Spain - Day Four

NERJA!!! We got to this little town on the Mediterranean Sea late at night and could barely tell it was next to the ocean. We didn't see much of the town but found a pizza shop for dinner. If you want to hear a funny story - ask me about the chef and the chipito!The next morning we were planning on touring around this little city and then heading to the Strait of Gibraltar ... but alas it was not to be. Our exhaustion totally caught up with us. We slept in - VERY LATE! We woke up, looked at the clock and it was 11:30!!!! Can you guess what time checkout was? Yup - Noon. Oops. This bad news quickly turned out to be just fine by us. We walked out of the hotel and were totally caught up in the ambience of this beautiful little town with the white walled, narrow alleyways and the gorgeous views of the Mediterranean. We ate lunch at this beautiful little cafe on the hillside overlooking the sea.Our hotel. All through the trip Scott found amazing deals on hotels - and this one was really AMAZING! It wasn't the fanciest hotel we stayed in but it was right next to the water ... for only 50 euros. Oh, my little deal finder - isn't he the best?We walked down the street out onto a lookout and decided to go down to the beach.This is looking back up at the point we had just been standing on - Scott dipping his feet in the Mediterranean.Most of the beaches are tiny little stretches of sand and then closed off by cliffs but this one had a little tunnel to get through to the next one. We had to be quick though! We ran under the little tunnel and then to the other side before the next wave came in.We loved Nerja! In fact, after walking around all afternoon this beautiful little town Scott was thoroughly convinced that we needed to move here - buy a little house with a view and open up a tourist bicycle shop. At first he was ready to call Nana to pack up the kids and just send them over but I talked him into waiting until after we retire.That afternoon we headed to our next destination - Ronda. We brought our GPS and Scott programmed it with all the Spain information. On the way to Ronda we drove on and interstate-like road except it was a toll road. The first toll we went through we gave them euro coins and then happened to notice they took credit cards. So the next toll booth we came to we handed over the credit card and they swiped it. We happened to notice that there was another lane for people to use their credit cards in a machine. It seemed easier and quicker - so the next toll booth we pulled into that lane and stuck the credit card in the machine. But it didn't come out. IT DIDN'T COME OUT!!! IT WAS STUCK!! The credit card we were using for all our hotels, etc. was stuck in a machine. Scott pressed the intercom button but no one answered. There was no other choice except to get out of the car, cross another lane of traffic and go talk to the toll booth operator. And of course, as luck would have it, he did NOT speak any english. So I sat there trying to explain that the card went in (using one hand shaped like the credit card and inserting it into the other hand like it was the machine) ... but did NOT (shaking the head) come out. Ya - stupid Americans - I know you know that's what he was thinking. So he pantomimed that he would call someone to come fix it. "How long???" (pointing to my wrist like there was a watch on it!) And he holds up his hands like, "I don't know you stupid American - you're the one who got your card stuck, not me!" Anyways - only ten minutes later - a guy comes to fix it. No english either. Fortunately, Scott remembers a few words from the Rosetta Stone software he tried out before we came. OK - the word he remembers is come (co-may) = to eat. So Scott says to the guy, "ma-chine ... co-me ... card". Or, as I like to say when I tell the story, to make it sound a little more funny, "ma-chine-o ... como ... CARDO!" He-he, he hates it when I say it like that but it does sound funnier. Needless to say, the guy looked at as like we were idiots, handed back our card and we were on our way again. Catastrophe avoided. And it only took us about 45 minutes before we could laugh about it.Rick Steve's Spain 2010 (travel guide) warned us that the roads were small ... but this was SMALL!!! I took a picture of a car coming towards us and we were thinking there was no way we were going to both fit! The city of Ronda is well known for a couple of things. The first is the ravine and the massive 18th century bridge. The ravine is enormous - 360 feet down and 200 feet wide! I couldn't even fit the whole bridge, no matter how hard I tried, into one picture. It was breathtaking.Another thing that Ronda is known for is the oldest bullring in Spain.And the parador. It sat right next to the ravine and the bridge. This was the view from our balcony.I downloaded these pictures of the parador ...Although all these things were truly fabulous, the best part was wandering the town that evening. One thing that we thought was so interesting about the culture of Spain was their schedule. They don't start their days very early - in fact, rush hour in Madrid seemed to be around 10am. Then they take a big lunch "siesta" around 2 till about 4 (or later) and then don't even think about eating until 9pm. It was bizarre to see nice restaurants completely deserted or not even open at 7pm when they would have been at their busiest here. We often found ourselves eating at 8pm with the senior crowd - like the Sizzler crowd here but at 8pm instead of 4pm. That night we headed out to try our hand at ordering tapas. Basically for dinner they order several different things for one or two euros each and then move on to the next bar / restaurant and order a few more. Instead of a bar crawl - it's a tapas crawl. The El Grifo was by far the best food we had in all of Spain!The first place we went to was still a little deserted - it was only 8pm after all! We ordered some things and were about to leave when the owner noticed our Rick Steve's travel book on the table. I helped him find Ronda and he went about looking himself up! He was thrilled and went around to the others and showed them too. Of course, being the touristy tourists we were I coerced him into taking a picture with Scott holding the book! "Say QUESO!"We joined in the evening "paseo" and were so fascinated by this custom. It seems after work, people come home and then take their families out for their evening "paseo" - or walk / stroll. The little streets were crowded with families walking up and down the streets. Can you imagine if we had this tradition? How much healthier our country would be and how better off our family relationships might be?We happened upon a pharmacy next to our hotel. The shop was closed but they conveniently placed a condom dispenser outside the door - you know, for emergencies. Or something. Can you tell Scott thought it was hilarious? The first time he really didn't mind me taking his picture!