Ronda

It has actually been some days since we've been in Ronda. We have fallen behind in our blog; but this just means that we have been busy seeing Spain.  We're trying to catch up now.  Ronda is a beautiful place well worth visiting.  Our visit there included both some high and low points in our travels.  Let's get the low points out of the way first -- we had some laundry done at the lavanderia and all of our "good" clothes turned to a dirty shade of grey in the dryer.  Who knows what was dried in there before our things?  Thankfully, we are finding that we are able to wash most of the grey out by repeated washings.  The other low point was our hotel.  The staff there was very friendly and helpful, but we had no heat in the room at night and nights in the mountains there are cold.

However, the city itself is very interesting.  Barbara wanted to visit it because the film of the opera Carmen with Placido Domingo had been made there. 

 It also has a dark history during the Spanish Civil War when a group of people were beaten and then thrown to their deaths over a bridge into a deep gorge.  This incident is described in Hemingway's book For Whom the Bell Tolls. The gorge is indeed very deep and dramatic.  This photo shows only about a third of the depth of the gorge.  It was nearly impossible to capture it fully.

Toro de Stone

The city itself is lively and a good place to stroll along the old streets and to see the bull ring.  






This stands in front of the Plaza del Toros (bull ring).
He, of course, is not alive except in one's imagination.  One could say it is a lot of "bull."




Thanks to the advice from a hotel staff person, we found a very good place to have tapas in the evening.  Next blog will be about Jerez where we experienced both sherry bodegas and an exciting performance of flamenco.