Ronda

The drive from Gibraltar to Ronda was about 2 1/2 hours inland through winding mountain roads. Little white villages sit in the sides of these cliffs, it's a pretty drive. There are great miradors that I loved to stop for pictures on the way. Note, cars in Europe are much cheaper to rent when they are manual--hence Lowell is the driver in all of these stories.

We made it to Ronda, which is a breathtakingly beautiful city. It sits on both sides of a gorge, connected by several bridges. We stayed at the Hotel Alavela de los Banos which was wonderful, a beautifully adorned in Middle Eastern style exactly like Lonely Planet said. It is at the bottom of the steps to the main town, but very close. We walked around and settled on dinner at Plaza del Socorro, where we had mussels and rabo con vino tinto, or oxtail, one of the signature foods.

We grabbed drinks at an awesome cerviceria after, El Grifo, where they have taps at each little bar table so you can pour your own drinks. There is a counter on it, think it ended up being about €6.50 for 2 liters of beer.

After a wonderful breakfast on the patio of the hotel, we head into town for the biggest picture-taking spree I have been on in a while (which is alot for me). We walked up the garden from Puente Viejo at the top of the steps up to Puente Nuevo (puente = bridge). Worth the €2 to see the bridge museum, great views for more amazing pictures. We walked along the cliffs and then head to the bullfighting ring and museum. Modern bullfighting was born in Ronda so they take great pride in the sport here. Had lunch in town, best gazpacho ever, then head back across the Puente Nuevo to La Ciudad, the old Muslim part of the city. Then off to Granada!

Ronda was our favorite--really nice and small town that was easy to get around, and simply beautiful. Highly recommend it!

Click here for more Ronda pictures on Kodak Gallery

Notes on Ronda:
**Do not drive in the town if you can help it! A mess of one-way and really narrow streets.
**We stayed at Hotel Alavera de los Banos for €95 and totally loved it. Parador de Ronda next to Puente Nuevo has amazing views and looked interesting, though more expensive.
**We got to town in the evening and grabbed dinner on Plaza del Socorro. If we had another night, we though a dinner overlooking the cliffs would be great. The two restaurants we noticed were Restaurante Casa Santa Pola in La Ciudad with an amazing patio on the cliffs and Restaurante Don Miguel which has outside tables right by the bridge (and is also a hotel). Not sure if you'd need to book in advance for an outside seat but I think it would be worth it!