Andalucia in Spring
Had a short 7 day winter break in Andalucia, flying into Malaga on easyJet and heading straight out to Ronda, a beautiful hill town atop a gorge, with stunning views across a valley. Stayed in a wonderful hotel En Frente Arte situated in a restored mansion, with great communial facilities - games room, tropical hot house, free bar and breakfast / lunch buffet, not bad for 90 euros a night.
Went hiking into the valley and across to the far side, where acres of olive trees were growing. The orange trees in Ronda were still fully laiden, though the fruit within reach had gone. Spent 3 days in Ronda hiking around the valley in glorious sunshine. Live for the Outdoors have an interesting post about Ronda including links to the Ronda Tourist Information Site with 10 walks listed.
From Ronda, caught a train to Granada, and immediately went around the Alhambra, glorious as ever. Afterwards went up into the Albaicin, the hill on the otherside of the Alhambra, and up further through the gypsy caves of Sacromonte, which gave glorious views of the Alhambra with the snow capped Sierra Nevada behind. Spent a night in Granada, then left the following morning for Nerja.
Spent the last two days in Nerja, 40 miles east of Malaga. A relaxed resort that seems to have avoided the worst of the high rise developments along the Costa del Sol, it had some great walks in the hills immediately above it.
The first walk we did was from the Nerja Caves inland to the Fuente del Esparto (Esparto Fountain) along dirt tracks, through light woodland, gently climbing up. We saw 4 deer quite close, grazingbefore they wandered off into the woods.
