Spain Day 7 - The long road to Rota

We got up early for a quick breakfast at the hotel and then hit the long road to Jerez. RRR was driving and it was a tough one.

The narrow mountainous road to Jerez was scary but beautiful. The low rolling clouds over the limestone mountainside was beyond words. We stopped at one point but I was definitely nervous, especially as our large van had to share the road with fast oncoming vehicles.

One of the towns we drove through was Grazalema. What a gem! We stopped in the center of town where there was an old church and plaza. The town is actually a base for a lot of hikers in the area but we mainly saw groups of older Spanish men chatting in the square and drinking coffee. I would have loved to have seen Grazalema at night with the strings of large light bulbs hanging throughout the plaza.

We abandoned the pit stop in Jerez, realizing that would be a day in itself and the city was way too large for us to navigate, especially without any sherry bodegas picked out. So we continued on and after a lot of aimless driving through Rota we eventually found our hotel, the Hotel Playa de la Luz, right on the beach.

We found our rooms and sat by the pool. We attempted to order some lunch and after letting us wait for a ridiculous amount of time, we finally enjoyed a potato omlette, a ham and cheese sandwich (more grilled cheese than ham and cheese), and a pork fillet sandwich. Either this was really good or I was really hungry!

After lunch, we walked over to the beach and to my delight the water was warm! It was a bit rocky and there was some seaweed but it was so great to be in the ocean! The sun was still really strong even after 5 o'clock and we made our way back to the pool for some relief from the heat.

Mitch and Mr. RRR retired to their rooms for a siesta and RRR, Sharpie and I shared a pitcher of sangria, talked politics and lamented about what would probably be a six hour drive to the Algarve the next morning. This time Sharpie and I stopped in a travel agency located on the resort premises, got directions and bought a map!

Mitch wasn't feeling well and decided to skip dinner (in hindsight, the best move of the evening). We were waiting for the resort's restaurant to open (we were hitting the road at 6am the next day so it was going to be an early night) at 8:30 and eventually realized that it was closed and our only option was the buffet!!! Say it isn't so!!!!

There were a lot of German options at the buffet - spaetzle, German potato salad, etc. and the 'early birds' had already hit the very Americanized version of paella so we were left with the bits on the bottom of the large paella pan. By "Americanized" I mean it had a different grain of rice than we had in Sevilla, peas and baby shrimp without the variety of seafood we've had either! We joked that this was Mr. RRR's favorite meal of the trip - lots of Americanized versions of Spanish fare with unlimited portions!

In all fairness, the grilled pork was pretty decent as were the well-seasoned chicken kabobs with almost a Moroccan taste that were cooked to order on a small grill station. We stopped at the Bar Sherry for some ice cream and a surprisingly nice slice of pumpkin cake. We were laughing because we finally realized there were a lot of seniors and they were at tables in the bar area playing various card games. Now we know why there was a line at the door at 6pm for the buffet to open! Way to be observant!

What was even better was the resort was pretty deserted as we headed to bed around 11:30pm. I certainly needed to rest up for the journey to Portugal since I was going to be the driver!