Day 110 - Monday April 17

Ronda photos
position at 7:30am: N36 40.27 latitude W4 26.92 longitude
(Malaga, Spain)
temperature: 61F, mostly sunny
distance since FLL: 35,186 miles
Clay overslept and missed walking on deck. He woke up around 5:45am, and since we wanted an early start on the day, he just skipped his walk. Debbie was a slow starter again.
We docked before 8am on the starboard side at pier #1 in the port of Malaga. It was about a mile to the port gate, so Regent provided a shuttle between the ship and the port gate. We ate breakfast in LaVeranda which opened at 7am this morning, 30 minutes earlier than usual. A little after 8am, the ship was cleared and we were waiting for the shuttle bus shortly thereafter. About 8:15am, two shuttles arrived among numerous tour buses. We boarded the first shuttle and waited a few minutes for other passengers. When none came after about 10 minutes, the driver left and just took us to the port gate where we arrived about 8:30am. From there, we walked maybe another mile or so to find the Europcar office close to the train station where we got our rental car. It was a red Mini Cooper. Debbie was thrilled as she wanted one of these cars since she saw the movie, Italian Job. It was a good car. Bigger than the sports car we have at home, if you can believe it, much more roomy with a back seat and it had a lot of pep. It was a 5-speed manual transmission with AC. The rental fee for the day was 80 Euros with 350 km allowed.
It was 9:15am and we had our rental car and were off. Then we hit our first snag. Out of the parking lot was a one way street 'going the wrong way'. Well, after 30 minutes of continuous driving on city streets, we lucked upon the road we wanted. So, about 9:45am, we were on our way. We elected to take the scenic route over country roads (about 1 hour 30 minutes and 58 miles instead of the quicker way of 1 hour 20 minutes and 73 miles). During the drive, we hit our second snag, bad road signage :). Plus the route numbers had apparently been changed because the signs did not match the route numbers on the maps. Plus, road construction, in some places only one lane was open, in other places the road was just like a dirt track. The good news is that we had the roads pretty much to ourselves. We only saw a couple dozen other cars on the "scenic route." Note: for future reference when the Lonely Planet guide calls something a scenic route, it is the terrifying one! It took us 2 full hours to get to Ronda. Once we finally lucked upon Ronda, it took a while to find where we should be. Again, there were detours and roads closed and construction. Plus, everyone was here. It was pretty crowded. So, it was after 12 noon when we parked the car in an underground lot about a block from the bull ring and another block from the Puente Nuevo bridge over the gorge. We first checked out the bull ring building. Ronda is the birth place of modern bull fighting, and this ring dates from 1785. Bull fighting has attracted such notables in this century as Orson Welles and Earnest Hemingway to Ronda.
We then ate lunch in a restaurant across the street from the bull ring named Pedro Romero. The Romero family are pretty much the royalty of Spanish bullfighting. The restaurant is full of bullfighting memorabilia and mounted bull heads. Debbie had Ronda sausage cooked in white wine and served along with some fried potatoes. Clay had pork cheeks served with potatoes and mushrooms (a local specialty). Lunch took about an hour and it was just before 2pm when we started a quick walk over the bridges and through the old town. We bought some manchega cheese at a shop called Queso & Jambon Boutique. They had a wall of hams hanging in the front door with hoofs on them! But, we only bought a little wedge of "strong" manchega vs. "soft" manchega. It was very good and kind of salty tasting. We bought a couple of T-shirts and also got a couple of pastries from a shop above the parking garage for our trip back.
At 3:15pm, we headed back to the car and tried to make our way out of Ronda on a different (quicker, better roads but longer) route back to Malaga. Well, we hit another snag trying to find the proper road. A stop at a service station said we should follow A-397 to San Pedro de Alcantara even though all our instructions printed out in the morning from Mapquest said it should be A-376, and the Europcar map showing the only road there being route 376, and the Ronda brochure said it was 376... We finally just quit looking for 376 and just followed A-397 down to San Pedro and there caught a toll road, AP-7 back to Malaga. We hit traffic as we got close to Malaga. And it also took us a little while to locate the proper road we wanted and to find the rental car return which was close, but not at, the pickup location. Even with all this snags, we had the car back by 5:35pm and caught a cab back to the ship. We were in our cabin shortly after 6pm, well before the 6:30 all-aboard.
The ride both to Ronda and from Ronda was very scenic with villages with all white houses tucked into the mountains and lots of green pastures. The mountains and olive groves and oranges and lemons, the rocky terrain and the patchwork of the different fields down below. The gorge, El Tajo, that runs through it makes Ronda dramatically scenic as well. We are glad we made the trip, even with the snags. It was a good day and nice to just be alone in a car again.
We ate in Laveranda this evening, checking out its new Tuscan menu. Debbie had gnocchi and Clay had tortellini. The dishes were OK, but not home runs. We both left about half the servings behind. We skipped dessert because the roads were so winding that we did not try to eat our pastries in the car. So, we brought them back to the cabin and stowed them inside a cabinet in a plastic bag for later after dinner.
Debbie did laundry this evening because we really needed it and she was going to stay up to try to see Africa on the port side of the ship and Gilbraltar on the starboard side. Captain Dag says this should happen around 10:30pm. We also move the clocks back this evening, so tomorrow can be a sleep-in day for Debbie.
We did get out to Deck 12 to see the Rock of Gibraltar lit up on the Med side as we sailed past. Also, some lights on the end of Africa as we came around. These 2 continents are not too far apart. It was very windy out and chilly. Debbie used her big red parka again. We are keeping our fingers crossed for continued smooth sailing now that we are in the Atlantic and on the final stretch home. Farewell to Europe! In 2 days we will be in Funchal. The Farewell Soiree will be held there on 4/19 at 2pm. We are having cocktails and canapes while enjoying a Madeirean folkloric performance. The location is to be the Quinta Magnolia and we expect local specialites and a variety of local Madeira wine.
Winding up here. So, it is sad to be leaving Europe and begin the long hard haul back across open ocean. But, Debbie used some more of our free phone time today. Today is the first day of subscription ticket sales to the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. She checked the lineup online and then had to phone to get our regular seats again. (Hey, it took us years to work our way up to those front row seats!) So, while reality does suck some as it begins to set in that we will leave Voyager after all this time. We also have our real lives to look forward to returning too. Another bittersweet moment in our lives. It seems little in our lives is all sweet or all bitter but it is almost all good anyway.
Ronda photos