Spain and back Part Four

Now we could concentrate on discovering Andalusia, which to be honest we had visited numerous times before, but like most Brits we had clung to the coastal areas, apart from the occasional trip to Mijas or Ronda.

So the first port of call was to telephone our Michael to tell him we had arrived, which resulted in meeting him and his wife Sue at the most Spanish of all situations the nearest Lidl supermarket in Coin. To be honest this made perfect sense as both them and us needed to stock up the larder, and Lidl is on the main road into Coin and very easy to find. One supermarket led to another this time a Mercadona and the delights of the fish counter, no wonder the North Sea has no fish stocks left this one supermarket must have had most of it. Then onto the Ham section never seen so much Jamon in my life, and the tastes, oh! out of this world. Why can't our supermarkets sell proper cured ham like this instead of the wet soggy variety they purport to call ham. Enough of this moaning and back to the story.

Our Michael and Sue invited us back to their small villa on what is known as the campo, (countryside to me and thee). Where they entertained us with a guided tour of the house and garden which included a pool and at the end of the garden a small river which had overhanging it a massive large fig tree, unfortunately at that time of year no figs. I'm partial to the odd fig or ten. There were however orange and lemon trees, which Barbara pronounced to be the best oranges she had ever tasted and the lemons were also proclaimed to make the best ice and a slice G&T's she'd had in years, believe me she is old enough to remember a gradely number of years and I wasn't allowed to indulge in the tasting due to the fact I was the designated driver, as always.

Following the guided tour and pre-dinner drinks we were sat down under the pagoda at the side of the pool for evening dinner, which in part included the jamon I'd waxed lyrical about earlier.

Soon however it was time for us to find our way back to the camp-site which was surprisingly easy to do and to enjoy a well earned sleep.

The following morning found us up and about fairly early for us and after showering and breakfast we set off on foot to investigate the local village of Villafranco de Guadalhorce, despite it's rather grand and long name it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, being of fairly recent development, but boasting a population of all Spanish people without any incomers that we could identify. Its redeeming feature was the fact that it had three bars all selling tapas and dirt cheap beer and wine. After having a good look round we decided to give one of the bars a chance to show off it's wares in the form of a tapas lunch, we were not to be disappointed, we made our choice from the goods on display ordered a couple of beers, and sat back to await the food, which came within a very short time, so we started to consume our first tapas meal of the journey so far, of the five dishes we ordered we enjoyed them all, and after a further two, three beers each we paid the princely sum of, I think, about twelve Euro’s for the lot. Result, tapas for us for lunch from now on.

On the following Sunday we had arranged to go to the nearest Anglican Church with our Michael and Sue. Sue's sister Caroline is a Deacon at this church and was helping conduct the service, we were surprised to find out that the church was in fact the chapel for the cemetery in Alhaurin el Grande. Undeterred by this interesting fact we enquired of the garmin POI where this cemetery was and would it direct us there. The interesting thing about this particular garmin is that although it can find it's way back from somewhere, actually finding the point of interest in the first place is something altogether different and on this occasion it didn't disappoint. Not having been to Alhaurin el Grande before, we saw most of it before seeing a sign post directing us to the cemetery. The curse of the garmin had stuck again, yes it knew where the place we wished to visit was, it just hadn't a clue how to get us there.

Following the service we were taken on a tour on the cemetery, Spanish cemeteries are not like ours where we tend to bury the dear departed or cremate them and inter or scatter the ashes. The Spanish build wall niches and put the bodies into these. Give them their due they don't then inter and forget as a lot of us do, they take a deal of pride in looking after the grave and visit every Sunday as a family outing, very humbling.

During the following week we decided to have a ride to Ronda, having heard so much about it in previous visits. The morning of the trip arrived bright and sunny we set off and soon found ourselves winding our way up in to the hills on a rather narrow twisting road with lovely views down into the valleys and passing through some typical white Spanish villages, until we arrived in the town of Ronda, the first impressions from the state of the approach did not auger well, but once in the centre, the panoramic views from the cliff top across the plains is stunning, as is the gorge which splits the town in two and joined together by a stone bridge of epic proportions, over this bridge a road on the left winds down into the valley in series of hare-pin bends, that make your eyes water just looking at them never mind driving round them. Had lunch sat at a restaurant table set in the middle of a street, and this time we tried a glass of wine with the tapas, it was again very enjoyable and compared with UK prices reasonably priced.

The journey back to Villafranco was completely uneventful, and after the evening meal enjoyed in the awning, we joined the other campers in the clubhouse for a glass of wine or three, and a natter about what city or area we might like to investigate next, Cordoba seemed like a very interesting place to see, so that is where we are going in the next instalment.