December 30
Bill, Emily, Skylar and I were up early today to drive up to Ronda. Ronda is inland about 1.5 north of Mijas. The drive is interesting, lots of windy roads the hug the hills and sharp turns. We parked in the old town and walked across the bridge over the gorge. The views from here are spectacular. 
We toured the bull ring. Ronda had the very first bull ring in Spain. The bull ring had many exhibits explaining the history of bull fighting. We did NOT watch a bull fight, but there were lots of tourist in the ring mimicking a bull fight. 
We had a bit of a break and a snack and then walked down to Casa del Rey Moro, which is a palace featuring a water mine & hanging gardens. It was €10 each to get in, but NOT worth the €. The palace was closed, the garden was ok and the views from the garden overlooking th valley were amazing.
The water mine was 237 winding spiral stone steps of various sizes down and then back up. It did take you to the bottom of the gorge, but was a schlepp getting down and then back up.
The view from the bottom:
Bill and Skylar did a quick bridge tour/ interpretive Center while Emily and I took a break. Then we headed back to the car, as the boys had seen a spot where you could drive down below the bridge and get a potential view back up. The drive down was interesting. Very narrow, windy (one car wide) cobbled street to get down and cars trying to get back up. But once down the view was amazing. 
After we had a good look around, we had to make a decision about how to get back out. So we took the goat trail less travelled, and hoped it would meet up with a road that would get us out of Ronda. Google Maps was NOT happy about this turn of events. This was also a very narrow road, but we felt it was a better option than the one we took to get to the bottom, where cars were all trying to go up and down in one lane. All was good until we got to a tight hairpin, and met another vehicle. Skylar was driving and did a great job of jockeying to get past. Then we felt we were out of the woods, as we had reached the bottom. The road got a little wider and started to climb. We had one precarious moment where we were going up a fairly steep grade and had to take a sharp right turn, and would have been ok, but there was a woman walking along the side of the road and we lost some momentum taking the turn and we were stopped momentarily teetering on rolling backward, but Skylar expertly got us up and around the corner (although we did leave quite a bit of rubber behind). Both Emily and I were in the back seat, with our hands on the door handles ready to bail. Soon enough the little road took us to a paved road and then to the highway towards home and Google maps was happy again. The remainder of our trip was uneventful.
December 31
Today was a quiet day the kids were planning on a supper on their own, however they ended up back here with us as you needed reservations. We played some cards and had some drinks, but it was an early night. Emily and I went to bed early. We did not make midnight, but did hear the fireworks.
January 1
Today is the last day the kids will be with us. It was a very warm day. We walked down the boardwalk and then met the kids for lunch. We all sat in the sun on the beach for a while today. Early night, as we are up early tomorrow to go to Seville.
January 2
Headed to Seville, 2.5 hours northwest of Mijas. We booked a hotel for the night and will drive back in the morning. The kids are staying the night and then they are off to Portugal.
Seville is a cool city, way different than I remember from many years ago when we were here. We spent the afternoon wandering the Plaza de España. This is the most famous square in Seville. Several buildings were designed for the Ibero-American exhibition of 1929 in and around the Maria-Luisa Park. Amazing plaza. 
We also spent a lot of time in María-Luisa Park, this is a massive park in the middle of the city. Lots of fountains and many different types of trees.
Skylar had read about a tapas bar, that is said to be the oldest bar in Seville, called El Rinconcillo. We got there about 7:30 and there were already people lined up outside. We got a table, no sitting only standing. Very different tapas, more authentic maybe, less touristy? It was really good and was a great pick.
January 3
We all decided we wanted to go to see the Alcazar and gardens, but all the online tickets were sold out, so we took our chances in line. Bill walked over at 8:30 and already there were 100 people in line. Skylar and Emily came and took his spot, while he came back to the hotel to shower, pack and check out. Then we all stood in line to get tickets. Just not sure why this line was soooo slow, but once we got to the front we had our tickets quickly. You had to show passports and they printed tickets with your name on it, but it only took 2 min for all 4 of us to get tickets. Then we had to figure out where to go stand to get in at our appointed time. What a gong show. No signs, just people lined up, but no one really knew what they were lined up for. They only let so many people in every 30 minutes, but there was no way to tell what line to be in, so we waited around until our time, and voila. Inside the Alcazar was amazing tile work and the gardens here are beautiful. Not sure it was worth the marathon line up?
Soon it was time to say goodbye to the kids and start our drive back to Mijas. We were a little worried about getting out of the sardine can, they call a parking garage, but it was easier getting out than it was getting into the garage. A few traffic circles later and we were out on the autopista heading home. To get to Seville Google maps took us on fairly major highways the entire way. On the way back we went through the hills, miles upon miles of hills covered with olive groves, olive oil refineries, wind turbines (none of which was planned). I am not sure how our return trip was so different, but we got home.
January 4
We enjoyed our week with the kids and miss them already. Overcast today, but by the time we were done our walk the sun had decided to come out. It is a good day to catch up on my blog, laundry and reading. The last 10 days or so have been busy. We noticed the boardwalk was far less busy today, maybe weather related or maybe people have just vacated after the holiday season. We shall see in the days to come.
This featured blog entry was written by Basebrown from the blog Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
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