We
finished our stay in Granada, grabbed our rental car from the
remote parking (several kilometers away) and headed out to a
small town called Ronda. Our path took us south from
Granada at the foot of the mountains, past the Sierra Nevada to
the coast. From the coast, we headed west to Marbella,
then headed back into the mountains to Ronda.
The photos below are what we saw.
Along
the highway from Granada to the coast, we passed huge bridges
and windmills.
We came
upon a set of large dams right next to the highway.
On the
coast road we crossed this odd bridge.
The
coast road went through the mountains passing from tunnel to
bridge and back into another tunnel. Several of the tunnels
were more than one kilometer long and one was over two
kilometers. This tunnel was short, but had houses built on
the ridge above.
East of
Malaga we passed this cable car that crossed the highway.
We left
the coast road and went into Marbella and found a place to
park. Marbella is new and clean, Spain's version of La
Jolla, CA. Note the mountain peaks in the distance.
Marbella
caters to tourists so there were many tourist services including
horse and carriage available for rent. The traffic circle
had this nice statue.
We went
to the Malecon and came upon this nice statue with the weather
sign.
The wind was howling at the beach, making it quite cold and uncomfortable. But, this fellow was manning his sand castle scouting for tips.
On a
calm summer's day, this area would be wall-to-wall people.
Today, due to the wind, it was deserted. We found a nice
Italian restaurant next to the Malecon and had a great, if a bit
expensive, lunch that included sushi.
After
lunch we headed though the mountains north of Marbella to Ronda.
I had no idea what was there, other than it was a suggestion
from a friend. We got lost, ended up in a canyon and had
to turn around. From the turn around, we spotted these
houses built into the cliff. We regrouped from our
"positionally uncertain" circumstance and headed in the correct
direction.
Turn out
that Ronda is built around a huge canyon, with buildings on both
sides. Our hotel was on the cliff next to an awesome
bridge. Above is the view from our patio.
Looking
generally west, only a small portion of the bridge was visible.
Ronda
caters to tourists, thus the horse and carriage.
A
partial view of the bridge, again from our window.
Several
floors below us was the dining terrace that had a great view of
the bridge.
Looking
down from our patio, the cliff was dauntingly high.
A bigger
view of the bridge, but still not the entire thing.
We
off-loaded our stuff and hiked around town. From the
bridge we could see more of the canyon to the west.
The
opposite side of the bridge had great views as well.
There
was a Parador on the north side of the canyon and we intended to
stay there but they were full. There is a walk around the
canyon rim where we could see a bit more of the bridge.
There
was a trail that went down to the flats on the south side of the
canyon. Note the wall at the foot of the hill.
From the
rim walk, we got a great vista of farm lands to the west of
Ronda. Note the gate structure at the bottom left of the
photo above.
There
was an overlook point accessible on foot.
The homes were built
right on the cliff.
A more complete view
of the bridge. A lot of effort was expended on this
structure.
We crossed to the
south side and got a view of the Parador. I think the
rooms were probably nicer, but our room was right on the
cliff.
A view of the Don
Miguel Hotel. Our room at the upper left of the visible
rooms.
As night started to
fall, the lights were turned on illuminating the underside of
the bridge.
Later into the
evening, the lights illuminated the entire canyon.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2017, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.