Hello All, Ronda, Spain June 5-6, 2008
Ronda, what a picturesque little town. Ronda is a small town of about 40,000, and sits on the white hills of Southern Spain just above the coast. It does have its tourist day- tripper groups that come up from the coast visiting daily, but when they are gone, all that´s left are a small amount of overnight tourists and the locals. It has a great feeling in the evening and fun to explore the maze of small streets, churches and cliff side views. Rhonda sits on a huge gorge, so is high up above the valley below, and the old town is connected by a gorge-spanning bridge. Along the cliffs are restaurants and residences with a scary view below.
I stayed in the old Moorish quarter, a short walk to the bridge. Ronda is also known for the first bull ring. I walked the bull ring museum and got a glimpse of the history of bull fighting dating back to the middle 1700´s. At that time the fights were in the city plaza! Then they decided to build bull rings, too many people dying or injured besides the bull fighters.
Ernest Hemingway made it down here, and one of the streets was named after Orson Welles.
No bull fights when I was there, but had a nice surprise. I went to a local restaurant for tapas, and inside was a large flat-screen TV with a bull fight live telecast from Madrid. Tapas and bullfight..a great welcome to Southern Spain.
Ronda is captivating, it`s a wonderful place to wonder, mix with the locals and get a flavor of small town Spain.
Well I decided to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I´m sure a Spanish sound track hasn´t been made by now....Wrong...I watched the entire movie in Spanish!! not even English sub titles! haa fitting of course, I´m in Spain. I tried, but alas, I could follow the movie but not the cool Harrison Ford funny lines...Gotta see this on again.
Off to Sevilla, where the "soul" of Spain lies. I´ll see if I can find it
Yours in Travel
Bill
