Sevilla made for an awfully late night, so we decided to have an easier itinerary the next day. We picked a winding road through the mountains north to Ronda. It happened to be a route known for passing many, many pueblos blancos, and the weather couldn’t have been more cooperative.
Once again, I would like to shout out to our little car in all its adorableness.
Here’s one of the villages nestled on a hill.
Along the route are little signs like this (they’re porcelain!) signs describing the route, area features, and later (you’ll see) even a map.
And you know I loved these signs, describing the local birds. We didn’t see a whole lot of them, though. There was one possible Egyptian Vulture sighting on the way to Cordoba, but for the most part we just saw little sparrows and other fellows. Oh wait! I did see a magpie at Alhambra.
Yeah… So every time we came over a hill and saw another view, we got out and took a photo. The trip took a very, very long time.
There’s Gibraltar again in the distance.
This is an olive grove. We saw those everywhere, particular in the Cordoba area.
At last we arrived in Ronda. Here’s the cathedral in the town square.
Man oh man, we were hungry! Yen and his sister decided to get tapas, but I was after something more substantial. I had a local chicken soup followed but an unbelievably terrific plate of pasta bolognese.
Fun fact! Ronda is where bullfighting was invented. There’s a big… Um. What are bullfighting buildings called? Anyway, it has one of those, and also a museum of bullfighting. We didn’t go in, as we were focused on staying outside. You’ll soon see why.
Ta da! Ronda has an old part and a new part. The new part couldn’t possibly exist because of this giant freakin’ chasm that borders the old town. Once they constructed this bridge in the 18th century, the people were able to expand (and, presumably, have some terrific spitting contests).
A porcelain version of Ronda.
I’m not sure it’s coming through in these photos, but we really loved our day here. It is a sleepy, friendly little town. We loved our lunch, we loved the view. We had a small walk down along the side of the hill to get a better view. We roamed the streets. It was all such a lazy afternoon, and we immediately wished we had another day of it.
The sun finally set and we had to move on. We drove back home and prepared for our next day.
