TRAVEL ALPHABET

The A — Z of My Favourite Travel Destinations — Romania, Rome or Ronda

And the winner is Ronda

Why Ronda? Well, it was a town I wanted to visit in 2011, but it just wasn’t practical to fit it into our trip. I knew it to be a white hill town in Andalucia. What I didn’t know is that is it one of many! I’ve already written stories about my experiences in Rome and Romania if you’d like to read them.

So on our road trip through the mountains of Andalucia, we drove through Antequera, Olivera, Setenil de las Bodegas, Ubrique, El Bosque and Grazalema and stayed in Zahara de la Sierra and Ronda — all white hill towns.

From Cádiz, we headed off to Zahara de la Sierra via El Bosque, Ubrique and Grazalema, all cute little white hill towns. We reached Zahara but actually drove straight past our accommodation and then had to navigate through tiny one-way streets to get back there. Stacey dropped me off and I managed to find it quite by accident. The lady who rents it was actually out in the street talking to her neighbours and saw me, looking bewildered, and led me down to the house, and explained everything in Spanish. We have a three-bedroom house, with wonderful views from the terrace off the kitchen, a lounge dining room with a fireplace, and a separate bathroom.

What luxury! We turned the aircon up to 30C and the oil heater on, but alas, had no matches to light the fire. Stacey chose the bedroom with the view and I chose the bedroom closest to the bathroom, which turned out to be fortuitous. I spent most of the night in that bathroom. Maybe it was all the rich food I’d eaten.

Once again, Stacey went off exploring but I didn’t dare leave the house. The lady came in to clean at 1 pm at which time, I went to sit in the car and wait for Stacey. She had climbed to the top of the castle and according to her, had almost died doing it. She did look completely exhausted. On, on to Ronda, but not before we had explored Olvera, another white hill town, and Setenil de las Bodegas, a white town built into caves in the side of the mountain.

At Setenil, we stopped for a late lunch. I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. Luckily, we found one cave restaurant, the Dominguez, still open. We ordered a plate of tapas for 12 euros. I sampled the toast with salmon, and the toast with cod, but left the rest. I wrapped it up in serviettes and took it with me for later. Stacey had the Iberian pig cheeks for mains. I was feeling pretty good until we got to the car park at Ronda. Not good. I asked the carpark attendant for a toilet and he showed me a sign with 5050# on it! I had no clue what that meant, but he did tell me that Casa Duende del Tajo (our accommodation) was straight down the street, Virgen de los Remedios. I almost ran.

The lady was out in the street waiting for arrivals, and I blurted, “Toilet please!” I may or may not have added the “please”. The look on my face was probably enough. She showed me through to a toilet in a really posh apartment, which I assumed was ours. But no, ours was further down the street, with a view of the famous bridge.

The ground floor is a kitchen/dining and one bedroom, and the first floor is another bedroom and bathroom, and the top floor is the terrace all connected by a spiral staircase. I have the first-floor level. I went to bed without dinner. I could smell the delicious tapas being reheated in the microwave for Stacey’s dinner.

Stacey went out to find flamenco; I fell asleep. Skipping breakfast, we headed out to see the sights of Ronda. I made it till midday before I had to come back to our apartment. Stacey had a wonderful day visiting the bullfighting ring, the old town, the archaeological museum and the Arab baths. I slept.

I did venture forth the next day and visited the archaeological museum on Stacey’s recommendation. It was one of the best of this type I’ve seen. It was laid out in chronological order so was really easy to follow.

Stacey arrived home with wine and bread and tempted me up to the terrace to have a little wine and cheese — mostly bread. The cheese is the fig one we bought at the cheese festival in Aracena. The view is spectacular; the bridge is lit from below, as well as has a Christmas tree and Christmas lights adorning it. I haven’t seen much of Ronda, but what I have seen, I’ve loved!

I’ve already written about the next part of out trip.