Ronda, Spain

Maybe I got to Ronda at just the right time, both in terms of weather and in terms of where I was in my travels. Maybe I had been in hostels for so long that changing to a hotel for a few nights was an exceptional treat. Or maybe Ronda is an awesome little town that exceeded my expectations in every way.

View of the bullring and the mountains from the hotel rooftop.

Ronda, a small little town in southern Spain, isn’t known for much. It’s the home to the first bullring in Spain. That’s the second biggest thing that they’re known for. The museum attached to the ring has some interesting pieces of historical interest, but is more useful as a place to get out of the summer heat than anything else, if that gives you some idea of the quality of the museum.

The Spanish countryside. I sat on a wall and looked out on this view for about an hour, just taking in the fresh air. There was a busker playing an accordion nearby, which added a note of culture to the experience. Until he started playing Despacito, that is.

There’s a river that runs through Ronda, which means that there’s a nice little gorge carved out of the stone. Some of the houses are built right up against the edge of the cliffs

And where there’s a ravine, there’s going to be a bridge. And that’s where Ronda shines. Look up Ronda on Google, and I guarantee the first photo you’ll see is of the Puente Nuevo bridge. This is the kind of thing you’d see in Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. Any postcard of Ronda will include the bridge, and some of the postcards of Spain in general have it as well. It’s immense and spectacular in a way that modern architecture can’t touch.

The Puente Nuevo bridge of Ronda. I dare anyone to try to take a bad picture of it. It’s amazing. Over the past year, there have been a few times that I wish I’d had a real camera to take good photos with instead of my phone. This is at the top of the list. I’m definitely printing this photo out and framing it when I get home. Hell, I might even make it a poster.

I mean, seriously. Look at that thing. That’s amazing.

The further into the ravine you go, the better the views get. It’s not a bad little walk when the weather is decent, and you don’t even need a map to find the route. Just follow the other tourists with cameras.

I’ve never seen a sign that says “please cross this line” more than this one does. This made me laugh as I ignored it.

There’s not much to do in Ronda, other than seeing the bridge. The food is surprisingly good, as long as you’re willing to wait for restaurants to open at 8P for dinner or stand in line at the places that TripAdvisor recommends to all tourists. The town definitely has the vibe of being overrun by tourists, but it’s not intolerable. Despite all of that, the two days that I spent there went by far too quickly. Sitting at one of the vista points, staring at the countryside, enjoying the fresh air and the feeling of nature was amazing. I’ve seen some great stuff over the years, and like I said, maybe this one was just at the right time, but it was as close to perfect as I could have hoped.

** You can click the photos to enlarge. I know it doesn’t work as consistently as it should, sometimes you have to click a few times to get it to respond, and it enlarges to different scales on different devices. You can’t be surprised. I’m a terrible computer programmer.