Day 5 - Headin' for the hills; make the most of our last day

Having travelled past the incredible mountains on our way to Gibraltar, and, having looked at them our of the back of our hotel every day, Glenn decided we had to find a way to go up there.

He asked the desk assistant and after quite a bit of arm waving, managed to explain what it was we waanted to do. He was told to turn left at Lidl and get the bus to Mijas outside McDonalds.  Ahh the usefulness of universal chain stores. Problem was, by the time we got the the bus stop, we had forgotten the name of the place we had to go. Glenn tried in vain to explain mountains by waving his arms appropriately at the ticket man who to be fair to Glenn, was less interested in helping us and more in watching the little telly in his box. After saying a few Spanish words that he thought might be right, like 'Sinca', we realised a visit to the nearby info. centre was essential. The lovely, helpful lady inside quickly told us Mijas and we purchased tickets and got on the bus just 10min later. Through the lovely streets we went on another comfy, new bus. Beautiful buildings and flowers with the sun shining down.

It was a winding, steep climb up the low grassland hills and the views were spectacular. Several times we had to stop for other vehicles to slowly pass as the roads were quite thin.

We were in the area called Andalucia and had heard that the 'White villages' were spectacular. We passed through one where a lot of people got off and I was a bit nervous that we were still on the bus, not really knowing where we were going but, hubby wanted to be spontaneous, wanted to go all the way to the top, so we kept climbing.

Eventually we saw the entrance sign to Mijas and the bus pulled in to a wonderful market street of a 'White village'. Up the hill was a new tourist info centre with the most incredible viewing point.

We briefly considered a trip in the burra rickshaw but decided that not only are we too scabby to pay for it, the poor things looked like they would really rather be in a field somewhere.

Then into a church which was inside a natural rock grotto and again had amazing views.

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Up the next hill was the local botanic gardens which was lovely and apart from more views, also had a waterfall.

Through the classically Spanish streets we wandered, the sights and the sounds everything we had expected from Spain and had not quite seen until now. It was so traditional and timeless.

We had lunch at a cafe where a busker playing the piano accordian serenaded us for a few coins and then we strolled back down the hill to find our return bus waiting at the stop. It was a wonderful trip, a spectacular way to spend most of our last day and, see the traditional Spain we had hoped for. Well done Mr B.

Another few hours to pass before our night flight to Birmingham so we bit the bullet and paid to hire the hotel sunbeds for the afternoon. It wasn't as hot as the previous few days but the sun was warm enough to relax and enjoy before heading back to 7degrees and a few more layers of clothes. Our flight departure was delayed by about 35mins due, we were told, to an aggressive passenger who had to removed from the plane by police before we could board. But another smooth flight and although James managed to get us lost again on our way home, we arrived back safe and ready for a rest.