Novo Sancti Petri - Tarifa - Gibraltar - Ronda

Novo Sancti Petri ....resort living
After being picked up at the Jerez de la Frontera bus station by my cousin Heidrun & her husband Dieter (yes , from Germany) - we recovered in our rather spacious holiday apartment, less than 1km away from their hotel (just by chance!).
5 June was weird day...in a good way. As we arrived in Jerez de la Frontera after our harrowing bustrip, I rushed off to the the public toilet in the busstation and found €10 on the bathroom floor. With the falling rand ...a small fortune. Well, how weird was it, that when Heidi & Dieter dropped us at our hotel, I found another €20 in the road. As the Lotto in Germany was sitting at €18million, I gave the money to Heidi to play the Lotto. As we have not heard anything yet ...we assume that we did not win. Pity ! Had already distributed it amongst my friends ....so you all have lost out. Maybe next time !
Heidi & Dieter had kept their hired car for another 2 days and so showed us the area around Novo Sancti Petri. This area in particular was just built as a golf resort area for the Expo92 in Sevilla. Poor Clint ....surrounded by magnificent Golf Courses and he did not play ! There is one hotel complex next to the other and a long sandy beach against the Atlantic Ocean....great holiday resort country just made for relaxing and eating - as most of the hotels are all-inclusive. There is a huge focus on German tourists in the area ...so we moved from British Algarve to German Andalusia !
We drove up the coast to Tarifa - the most southern point of Europe and the closest to Africa - you can see Tangiers on the other side of the Mediteranean 14.2kms away. Here you also have the Atlantic on one side and the Mediteranean on the other. Quite amazing ...as is the old fortress near the point.
Further along the coast we stopped at the border crossing to Gibraltar. Interesting area, but I am sure, that should the peninsula ever be give back to Spain it would lose its novelty as a tourist attraction. For some reason, the road signs at the border were being repainted that day, which left only 1 lane open for traffic, which is heavy at the best of times. The traffic built up for miles and tempers seriously flared when some motorists decided to cut in the front of the queue. We stood for ages just watching the antics and wondering when the fists were going to fly. Dieter thought that this would be better than a theme-park ride ...to just cut into the front of the line and see (and hear !) the reactions of the really irritated drivers. So pleased we did not have to contend with the traffic. Did not want to cause any chaos with Clint's visas - so decided to give going through passport control a miss. Saw the important bits from Spanish territory anyway.
The next day we took a lengthy drive out to Ronda, about 160kms from the coast in a mountainous area, with white villages clinging to the tops and sides of very steep cliffs and mountains. Quite magnificient to see from afar and Ronda being magnificent to experience. It is a medieval city with beautifully maintained old bridges, fortifications and villas and gardens. There is even a bull fighting arena in the town. What an amazing town to visit !
First thought this morning (7June) happy birthday Tracey and welcome to the 50s Club ...not a bad place to be ! Seeing that we were at a beach resort, we felt that we should at least get down to the beach once, before leaving again. As luck would have it, the rain decided to come down, just as we wanted to go for our walk. A few cups of coffee later, and the sun was out and off we went !
Amazing beach, fantastic water (although at about 18 degrees too cold for me for a swim) and beautiful shells. Little lucky charm shells, that look like small ears are a rare find, but somehow Heidi has developed an eye for them, as she was the only one of us to spot them ! Maybe they will bring her luck with the Lotto !
After Heidi and Dieter had left for the airport, we went for another long walk along the beach in the direction of Cadiz. As the tide was low, we were again treated to some very interesting rock formations. In the evening light the colours enticed Clint to take masses of photos - until the cold wind hurried us along to find a restaurant for supper. After having been treated to buffet suppers at their hotel by Heidi and Dieter, we had a far smaller meal and walked for kilometers - in the hope of getting a bit trimmer before the beach-holiday part of our trip starts. The weather is still uncharacteristically cool - great for sightseeing though.
The next morning we were off to test the bus system again. This time we were a bit more successful ...although we did manage to miss 2 buses in close succession - as we were always on the wrong side of the road, then miss one because it was full and then an hour later take a bus that took the long way around to Chiclana de la Frontera, from where we would take the bus straight to Sevilla. At least we got a tour of the resort area on our lengthy busride , so that was great. In Chiclana we waited for about an hour and boarded the bus to Sevilla, which took us to the Bus Terminal about 8 minutes walk away from our very centrally located little hotel. Very quaint and authentic in a tiny alley - just around the corner from the Cathedral (biggest church in the world - even bigger than St Pauls in London and St Peters in Rome) and the Alcazar, the huge moorish palace. On our initial walk around town we already saw two weddings take place at the Cathedral. So much activity in the streets and again, something exciting and unexpected around every corner.