Help me, Ronda

March 11th—Help me Ronda, help, help me Ronda! That’s all we could think about or sing when going to the beautiful town of Ronda, Spain. We travelled by bus about an hour and 15 minutes north of Puerto Banus. The bus was nice, but the roads were a little rough. The majority of the trip was on a windy road up into the mountains. I had flash backs of Colorado. Abby and I had to spend majority of the time watching the road to prevent from getting “car sick”. In fact, at one point on the way to Ronda, we thought Abby was going to be sick, but it passed. Anyway, we survived the trip and were glad to be in Ronda. We arrived about 10:30. It was about a 15 minute walk from the bus station into the town area. Our first thing to see was the gorge and New Bridge (Puente Nuevo), built in the late 1700s. Once on the bridge, you can look down into the ravine, called El Tajo. It is 360 feet down and 200 feet wide. It divides Ronda into the old Moorish town and the new town. From the bridge, we got a good view of the unbelievable scenery that Ronda has to offer. It really is breathtaking! After crossing over the bridge, we walked into the Old Town area. We wandered into Plaza de Maria Auxiliadora for more views and a look at the two rare pinsapos (resembling extra-large Christmas trees) in the park. This is the only region in Europe where these ancient trees are found. From there, we went into the Mondragon palace (Palacio de Mondragon). This beautiful Moorish building was erected in the 14th century, possibly as the residence of Moorish kings. It has been turned into a museum that focuses on prehistory subjects like cavemen, tools, metal and pottery with displays of archeological pieces found in the area of Ronda. After that, we wandered through more of the Old Town area and passed by the Santa Maria la Mayor Collegiate Church. Along the way we saw very full orange trees in front of the Town Hall. Abby even found an orange on the ground that she proceeded to carry the rest of the day. Then, we walked to Plaza del Socorro where we found a restaurant to eat lunch. Since it was such a beautiful, sunny day, we were able to enjoy a restaurant that had outside tables in the plaza. We had seen many horse and buggy rides throughout town so the kids really wanted to do that. We got on the carriage outside of the bullring. It was a nice ride through Old Town and New Town. After getting off the carriage, we toured the bullring. Ronda is the birthplace of modern bullfighting, and this was the first great Spanish bullring. We first saw the chapel where all matadors stop and pray to Mary for safety. After the chapel is the museum which houses stuffed bull heads, photos, artwork, posters and costumes. We then walked in the actual two-tiered arena where we all played toro. It was really neat! The kids then wanted ice cream so we got some and found a park to play at before heading back to the train station. We caught the 6:00 train back to Puerto Banus. The ride was much better back because we knew what to expect this time. Abby and I both sat on the aisle seats and watched the road the entire time. We arrived back at the apartment by 7:15.