August 30, Ronda

After a nice little continental breakfast at our hotel, we got back in the rental car and headed into Ronda. Not really knowing where to park, we found a garage and pulled in. At one of our lunches, a Canadian couple had given us a piece of paper for what they said was a great walking tour of Ronda, but unfortunately it was accidentally left at the hotel. We had written down where it started so tried to head toward that hotel thinking that they would have another copy of it.

The very first street we headed down toward the middle of town was pedestrian only with shops and cafes lining both sides and what seemed like row after row of colorful balloons connecting the buildings overhead which were actually some type of paper ball. It was full of locals out walking around or having breakfast and we passed a very good looking churros and chocolate café.

Off that street we came to the older part of town that was actually the newer part of the old town. The oldest part was the Moorish quarter. There was one main street for cars, a few one way streets, but the majority were pedestrian walkways with lots of little restaurants and shops spotted all over. Ronda used to be one of the hill downs with the same white building and appearance but has become much more touristy and grown quite a bit because of that.

Ronda is most famous for the views of its spectacular gorges, their bridge over the gorge built in the 1700s at a height of about 100 meters, and its bull ring that was the location of the start of modern bull fighting.

We found the hotel but they didn’t have the tour we were looking for so we did a self-tour from the guidebook. At this point we were in the older Moorish quarter and started out at the church. From the outside it didn’t seem that large or grand but was very impressive once we got inside. It had three very distinct sections both in architecture and decoration starting with Moorish, then gothic followed by renaissance.

After that we followed our maps and directions from locals to the palace that is also their museum. The museum part wasn’t as interesting to me because it was talking about Roman ruins and some things a little bit more modern that I already know quite a bit about, but all the rooms we could wander through, the small courtyard, gardens and magnificent views from the top of a cliff were very enjoyable.

Lunchtime rolled around and we decided to go for one of the restaurants recommended by the Rick Steves guidebook at a place with one of the best views sitting right over the gorge. It will probably be the fanciest meal that I have during my whole time here with very nice presentation delicious food. I ordered a pigeon salad that was cooked pigeon meat on some white beans, Mom got an ox tail stew, and Dad ordered the pork special of the day.

Post lunch we toured the bull ring, Plaza de Torras de Ronda, and bull ring museum they have which was similar to the one we saw in Sevilla but this one is said to be the most picturesque. Both are still used, but not in August, and they have a large celebration coming up with some of the best bull fighters in the first few days of September.

In the very hot day we decided to take a short siesta back at the hotel and use the pool once again. After that we headed back into Ronda to take the path down to get to a good view of the bridge for pictures. We were all sort of grumpy and tired so we went to the first restaurant that looked like it might be good which also had a good view of the bridge and town lit up at night, and shared a paella.