RONDA

---

FRIDAY 28TH JUNE TO MONDAY 1ST JULY
Spain just gets better and better. Each time I think I have found a favourite place, I move on and find another!
I arrived in Ronda, after a train ride from Alora to Malaga to Ronda (via Alora!!!!!). The joys of travel! The track travels past El Chorro, the deep gorge used in the film 'Von Ryan's Express'. For the first time there were not any taxis at the station but there was a town map displayed, so I walked to the hotel. Hotel Molino - another great find! Very modern interior and very helpful staff. Off to the Tourist Information where I put my name down for an evening walking tour at 8pm - but only if there were at least 4 people. I spent the afternoon, armed with a map and the 'Ronda In Focus' guide, walking the 'old town'. The Rio Guadalevin splits Ronda in two and time has cut a 120m deep gorge. On one side, new Ronda with is historical bullring and on the other, ancient Ronda with its monuments of Roman and Moorish past. Both sides are joined by the new bridge (Puente Nuevo) built in 1751. A quick visit to the Tourist Office just before closing let me know that 3 other people had put their names down for the walk.
Dinner at Restaurant Flores was an interesting affair. I made an error in ordering a drink. I thought I'd asked for tinto de verano (summer wine) but instead a half bottle of red was delivered to the table. I was too dumbfounded to speak, so the cork was popped and the wine poured. My meal was scrambled eggs with mushrooms and prawns (yes - it was what I had ordered!) - very nice. With half a hour to the scheduled time for the evening walk I was a touch tipsy, so downed a bottle of 'aqua con gas' and off I went to meet up with the guide and group for the walk. The guide, Alfredo, was born in Ronda and had just returned from holidays, to be called in at the last minute to be the guide as the scheduled one has no voice! The other people were a husband, wife and wife's mother from Argentina! This meant that poor Alfredo had to speak in English and Spanish. Firstly Alfredo took us to the scenic lookouts just behind the Tourist Office. In the adjacent park some boys were riding their skate boards and using a ramp, that evidently one of them had built. Teenage boys are the same all over the world! Well in Spain and Australia at least. Alfredo then lead us through the old town, some of which I had walked earlier in the day, but his explanations provided the necessary background information to make the monuments come to life!
We went into the Arab Baths - a ruin - but a video presentation described the engineering that made the baths possible. On a tower was a waterwheel, powered by a donkey, which raised the water from the stream and then sent it, via a small aqueduct, over arches to the bathing halls. The baths consisted of 3 rooms. In the first hot room was the boiler to heat the water which came from the waterwheel. The system used was inherited from the Romans. The steam was passed under the floor to the central room. This room was lit by sky lights in the form of stars and facing east to west, so that sunlight enters during daylight hours. This room is perfectly preserved and its structure is to be admired. In the third room is a font of cold water and this room was used for relaxing, massages and dressing.
We made our way uphill, passed the Palace of the Salvatierra, with a strange pediment held up by 4 nude Indians (South American Indians), where the boys are laughing and sticking out their tongues, whilst the girls are trying to hide their embarrassment at being naked. Our next stop was Mondragon Palace, now the municipal museum. As it was, by this time, after 10pm and the museum should have closed, we had a very quick look around. This was enough, though, to make me decide to visit again the next day. Our last stop was in front of the cathedral, where Alfredo explained that the façade had been changed to provide a viewing point for the bull fights that were held in the plaza! There was a reception being held in the plaza, and Alfredo discovered that the Bishop was visiting Ronda and drinks were being served. I'm afraid we were not included in the invitation and so our evening ended with drinks and tapas at a small bar close to the plaza. The tour had lasted around 3 hours - good value for 15 euros!
I spent Saturday in the old town again - firstly revisiting the Mondragon Palace. It holds a small museum which displays the change of housing though the ages, metallurgical stones, a mould to make bronze swords and funeral artefacts. The palace itself is very beautiful, consisting of patios, passages, remains of the old fortress and Mudejar towers. I later visited the House of the Moorish King (Palacio del rey Moro) with its gardens and 'secret mine'. The gardens were designed by the French architect Claude Forestier and sit high above the gorge and river. 'La mina' is an underground passage, built at the start of the 14th Century, to allow access from the palace to the river below, so that water was available in times of siege! It is an amazing piece of engineering, as a steep staircase of 200 steps leads down to the river bed, where a well is filled with water from the Rio Guadalevn.
Dinner was a much more sedate affair - watching the social life of the plaza adjacent to the Restaurant Ortega. In particular the dogs who also enjoy socialising!
The next day was Sunday - most of the retail outlets in the main street were closed. Only the souvenir shops and food places were open. The town had an eerie atmosphere. I decided, against my animal rights beliefs, to venture into the bullring. It is the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain, with a diameter of 66m and 5000 seats. The museum, under the seats of the ring, displays etchings, lithographs, drawings and costumes that demonstrate the world of bull fighting and the history of the Real Maestranza, the Royal Corps of the Institute of Knights of Ronda, who own the site. There were no bulls at the site, but in the final courtyard was the pulley system that lifts the slaughtered bull so that it can be butchered to be served in some of the restaurants. A gruesome sight!
Dinner was only cold tapas, as the kitchen was closed!

---