Blog

My social life revolves around the bar. Wherever I have lived, the local hostelry has always been the place to meet people and to find out what’s going on; what’s for sale; where are the best places to visit; anything at all, in fact.

From sometime next year, 2025, UK passport holders will require an ETIAS to enter most European countries. Yet another stumbling block for UK travellers in the wake of Brexit.

I’ve been “footloose and fancy-free” for a week, while the missus was away visiting family in Germany. I couldn’t wait to see Rita again last evening, although I’ve enjoyed my “time-out”. She has too! It will have done us both good.

Pablo de Ronda has been “de Rodríguez” since last Wednesday, when his wife jetted off to Germany. ​“Footloose and fancy-free” is the best “translation” Pablo can muster for “de Rodríguez”. Here's what happened.

Filming took place this week in iconic locations in Ronda including the Puente Nuevo, the Fuente de los Ocho Caños, the Duquesa de Parcent square, the Arab Baths, the Alameda del Tajo park, the Ermita and the Plaza de Toros

Many years ago I wrote an article about the “doubles” of famous people who were living in the Serrania de Ronda. One of these "doubles" was the Hollywood actor Robert de Niro, who was living in the barrio.

For a change we decided to spend a day on the coast. We had a few things to buy that you can’t get up here in the mountains and we fancied eating seafood in a chiringuito and spending a bit of time on the beach.

Madita, our grand-daughter, who is visiting us from Germany after finishing her "Mittlere Reife" (16-plus exams), was a true "surfer girl" yesterday on the Costa de la Luz.

One of our German grand-daughters is coming to visit us here in Andalucia. Madita, 16, is travelling on her own from South Germany to spend a holiday with us. We want to treat her to a surfing lesson, so, off we went to Spain's Atlantic coast to do a recce.

For most of the year bars and restaurants in southern Spain rely on their outside space – their terrace – to provide the experience that tourists and locals want. So, what is going on in Montejaque (Málaga)? All the terraces have disappeared.

Large parts of Spain depend on tourism. The costas, for example, and rural tourism also. And what about city tourism? So, why are there currently anti-tourism demonstrations in many parts of the country

It came as a shock when, 10 years ago King Juan Carlos I, abdicated in favour of his son Felipe. "Why?" many asked, but it soon began to emerge that Juan Carlos, king since 1975 when the dictator Franco died, had been a "naughty boy."