Ronda Tidbits

For a smallish town, Ronda is actually pretty hip. One of the things I remembered from my first trip was a bar that had beer taps on each table so you could pour your own pints and pay by the liter. Overall, Ronda had some of the better restaurants and tapas that we found anywhere in Spain.

One of our favorites was a place called El Lechuguita where nearly every good sized tapa was under a euro. Their house specialty is a large romaine lettuce leaf topped with a oil and a special ingredient. Very simple but very tasty. We also went to a restaurant called Almocabar which had incredible salads which we were both craving on a very hot October day.

Unfortunately, wherever there are trendy restaurants, there are always disappointments. Tragabuches is a well know, highly acclaimed, Michelin starred restaurant. Of course we couldn't afford to eat there. But Tragatapas is their affordable, inventive tapas option. I was looking forward to it. Since the prices were a little bit higher than other places, we decided to order a couple of things to test the waters and make sure it was worth it. We ordered candied red peppers and an order of olives that came in...a sardine can. I understand going with unique presentation, but having the server open a sardine can at the table to present our food didn't exacly get me excited. The peppers were fine, but nothing unique or delicious enough and led us to think that maybe they were actually just purchased in the sardine can. The olives on the other hand were absolutely terrible. They were extremely bitter and barely edible. And these are olives. I'm not sure how you screw up olives in Spain, but they pulled it off. Ali was not pleased.



The fortunate thing with tapas is that if there is a letdown, it is only one stop of many rather than a disappointing dinner and plenty of other places in the area offered some surprisingly delicious food that was comparable in quality and flavor to some of the pinxos in San Sebastian.

Ronda also has a surprising number of interesting sights although they can all probably be done in a little over a day. Ali went into the Iglesia de Santa Maria la Mayor while I decided I was churched out and waited outside.



Interestingly, the towers of the church are said to be what William Randolph Hearst hoped the main building at Hearst Castle would emulate.



You can see the similarities.

Our second day there we took a slightly off roadish paths around the city walls to see the Moorish Baths to kill some time before lunch. On the way there, we passed this little burro and this picture is one of Ali's favorites.



On a 90+ degree day, the burro had managed to find the only shade anywhere in sight by hiding underneath the tiny tree.

Finally, Gonzalo, one of the employees at the hotel, (who also operates a rental house (www.rancho-rojo.com) in the country side that looks beautiful and would be a great place to base yourself for driving around and visiting los pueblos blancos) saw Ali's passport and mentioned that there was a bar in town run by a Connecticut native. Sure enough, we went to Huskies Bar later that night .



Seeing all kinds of American sports memorabilia made me a little bit more at home even if there was soccer on the TV and they told me they wouldn't be able to get the Yankees-Angels playoff game.

For a town of 35,000 people, there's a surprising amount going on in Ronda.

Ronda, Spain - October 23-25

Ronda is the largest and best known of Andalucia's Pueblos Blancos. It rests upon a hill and a large gorge cuts down the middle of it. The hilltop setting provides amazing views of the Sierra Nevadas.



Throughout history there have been three bridges that cross over the gorge, but the most recent Puente Nuevo is the largest and most ambitious. On our first day there we climbed down a path into the gorge to see it from the bottom up.





One of the cities sights is an old passage that goes down to the river in the gorge and was used to get water when the city was under siege. It provides a little different perspective of the gorge.



The town itself is pretty picturesque as well. Something I remembered from my one night there on my last trip is that it has amazing sunsets.





Ronda is also home to Spain's oldest active bullring (since 1784) and is considered to be the birthplace of modern bullfighting.



The best preserved Arab baths in Spain are also in Ronda. After spending an afternoon in a recreated Arab bath in Cordoba, it was interesting to see the layout of a real one.



While in Ronda we stayed at the Hotel San Gabriel. The former residence of a nobleman, it is very well appointed and includes a wine cellar bodega. Although it does not have views of the gorge and the surrounding scenery, the atmosphere and amenities were excellent and the service was more attentive and sincere than pretty much any other place we stayed on the trip and the price was much more reasonable than the parador and other accommodation with views. Highly recommended.