yes it looked pretty old! ronda has many lovlry old buildings. hope to go back this year for a couple of nights. a mate of mine runs a bar in estapona and i sometimes nip over to visit him off season(when the flights are cheap and the weather is still pretty good
I used to visit a mate who owned a bar in Benalmedina on the "Del Sol", it always made me laugh that the weather was hot enough for me to wear T-shirt and shorts, yet all the locals were wearing overcoats! God knows how they'd cope with a proper Winter!
Agree, Ronda is special. Perched on its high rocky outcrop, with red kites circling round on the warm air thermals - awesome. Very similar, with a parador slap bang in the most strategic point is Arcos de la Frontera, near Jerez of sherry fame. Arcos is one of many 'pueblos blancos' (whitewashed towns) and there is a circular route linking many of them together. Cue an excuse to upload a photo I took. This is Setenil de las bodegas, where the houses are actually built into the overhanging rock face please log in to view this image
welcome cotw. eagles, decent. i remember quite a few owls there when you were siting outside in bars near the gorge. also loads of bats outside the parador's room balcony. also spent 3 or 4 days staying in Orgiva in the alpijurras, that was really good.
i think we went there for the afternoon cromer, north of ronda from memory. driving a hire car down those roads was rather funny. grazelema was very pretty with all the pine forests.
The whole of Andalucia is pretty special. As someone said earlier in this thread Alhambra is the jewel but Seville is lovely too, as is Granada. Also on the Italian point, Herculaneum is wonderful and is more interesting and better preserved than pompeii to be honest. Sorrento is a great base, Naples - simply land and get the hell out!!
Very true. Not forgetting Cordoba, Almuñécar and Antequera. But Sevilla is something else, I mean, culture, tapas and Cruzcampo beer Not to mention chilled fino or manzanilla sherry When I move there, this will be the street I shall live on! OTBC! please log in to view this image
Just out of interest, how many countries have each of you visited? You can included principalities - such as Monaco, Vatican City - as seperate countries as well as England, Wales, Scotland and Nothern Ireland. Also being in the airport in a country, for example a connecting flight, doesn't count as you're still in international territory.
I'm on 29 (including England and Vatican City) I've got some Kiwi mates who I lived with in London a few years back, and then stayed with in Auckland when I was over there, who had done 60+ countries before they were 30! That's good going that is, they bought a camper van when over here and drove it through Europe for a year, and had been all round the world before that. They both agreed that Bolivia of all places was their favourite - anyone been there? I know others who rave about South America on the whole, it sounds beautiful and just a bit mental in equal measure
My favourite city - behind Norwich of course - is Vancouver. Just a stunning city that has just about everything you need, plus you have the added bonus of Whistler being an hour and a bit away. I also love Banff for its quaintness considering in such a huge country. Lake Louise is the most stunning place I've visited and I urge anyone to go there. I love Canada by the way. Favourite European city is Copenhagen and even though I'm not one for the tourist hotspots, I would recommend going on a boat tour around and through the city. Bruges for the beer and Cala D'Or in Majorca for the relative quietness.
I'm on 17, including England, Monaco and Vatican City. But I have visited many of these countries several times and I'm still young with plenty to see. Hopefully going to Ireland this summer as I have a family tree that takes me there.
15 for me, including several repeat visits to different parts of the same countries. However, I cannot see myself adding to that total in the near future now we have a little un, my missus is not going back to work and money is very tight. Saying that, we are going gramping this Summer in Majorca!!! That could be an interesting experience!
For the Guinness, right! I think it's set where we would go because of the daily history but where do you recommend?
For anyone coming to Spain and visiting Madrid. Take a trip to "Valle De Los Caidos " Valley of the fallen. You enter the valley along a 6k road where you are forbidden to stop. At the end is an underground Baslica built into a mountain which is topped by the largest cross in the world. Built by prisoners of Franco as a monument to the 40,000 buried there following the civil war, or so they thought, it is really a glorification to the General, his tomb is under the high alter. Built by republican prisoners,who had one day knocked off their sentence for every 5 days they worked, the tunnel into the mountain is like walking into St Pauls cathedral complete with a huge dome, interesting that not one of the 40.000 buried there are republicans, those that died whilst working there were taken elsewhere to be buried. Really is worth a visit, I thought it was amazing, my wife though was in tears whist listening to the headphones and when they said that Franco died a long and painful death she said out loud "Good".
[QUOTE Anybody know much about China? Have always fancied a trip there - a rail journey and/or a boat down the Yangtse River look appealing.[/QUOTE] Saints fan looking through your interesting thread on travel. I have lived in Sichuan, China for the past three years and love the lifestyle here (having a Chinese girlfriend adds to the appeal of staying here long term). I travel extensively throughout this country whenever I have the free time (about 4 months each year) and always travel by train. It is so cheap, a sleeper berth of about 1000 miles costs around 37 pounds. I find this a very sociable way to travel and always the inquisitive nature of the Chinese makes even the longest journey an interesting one. I have visited Beijing four times, great to visit although I would not want to live there, the same for Shanghai, where I have been just the one time. Hangzhou is one of my favourite places in China as is Nanjing. Both only three or four hours by train from Shanghai. Yunnan province in the south is well worth a visit as is the resort of Beihai in Guangxi province where many Chinese go during the summer and one of the best beaches in China. Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province has many attractions including the world's leading centre for saving China's national symbol the endangered Panda. Nearby is a giant Buddha carved out of rock on the side of a mountain at Leshan. Both highly recommended if you are in this part of the world. In the extreme north east of China is the city of Harbin. I first came over here in 2007 and lived in this city for one winter. It gets down to around -30C but despite the cold one of this cities highlights is the Ice and Snow festival held every January.
