Spain 2006: The October Job

These photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Malaga - Ronda Journey

The train journey from Malaga to Ronda involves a change at Bobadilla, a pretty small place with a nice cake shop (they were even nice enough to suggest a cake I should try - it turned out to be very tasty). I took these through the window of the train, so some of them are kinda sucky. I deleted even more really sucky ones.

The landscape just a little way out of Malaga	Rocky hills	I'd not fancy walking that path
Very red field	I'm not sure what created the orange patches...but it's pretty	NASA's secret Mars facility?
Probably just a concrete factory. :-)	The center of Bobadilla, where I changed train	Bobadilla church

In Ronda

Ronda is the most beautiful place I have been to in Spain so far. Situated on the top of two plateaus, separated by a gorge spanned by the impressive New Bridge (built over 200 years ago!) and with mountain views, it was always going to be a winner with me. Ronda is certainly worth the trip from Malaga or Funengirola - I had about five hours there and the town center is less than ten minutes walk from the station (hint: take the road opposite the station entrance and take a right after a couple of minutes). The new bridge is only 10 or 15 minutes further from that, so it's very easy to see the highlights in a short time. Also, Ronda has the oldest bull ring in Spain.

Outside the Ronda bull ring	Inside the Ronda bull ring	Looking over the bull pens
More of the training area	Looking through an arch to the ring	The seating area
The ring	Mountain view from the ring	The ring from another angle
On the upper level	Mountains and hills by Ronda...	...and another one.
Road winding down into the valley	A nice landscape	In a park by the bull ring
Looking towards the gorge	The Parador hotel	Band stand with a view
Looking down the gorge...	...and again.	Looking into the gorge
Fields and mountains	One of the many churches	A fountain in a nice square
Tree hides a church	Another church	Houses in the valley
Looking into the valley again	Yes, that really does mean the Museum of Torture and Death	Another look over the mountains
The rocks Ronda is perched upon	Yet another church...	...and another!
The Parador Hotel	The gorge again	Landscape of the same shot
Parador and the New Bridge	A landscape of the same thing	Houses sat on the edge
Another church in the center of Ronda	The main commercial area

Ronda - Malaga Journey

A few photos from the journey home from Ronda, again taken through the train window, so excuse the suckfulness.

Countryside near Ronda	Hill of trees	Some of the wonderful sweeping landscape...
...and a bit more.	Another very red field	The sun strikes some rocks
Fields and hills...	...some more of 'em.

Fuengirola Fair

I was fortunate enough to be in Fuengirola for their aunual fair. This involves lots of girls dressing up in pretty, and I guess also traditional, dresses, a few parades and a big fair (with rides for kids at the front, and loads of places for drinking for the adults further back). I went along one afternoon to check it out, and even dared to go on one of the roller coasters!

A rollercoaster that I went on	Another one of the 'coaster	Looking down one of the main streets of the fair
Girls in traditional dress	A scary swing boat - I didn't try this!	People hanging out at the fiar
More girls in pretty dresses

Sevilla

Unlike Ronda, Sevilla is not easily explorable in a little bit of time, and worse the train times (well, the longer journey really) meant that I had closer to four hours there. Thus it ain't such a good day trip. The train station is 45 minutes walk from the nice old town (though if you want to shop there's plenty for you near the station). Part of the beauty of the old town is that you can wander it's streets endlessly and lose yourself. However, I know that I'll never find the nice tapas restaurant I ate at again in the maze, and it stops being so beautiful when your train leaves soon and you can't find your way out of it! In the end I took a taxi. And yes, I had a map and my map skills got me from the train station to the old town just fine. But once you're inside it, you're done for!

A big Sevilla sign, just so you know you got of the train at the right place	The cathedral	The cathedral again
The square by the cathedral	Other buildings in the square	Horses by one side of the cathedral
The final cathedral shot. After this, I never found it again!	A strange building	One of the river bridges
Looking along the river	The nice area by the river	The path by the river
Looking down the river from a bridge	Other folks looking at the river	Weird fountain-statue thingy
Every geek knows what this is!

Benalmadena Cable Car

Mum came to visit for the last few days I was in Spain. I took her up the cable car at Benalmadena. It was a pretty cloudy day, but they kept out of the way often enough to allow you to get a nice view still. And sometimes, the clouds make for nice photos anyway. For photos from a nicer day, see the photos from the 2005 trip to Spain.

Looking through the clouds inland	Another inland shot	Clouds
Looking down to the town, covered in cloud	Sea, cloud and sky	Down the coast towards Fuengirola