Our first stop in Ronda was for coffee, churros and dipping chocolate. These churros are delicioso!
Our next stop was supposed to be the Ronda bullring or Plaza de Toros. The walking route I planned took us down the street with all the shops. We could have easily spent the whole day there, but we had a list of things we wanted to see so we only stopped in one store. (Next time the girls and I will have to leave Dad at home.) We also passed the Plaza del Socorro where we snapped a few pics and stepped inside a church.
The bullring is open to tourists, but we didn't go inside. We continued on to the walkways behind called Paseo de Blas Infante where there is a lovely gazebo and beautiful views of the valley. There was a woman playing the harp on the gazebo platform and several people selling handmade items. Haila spotted a man making name pendants, so each of them got a necklace with their name created out of wire. It was amazing to see how quickly he could "write" their names.
There is a walkway that follows the edge of the cliff, so we followed it to Puente Nuevo. It is a magnificent bridge that connects the two parts of Ronda, as you will see below. We crossed the bridge and took a few photos of the gorge.
My map showed a path that would take us down to an excellent spot for taking photos of the bridge from the gorge. We walked down a narrow street to a plaza only to find the walkway blocked off and marked with police tape. Now what?
We could see others had made their way down. There were cars parked below, so there must be a way to get there. I consulted the map. Yes, there is a road called Camino el fondo del Tajo. I now know that means "the road to the bottom of the pit". Maybe I should have looked that up before we started down,... but I didn't. It's an adventure, right?
We wound our way through more narrow streets and found the right road. It's a hike, but it was worth it. The bridge is a sight to behold, and there are beautiful flowering almond trees along the way too.
I knew the walk back up was going to be rough, so we played "the name game". It was an excellent distraction (and brought back memories of running a half-marathon with my bestie Kayla). Before we knew it, we were back at the bridge. We crossed to the other side this time and took some photos of the view from there. Totally different but equally lovely.
Since our detour took quite a long time, we had to rush back toward the bus station and find a place to eat a "quick lunch" so we could catch the 3:30 pm bus back to Alozaina. We ordered some tapas and eggs, thinking that would be fast. Half our food came quickly, and then we waited and waited. Shawn was getting a little nervous and explained to the waiter (who spoke a little English) that we needed to go. That sped things up, and we made it on the bus in the nick of time with full bellies.
I tried to snap some pictures from the bus on our way home, but I kept getting my reflection in the photo. Here is one that isn't terribly bad. The road you see below is the road back home.
I gave you a challenge in my last blog to guess how two photos were related, and only one person attempted an answer. (Heather, you'll get some chips for being the only one to try.) You may not have noticed the bottle of water in the doorway last time, but you can't help but notice them in the photo below. That, and the plastic pinned on the door. This is a house down the block from us that must be a seasonal home. Most of the occupied homes in town just have bottles of water on the door step. But why? Apparently, it's meant to discourage stray cats (and dogs) from urinating on your front door. In other words, it's their way of saying "piss off" to passing animals.
And now you know the rest of the story!
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