Day trip to beautiful Ronda, Spain

We had originally planned on taking the motorhomes up to the mountaintop city of Ronda (pop 35,000) but that was last week when they had an oddball snowstorm up there  so we never made it. But, we thought we might be able to head there on our way back through towards the end of February.

Instead, I saw that there is a train that goes from Algeciras to Ronda and the reports said that the train journey itself is quite scenic.

Tunnels, monkeys, and caves...too much to see in Gibraltar!

We went back to Gibraltar again yesterday. We were a little later leaving than we originally planned because we've decided to do a day trip on the train to the mountain town of Ronda, and it's taking some planning.

So while Ruth and I went back to Gibraltar, friends Glen and Steve went into La Linea to find out the best way to catch the train to Ronda, which we will be doing tomorrow morning.

Day trip to Gibraltar

We left Casares fairly early Monday morning, and it wasn't a long drive. However, we were also looking for somewhere to recharge the SIM card for our internet, so we stopped at a big Dia grocery store on the outskirts of La Linea.

La Linea is the town located on the border with Gibraltar.

The Griffon Vultures of Casares, Spain

Yesterday morning we waked into the town of Casares. It's about a kilometer and a half from where we were parked with Louis the motorhome. I recorded our tracking to see just how much we would walk around town.

Including the walk there and back, we did 8.4 kms (5.2 miles) in three hours!

Great exercise, and beautiful views!

Finished up our two nights at the campground. So yesterday morning we got Louis's tanks emptied and filled his fresh water. Also had showers ourselves. And we're taking off with a brand new fully charged battery. So, we're all happy campers!

Friends Glen and Steve headed off down to Gibraltar, and we headed inland to the mountain town of Casares. We'll meet up with them there on Monday.

Beautiful walk on the coast, and a new battery!

Woke up to a beautiful blue sky sunny day here on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.

Our battery was scheduled to show up between 11 and 12, so we knew we had to be back for that. But then we received a phone call from them asking if it was okay of they didn't show up until around 4:00pm. Sure, that was actually better so we didn't have to hang around.

Our first Spanish campground...

Lots to tell you about today. The big news around here of course was that cold weather front that went through southern Spain. They had predicted it well in advance, and the forecasts actually turned out to be fairly accurate. It's the reason we headed down to the coast earlier than we originally planned.

We heard the rain on the roof Wednesday night, and when we woke up Thursday morning there was snow in the hills behind us!

Not warm enough!

We specifically came down to the coast because of a cold front coming through southern Spain. Well it's cold down on the coast too, but not as cold as it is where we were inland!

The huge empty lot where we are parked for two nights becomes a temporary market on Wednesdays. We heard them getting set up before we even got out of bed!

Spain isn't Canada

Of course every country is unique.  Food, culture, scenery, prices, and languages. There’s something so special about each one.

One thing I find interesting about Spain is how old it is. Of course, every country on earth is old, but the culture is so old. Canada still retains a taste of the wild, of being a new country brought out of timber and mountains by settlers.

Back at the coast to meet up with good friends!

It's certainly warmer down here at the coast, but we feel like we're not really in Spain any more! At this time of year there are more British people here than Spanish people! And most of the signage at the local businesses is in English.

So yesterday we drove down from the hills to the coast. We weren't originally planning on coming down here yet, but there's a cold front coming through and even here at the coast it's going to be a chilly high of 10C (50F) and overcast.

We cant get enough of this town. I think we could live there!

The reason we hung around another day at Doña Mencía was because we had seen a marked trail that went up into the park behind the village of Zuheros.

So Ruth packed us a lunch, and we drove Louis over to the trailhead at the base of the town.

5 mile hike to a 9th century castle

Before we left Ubeda, there was one thing we wanted to do. And that was to visit the Sinagoga Del Agua. (Synagogue of the Water).

We like history and this one included some Jewish history, with quite a fascinating story. Back in 2007, a property developer had bought a series of buildings in the historic center of Ubeda, and was going to develop them into apartments, shops, and parking.

A beautiful day exploring Ubeda, Spain.

Yesterday morning's project was to hook up our new inverter.

Louis isn't really really set up for boondocking (wild camping) the way we like to. They have a single marine style deep cycle 12v battery for the house, and of course a normal vehicle battery for the engine.

First time emptying the tanks...

Everybody knows that the least fun part of the motorhome lifestyle is emptying the holding tanks. Well over here in Europe, it's even less fun! First of all, no campgrounds or aires (we explained yesterday what an aire is) have sewer hookups. And the motorhomes all have cassette style of toilets. So there is no "black" holding tank. Simply a small cassette that removes from the bottom of the toilet via an outside compartment.

We do have a "grey" water holding tank. It's actually larger than I expected, and it's located under the frame at the rear of the motorhome.

Free overnight motorhome parking...what a great concept!

There is a great system of free motorhome parking in Europe. The "Aire" system began in France, and has slowly expanded throughout Europe, and even into the UK.

The word "aire" means area in French. These free motorhome stopovers are called "Aire de Service Camping Cars" in France. Now, they are commonly called "Aires", even though there are different words for them in Germany, and Italy for example.