Roaming around in Ronda

I love discovering random places that I'd never even known existed. The day I left for Spain, one of my professors recommended that I go to this town called Ronda. She said that although it was small, it had a lot of character. At first I thought "Ronda? Where in the world is that?" Once I got to Spain I looked it up and I was soon happy to get the recommendation; it really seemed like an interesting place. I don't have class on Fridays, so I told myself I would try to travel on the weekends, and after a stressful first week of school, a day trip outside of Málaga was definitely in order.

 

A small group of us from UMA got together and took the bus to this mysterious Ronda that I had just discovered. The bus ride was short – about an hour and a half from Málaga. Once we arrived, one of the first things we saw was La Iglesia Convento de la Merced, which was nice, but looked pretty much like any other convent I’ve seen in Spain. Right past the convent is this small park that led up to this amazing view that had me in awe the rest of the day. As I approached the other side of the park I realized that it sat on top of this huge cliff that looked over this wide, green, open field. Below there were several cottages and smaller houses with a river running through the fields. To the left you could see the exposed stone on the side of the cliffs. Oh-my-Gosh!!…Yeah, that was my reaction. It was that beautiful. I had never seen anything like it. I stood there for a few minutes trying to let my brain process and absorb what I was witnessing at that very moment. I think I took like a million pictures right there.

But that was not the only gorgeous thing Ronda had to offer. We managed to pull ourselves away from the view to continue our journey through this tiny city. Up next, we headed to the Plaza de Toros (Bullfighting ring), which is the oldest one in Spain. Before touring the ring, we visited it's museum, where I learned tons about the history of the bullring and bullfighting in Spain in general. This particular ring was constructed in sandstone and was inaugurated in 1785. It was actually built by la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda (Royal Calvary of Ronda – founded by Felipe II) with the rise of bullfighting. Hmmm - I love learning new and interesting things. And really, what is the point of visiting a new place without some piece of information that you can take away with you?

After the bullfighting ring we headed toward the bridge called Puente Nuevo (New Bridge), which connects the old part of the city with the newer part and it towers over the river Río Guadalevín. This is probably the most amazing thing about Ronda. When I laid eyes on the bridge my mouth dropped open. The bridge is really tall and is as deep as the gorge itself. I had to lean over the balcony and even then I could barely see the bottom. It is over 320 feet tall and is built from the very stone of the cliffs. I read somewhere that they initially built a different bridge, but it wasn't properly built and it collapsed, killing several people. They later built this one, which was finished in 1793 (I’m sure glad they started over!) This one looks amazing and is definitely sturdy :)

 

We crossed the puente into the newer part of the city and headed to the Casa del Rey Moro. Inside we were able to take this forever-winding staircase (inside the cliffs) down to the river that was at the bottom of the gorge. Haha, that was one of the highlights of the day. There were probably like a million steps (of course I’m exaggerating) and it took forever to get down to the bottom. It probably seemed long because there was water dripping from above and the stairs were slippery. We didn’t want to fall! You should have seen us walking carefully, step by step, going deeper and deeper into this dark wet cave. I felt like an explorer, not knowing if something was going to jump out at me, haha. But it was worth it once we got there. We were able to see the city from the bottom up - another breathtaking view.

After the reverse trip back up the stairs I was out of breath! (You'd think with all the walking I do in Spain I would be more in shape - Ha! No such thing). We continued exploring the rest of the city, which didn’t take much time at all. We approached a viewpoint from which we could see the ruins of some ancient arab baths as well as this older and smaller bridge called the Puente Árabe. We also saw the Arco de Felipe V, which was built as an entrance into the city. Later on we stopped for lunch infront of the ayuntamiento and then passed by the wine museum.

Overall, Ronda was an amazing treat. I learned a lot that day. I love connecting what I am seeing and experiencing with learning so that I could have some sort of knowledge to take a way with me. After visiting Ronda, my profesor told me about Rilke, a poet who spent some time in Ronda, although originally from the Czech Republic. Just knowing that has intrigued me to read some of his works. 

Rilke was the one who dubbed Ronda as the “Ciudad Soñada” which I think is very appropriate. Its beauty is like none other, almost like you’re in a dream or imagining it. I truly enjoyed it and I am actually excited about discovering other hidden treasures in Spain just like this one.