifa.