Spanish Hill Towns Mijas and Ronda

Janice and I have rented a car and spent Saturday and Sunday exploring Spanish Hill towns. Contrary to what we had been advised, it was cheaper to rent a car here than over the internet in the states. The car we rented is a Chevrolet Motiz. It is small with a five speed stick shift. It gets around 40 MPG which is fortunate as gas is $7.50 a gallon. We drove 483 KM, 300 miles in two days and used just over 7 gallons of gas. A couple of comments on driving in Spain. The first is that as gas is so expensive, everyone drives small, fuel efficient cars. There are very few oversized pickups, SUV's or RV's. The roads feel much safer as a result. Also, Spain has an awesome road system. In 300 miles of travel to the hill towns most was four lanes and when it was two lanes it was well maintained. There were no traffic signals, just roundabouts, so mileage was lot better due to not stopping and starting often. It is too bad that the US is just starting to learn about roundabouts.

On Saturday we drove to the hill town of Mijas, pronounced "me haas". This was a small city of around 7500 people. It has hillsides covered with whitewashed homes. The downtown was blocked off due to their annual international festival. Parking was scarce, but we found a spot at the bottom of a hill, the spot was so small, Janice used her feminine charms to convince a young German man to turn our car around in the small space we had and point the car uphill. While walking up to the festival we ran into a long line of donkeys waiting to be hired. The town had a lot of narrow winding streets with a lot of shops that Janice enjoyed. The international festival had booths from all over the world including the US, Mexico, Cuba, Senegal, Uruguay, Viet Nam, India, Germany, Bulgaria, etc. We enjoyed a large plate of assorted barbecued meats from Uruguay, sangria and cerveza from Spain, and perogis from The Ukraine. We sat in a plaza and watched dancers from a dancing school. We shared a table with a couple from Wedgewood, England who now live full time in Spain. We went on one last pass around the festival and ran into a group of dancers, dancing their way through the streets of Mijas. There were colorfully costumed and Janice took some great moving pictures of them. Our last stops were at the US booth where we met the US Counsel form Malage. We then noticed the Mexican booth where we talked to a young woman from Culican who was studying at a university in Malaga. We bought a Cerveza Pacifico from her. As it was sunny and hot the Pacifico went down well. Of interest to our Mazatlan friends, the Pacifico cost 2 1/2 times the Spanish and German beer offered. We drove home and got back to Torrox around 5:30. We had driven about 170 KM, or around 105 miles.
(Pictures from Mijas)

 

                      

                                   

On Sunday we got up early to drive to Ronda which is 156 KM, or around 97 miles away. The drive was beautiful through olive groves, spectacular ravines and picturesque ruins. Ronda is a town with a lot of history. The original city is perched on a high bluff on all sides. The old town is attached to the new town by a bridge that straddles a huge ravine. The old town is the old Moorish town that was finally captured by the Christians in 1485. We visited their Bull Ring as was recommended by Rick Steves. This was where modern Bull fighting was invented and the rules codified. Before that bull fighting was considered on the same level with WWF in the US. Part of the bull ring was a museum of bull fighting and also a large collection of antique weapons. We were able to tour where the bulls are kept and the runway where they enter the stadium. We had some wonderful tapas and then continued our walking around Ronda. We also went through the Lara Museum. This was very eclectic   comprising weapons collections, old uniforms, US movie lore, and tools of the Inquisition. After you see the tools of the Inquisition you wonder what kind of mind could even have the faintest feeling they were doing God's work? I can see nothing in the teachings of Jesus that could have justified this! After this we were in need of refreshment so walked down a long hill and enjoyed some great sandwiches. This was in the actual city of Ronda and was very busy. The long walk up the hill took us by the church of Santa Maria and The Mondragon Castle, the home of the ruling family. After about six hours of wandering this beautiful city and seeing the views from the high perch we drove home. Joel drove for the first time as he was unsure if he could drive a stick with his arthritic ankle. It worked fine. We arrived back in Torrox around 6:30 and were totally exhausted due to it having been very hot and sunny.
(Pictures from Ronda)