I first heard about the town of ronda from Jean, a British/Spanish personal trainer I had years ago who was fantastic until she stopped doing personal training and I had to exercise myself…. I remember googling the place about 15 years ago now and its been on my imaginary bucket list ever since. So once I decided I was goin g to visit Portugal and then looked at southern Spain next ronda and my previous destination Gibraltar were the two main factors for me visiting southern Spain.
On arrival things weren’t all fairytale like as I had imagined in my mind. My hotel room wasn’t ready, the town was overrun with tour groups and when my room was ready I somehow had booked a single bed in a tiny room. I’m not sure what my past self was thinking. The location was great though and the lady running it was fantastic. She even packed my breakfast to go on.my last day as I was leaving before 8am breakfast time. Lter though the tour groups left and Ronda in the evening and the morning was an entirely magical place that lived up to my expectations.
The town of Ronda has been around for centuries, the new bridge which is the highlight of the town dates back to the late 1700’s. Before the new bridge was built an older bridge sits further along the gorge and required going down and up which is never that convenient. The town still has a lot of old moor architecture around including the old arab baths and quite a few muslim arches and decoration.
Then there is also the bullring, which is now a museum. Bullfighting is on the decline because its cruel to the animals. But it still happens every September in Spain. The museum is interesting though. A lot of the museums in the town overlap on the history of course, perhaps the best museum went back into the stone ages and even geological history. But of course the drawcard is the bridge and beuatiful narrow streets as well as being a good leg workout!