April 2024: As part of a 3-week baby bonding family vacation with our 9-month-old daughter, we visited Gibraltar and Andalucia, Spain, easily one of Spain’s finest regions for 6 days to experience the rich blend of Spanish, Moorish and Gypsy culture that the region is known for. To more easily explore the region, we hired a car and self-drove. This was our itinerary during the trip:
Day 1:
Depart Ryan Air via Marrakesh to Malaga
1.5 hours’ drive to Grenada in rental car
Grenada cave hotel
Day 2:
Visit Alhambra
Gypsy cave flamenco show at night
2md night Granada cave hotel
Day 3:
Drive to Ronda 1.5 hours
Visit Castillo de Turon
Stay in Ronda in Hotel Don Miguel overlooking old bridge
Day 4:
Gibraltar 1 hour drive,
Gibraltar Nature Reserve
Gibraltar Cable Car
O’Hara’s Battery
The World War II Tunnels
Stay in hotel near Gibraltar in Spain
Day 5:
Drive to Arcos de la Frontera 1.5-hour drive
Sleep in old town
Day 6:
Drive to Seville and depart to Sardinia via Ryan Air, 1.5-hour drive
A map of our route in Andalucia
A Gypsy Cave Hotel in Grenada
We started our trip by driving from Malaga to Grenada arriving in the evening in our rental car. We had a hell of a time searching for our accommodation, a gypsy cave in Sacromonte hill that had been converted into a guesthouse. It was a challenge to find this location in the Grenada old town in the area of the Alhambra fortress. The streets were unbearably narrow, and our SUV nearly scratched the surface of the alley walls or parked vehicles in single lane roads on numerous occasions. To top it off, our GPS was easily confused in the old town streets with the various one-way streets and would often lead us to a dead end or an alley where we were too big if to fit. After hours of trying to find our guesthouse and messaging my contact, we finally found a place to unload our luggage, but we still had to walk up hill 30 minutes with all of our luggage and then I had to find a place to park the vehicle for the night on the public street. Fortunately, the guesthouse manager was able to use the small vehicle of the guesthouse’s owner, a friendly Gypsy woman who had a common love of traveling the world. We were able to haul our luggage to the cave guesthouse and then I had a chance to practice my parallel parking skills. Almost a mile away, I parked my SUV on a steep hill with nearly zero margin of error in between other vehicles and after a few attempts to I was able to squeeze the car in and I vowed to not drive again for the two nights were staying in Grenada so that I didn’t have to repeat this very stressful night of driving.
Once the stress of checking in and parking our car was behind us, we were able to soak in some of our surroundings. The Sacromonte hill was a magical place at night under a full moon. Across the canyon on the other side was the grand illuminated castle walls of the Alhambra. The Sacromonte Hill was best explored on foot since the roads were narrow and steep and we walked around looking for food, but it was too late, and all restaurants were closes. Most of the restaurants and homes were carved out of the mountain into caves. Some were guesthouses and renovated to look nice while others were shabby where normal people lived and had clothes lines with clothes hung out to dry. The only life was the rhythm of tap dancing, and guitars and gypsy flamenco singers. I came across a couple private gatherings of friends in their courtyards playing flamenco guitar and singing melancholic tunes that gave me goosebumps. I have always loved flamenco guitar and wish I could have learned how to play it.
Our cave guesthouse
We loved our guesthouse, a cool two-bedroom place tucked away inside the cave with white painted walls. It likely was lived in at one time by a gypsy family for generations like many of the cave guesthouses in the area but now with the huge influx of tourism, converted to a guesthouse for tourists. This was one of the most unique places I have stayed in our travels.
Indie in our bed at Our cave guesthouse
Our cave guesthouse
Happy memories in our cave guesthouse
Mixed in with the tourist guesthouses were other cave homes where gypsy families lived and many of them were not renovated to appear as fancy as the tourist ones. In much of Europe areas where gypsies live tend to have higher incidents of crime but other than a few innocuous encounters with a few intoxicated gypsy men, we never had any issues.
A cave home
Alhambra Moorish Castle
of course, when in Grenada, a visit to the 11th century Moorish Alhambra palace is in order. The Alhambra sits imposing overlooking the city of Grenada on a hilltop and but within its gates is sheer opulence and extravagance in one of the best-preserved Islamic era palaces in Europe. The Alhambra was built by the Islamic Moors and used as a palace for their kings during their reign of 700 years in medieval Spain. After the Moors were defeated by the Spanish, the palace was the home of King Ferdinand and Isabele of Spain. Explorer, Christopher Colombus was commissioned by Ferdinand and Isabele at the Alhambra before he set off to the Americas from Grenada. To reach the Alhambra we walked from our cave guesthouse, and I thought one of the best parts of the Alhambra was the walk up the hill passed the old walls, where there were few tourists and you had the lonelier parts of the castle’s ramparts, a flowing creek and waterfalls to yourself.
We had to purchase tickets to visit the Alhambra well in advance for a set time slot because of the crowds and although we enjoyed our visit the sheer number of tourists visiting kind of made it hard to soak in the magnitude of history that the place represents.
Alhambra Palace
Me carrying Indie to the Alhambra Palace
Family Portrait at the Alhambra Palace
Alhambra Palace
Alhambra Palace
Alhambra Palace
Alhambra Palace
Alhambra Palace
Alhambra Palace
Gypsy Cave Flamenco Show
Probably even more important when in Grenada than visiting the Alhambra is seeing a gypsy cave flamenco show. We went to one near our cave stay and felt a little underdressed because so many Spanish visitors and the performers were wearing fancy clothes. Before the show we sat in the patio drinking red wine, sangria and eating a few tapas before entering. The show was in a small cave with the spectators lined up in chairs against the walls while the dancers, sang, tap danced and played guitar to Gypsy songs full of passion that have been passed down through the generations. It was amazing, and Indie loved it, but I had to remove her after ten minutes because it was too loud for her little baby ears.
Indie and me at the cave gypsy show
Cave Flamenco show
Paula, Cienne and Indie watching the Cave Flamenco show
Exploring the Back Roads
After Ronda, I had a plan to drive to Ronda via back roads and visit all kinds of interesting off the beaten path places like abandoned castles, caves, mountains and whatever we came across but traveling with a baby is slow and we got a late start so we only had time to visit a ruined castle- Castillo de Turon, a hilltop Moorish castle that was defeated by Castellan soldiers in the 1400s. This little castle would end up being one of our favorite experiences in Spain. It was nowhere to be found on the tourist trail and to get there we drove down winding dirt roads where we had to ask farmers for help with directions. We almost got stuck in a river we had to cross and at one point we were swallowed by an enormous herd of goats being led by a shepherd. The ruined castle has been forgotten by time and civilization long ago and only a few walls remain standing sentry over a hilltop with sweeping views of the rolling green hills and mountains. It was Spring and the weather was great and flowers in full bloom. Pula and i hiked up to the castle and we had the whole place to ourselves. These are the types of adventures that I love the most when traveling.
Castillo de Turon
Castillo de Turon
The World’s Most Incredible Bridge-Ronda
We loved Ronda. Our hotel was close to street cafes and tapas bars. But the real attraction is the huge old bridge. In all of my travels I have never seen a bridge more impressive than the Puente nuevo bridge, a 390′ tall stone bridge that towers over a lush river canyon that divides the medieval town of Ronda. The bridge was completed in 1793 and is simply a marvel of construction and I could not get enough of it, so I decided to book us a hotel room with a balcony overlooking the bridge and canyon before. Despite the beauty of the bridge, there was some dark history to it too. A section of the bridge was used as a prison during the Spanish revolution in the 50’s when the dictator Franco ruled Spain and heavy fighting occurred in Ronda leaving thousands of dead. Political prisoners were tortured in the prison and even executed by being thrown from the top of the bridge into the canyon. Nowadays the prison is a museum. I wanted to visit but the museum was closed during our visit. I also hoped to climb the via ferrate-a series of cables down the cliffside to the bottom of the canyon beneath the bridge, but I needed a few more climbers to join me for a rock-climbing guide with equipment to accept me.
Paula in the balcony of our hotel overlooking the puente nuevo bridge
We stayed at Hotel Don Miguel because it was the cheapest hotel that had a room with a patio overlooking the canyon with a great view of the old bridge. Since there was only one room with a patio, I wanted to book it. The problem was that it only allowed a max of two adults since there was just one bed. Since I valued the view over comfort, I decided to book the room even though we were 3 adults and one baby and sleep on the floor and let the others have the bed. The problem was we needed to sneak passed the check in desk and at check in it became very apparent to me right away that they were strict and would not allow this, and they wanted the passports for all guests in our room. I checked us in, and I had Paula’s mom blend in with a group of Chinese tourists during our check in and she easily got through un-noticed. Sleeping on the floor wasn’t comfortable but Ican sleep anywhere and sitting on the balcony at night in a chair sipping red wine looking at the magnificent bridge was well worth the sacrifice of sleeping on a bed.
Puente Nuevo
Puente Nuevo
The British Territory of Gibraltar
At the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the mediterranean where the narrowest inlet of land separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean exists is Gibraltar, a very strategic territory of the United Kingdom that wars have been fought over and coming here is a highlight of traveling to the south of Spain for its majestic mountain and significance to history. From Ronda we drove through a spectacular mountain range to get to the coast, and we drove along a main highway on the coast until the rock of Gibraltar came into sight. I booked a hotel just across the border of Gibraltar in La Linea de Concepcion, still in Spain and within walking distance of the border. We had an incredible view from our balcony of the of the rock of Gibraltar and of airplanes coming and going from its airport. The border crossing was smooth and at the border we booked a private driver to take us to all of the main attractions, St Michaels Cave, World War II tunnels, the view from the top of the rock and of course to see the wild macaque monkeys that rule the mountain.
Rock of Gibraltar
Gibraltar Macaque
A group of hundreds of wild macaques are the only monkeys to live in Europe and they have lived in Gibraltar for hundreds of years somehow coming over from Morocco with an odd sailor or pirate ship. Now they run amok and survive of off foliage they eat from plants in the nature reserve on Gibraltar rock and from food they steal from tourists. These monkeys have a bad reputation, deservedly so. Before the trip I had heard many stories of tourists being attacked by them and my main concern was Indie, but we didn’t have any real issues. We had one monkey jump on our car and try to break in through the window but on the most part they ignored us and were lazily sleeping in the sun oblivious to us. These were Indie’s 2nd species of monkey that she has seen in her life after the vervet monkeys in Nevis Island. She stared at them but didn’t seem too impressed. Our favorite part of Gibraltar was the touristy St Michaels Cave, with its sound and light show that illuminated the awesome stalactites and stalagmites. Normally this kind of thing doesn’t impress me but watching how mesmerized Indie was by it all really was amazing.
St Michaels Cave-Indie and Paula and Indie mesmerized by the cave
Wild macaque in a tourist shop right before being chased away by a cashier
Paula and Indie with new friend
At the top, we hiked along the ridge of the Gibraltar Rock and had some incredible views. I continued on to the very top along the jagged rocks and thorn bushes. The view of the island and the continents of Africa and Europe was simply mind blowing.
View from top of the island that I had to hike to
Years of wars to wrest the island from the UK required the British to build dozens of deep defense tunnels within the mountain. Some of the tunnels are open to explore and we hiked into them where it was not only fun to learn about the history of the island’s defense, but it was refreshingly cool inside.
Paula and Indie in a WWII tunnel
On our way back to the border of Gibraltar and Spain, where we had our passports processed, we had to walk across Gibraltar’s international airport runway. When there are no planes taking off or landing the runway is used for pedestrians crossing from the main city of Gibraltar to the border. Police close off the pedestrian walkway when planes are inbound or about to takeoff. Indie lost one of her shoes on the runway as we walked across to Spain.
Pedestrian walkway across the Ginraltar airport runway
Hilltop Walled Mideivel Town of Arco de la Frontera
Our last night in Spain was spent in a family run guesthouse in the medieval village of Arco de La Frontera, which at one time existed at the edge of the Moorish domain over Spain. This village that was over a thousand years old sat on top of a cliff overlooking the agricultural lands below. The old narrow cobblestoned streets and stone houses and churches steeped in history hugged the top of these cliffs. We stayed in an old renovated and guesthouse rich in atmosphere in the old town and we ditched our car at a parking lot below to avoid the hassle of driving in the narrow streets of the old town and trying to find parking. The guesthouse owner picked us up.
View of the hilltop town
We loved Arco de la Frontera and decided it was our favorite place to stay in southern Spain because it was quiet and felt less touristy while still having the old-world charm of southern Spain.
Paula in one of the old town plazas
On the rooftop above our guesthouse, we enjoyed relaxing and looking out over the rooftops of the old town at the bell towers of the ancient churches and it was wonderful to sit back here and watch the sunset to the sounds of church bels ringing and pigeons flocking about the bell towers.
View of the hilltop town fromour rooftop terrace
Paula at our rooftop terrace
The churches were beautiful, old and macabre. There were many scenes of fire and brimstone and mummified corpses of saints on display inside from medieval times that were brought from the catacombs of Rome.
One of the old churches
One of the old churches
Mideivel era Mummified saint on display in the church
A skull of a saint next to a porcelin cherub
Old wooden scenes of hell and brimstone
Old wooden scenes of hell and brimstone
One of the old churches
Paula and Indie in the luxurious church interior
A medieval tapestry in one of the churches
We sadly only had one night in Arco de la Frontera and the next morning we had to depart early for a 1.5-hour drive to Seville for our flight to Sardinia via Ryan Air.