ISSUE 34: Ronda, Spain 2017

Day 23 continued:

We made our 2 hour (roughly) drive through the Spanish country side toward the mountainside town of Ronda, home to the Puente Nuevo Bridge and free-flowing wine, or so we thought.

The drive was fairly simple. We passed over bodies of water, through rolling hills, and made one emergency bathroom stop for my sister, where I picked up a pack of Pringles to munch on along the way.  We got there fairly quickly, and navigated our way through the town towards the small main road which thankfully was also home to a parking garage.

With our car parked, we headed out on another adventure. We began our walk toward the beautiful bridge, but were distracted by the bull fighting arena, that was quite petite in size. We don't have an interest in bull fighting, so a tour was simply out of the question, but it was fun to walk around the exterior, and snap pictures of the statues & each other. From here we stopped at a very small park lined with sweet trees adorned in pastel pink flowers where we were able to take in the spectacular views of the town below the cliff. Despite the little bit of haze in the air, we could see for miles. It was idyllic!

We headed back toward the main road, and made our way onto the tourist filled bridge. We grabbed a couple photos of the outlying views, and then followed the road toward the trail that headed down the cliff. From here we were able to grab a bunch of gorgeous photos of Puente Nuevo. It was a fairly steep climb down, and I was dreading the inevitable drudge up. However, we took our time wandering the cliff side with the other tourists. We climbed up on boulders and walls, and down small pathways. It was very enjoyable, and the cool clear weather made it quite tolerable.

As I followed my little sister's lead up the mountainside, we decided that it was a good time to grab lunch, so we stopped at the first place we found, Cafe de Ronda. We both went with simpler choices, and were not overly impressed, but it was enough to get us through to our next stop.

Neither of us were ready to go. We still had to find the free-flowing wine, and I wanted to stop in a shop that was right across the way. They had a bowl on display that I had been eyeing all through lunch, so after our check was paid and bathroom break had, we headed across to the little shop. I decided to hold out on the bowl because I anticipated finding many more ceramics along our journey.

Meanwhile, my sister was trying to find her way to the wine. She inquired with the shop keeper, but she didn't know. So naturally, we headed into a hotel just off the bridge, and the concierge directed us toward Parroquia Santa Maria la Mayor.... We searched, but found no wine. So, Erica popped into another shop using her best Spanish, but the man had no clue what she was talking about. haha, We decided to head back toward the newer part of the city, in hopes that it was there, but on our way we decided to stop at anotheer small shop that appeared to be full of delightful treasures. I do not know the name, but here is the address: 2 Plaza Duquesa de Parcent. I got a beautiful piece of pottery here (and could have bought several more), and the shop owners were very friendly, and the man spoke great english! With that said, he informed us that there was no free-flowing wine in the city, and that it was probably part of a wine tasting at one of the vineyards in the area. It was safe to say that Erica was devastated, as that was a major part of why she wanted to visit... Clearly, it is safe to say that Pinterest can be misleading.

With one heavy heart & one joyous heart, we began our light trek back toward the car. We crossed the bridge bogged down in tourists once again, and popped into another shop that we noticed had oil paintings, we sifted through the large the pile, and my sister ended up purchasing two beautiful pieces. Ironically, the two that I would have picked. We had fun looking at all of their woven baskets and wall art, but knew we had all we needed.

We made one last bathroom stop before starting the car and paid for parking. Navigating our way out the town was far more difficult than finding our way in, but I guess that can be the nature of one way streets.

We back tracked a little ways through the hills and over the water before beginning our journey north to Cordoba.

...to be continued...