In Seville we rented a car to do the next two legs of the trip. It was a Fiat 500X, a sporty little four door car with 6 speed manual transmission. I got to be the driver, Veronica navigated. I am not sure who had the harder job. Spanish highways were easy driving, but getting through the maze of narrow, one-way streets in the city was stressful. I had trouble figuring out how to get the car started in the rental car lot. When we called the attendant over, it became clear that it would be easy to start the car if only we had got into the right one (next to the one we were in). After stopping for lunch at a roadside tavern, where we had the Spanish version of a bacon cheeseburger with fries (but much nicer), I realized I could not get the car in reverse to back out of the parking spot. I toyed briefly with the thought of pushing the car out of the spot and continuing forward, but then I realized that reverse gear can come in handy in many situations. Veronica used Google translate for a phrase to ask for help and a troop of men from the restaurant came out. It turns out there is a Fiat "trick" which involves lifting a catch under the knob of the gear stick to be able to get into reverse, which they all knew right away. I thanked them all and they laughed at me, good-naturedly. The next real car adventure was finding a place to park in Ronda, but we got lucky.
Ronda sits on the top of an escarpment that has a great view over the countryside. There is a park where you can enjoy the view and we had a picnic supper there. There is a rather picturesque bridge that joins the two parts of the town over a gap in the ridge.
The next day we visited the Cueva de la Pileta (the Pool Cave) where we had a tour of a huge cave that had been used by prehistoric tribes who had made cave drawings, still intact. We could not take pictures in the cave, but here is one I found online. This is some kind of sea fish, which would have been found only quite a distance from the cave. It is hard to imagine getting around in this huge cave without modern lighting. If your torch went out, you would be screwed deep inside the cavern.
We then drove on to Granada, where we managed to navigate through the city and return Fiat. I have to say I was happy to be able to get into a taxi at that point and leave the driver to it. We had really started to feel better, enough that I could enjoy a gintonic. At best, getting one is a great show -- they bring out the big glass of ice and the bottle of gin, and pour in a rather random amount (somewhere between a double and a triple) and then you add your own tonic. Look at that beauty, and Veronica is quite attractive as well.
The main tourist attraction in Granada is the Real Alcazar, the last Moorish fortress to fall to Christian conquest. We had a tour (again, the only way we could get tickets but another interesting guide) that included the military castle and some of the palaces. More great moorish design, more reasons you would rather have a Moorish regime than a Christian one. Later that evening we took the bus up to the hill area Albaicin, which overlooks the Real Alcazar. More great views, an example in the last picture below.
Taking the bus up the hill was an adventure in itself. It was one of those small busses but even so as it followed the mostly one way streets of the old city, there were places that had less than 5cm clearance on both sides. I was glad again not to be driving myself.
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