Ronda

Today we left for Ronda. On the way, we stopped at a beautiful little town, Setenil de la Bodegas. It is known as the "white village" and the buildings extend right into the mountainside. We stopped for a coffee and, in the bathroom in the cafe/bar, the walls were rock, like the bathroom had been hewn out of the mountain, which, I guess, it was.

After a stroll through the town (it was a ghost town -- I saw maybe 3 or 4 locals the whole time we were there. It was Christmas Eve.), we left for Ronda.


Ronda is a lovely city, much loved by Ernest Hemmingway and Orson Welles. The bullring here is famous. Bullfighting was traditionally done on horseback until, here in Ronda, the first toreador on foot faced the bulls.
It was cold and rainy, but my new pals, Shayna and Jeannie, and I decided to take a walk. The city is also known for the "new bridge" built in the 1800's to span the deep gorge separating the old town from the new. The bridge is stunning and is featured in all the postcards.

There wasn't much open (like I said, it was Christmas Eve), but we did need to shop for some food for the picnic tomorrow, as no restaurants would be open on Christmas Day. We went to the Supermercado across from the hotel, got wine, cheese, crackers, cookies and some chorizo. That evening, David got us into one of the only restaurants open on Christmas Eve. It was rather fancy, but the food was delicious. It started to pour rain as we walked back to the hotel and didn't let up all night.
Christmas Day was very gloomy and the rain was still coming. We were scheduled to take a hike through the Grazalema National Park. Most of us opted out, but a few decided to do it. Left in the hotel (we were the only people staying there), we congregated in the TV room. Some read, I knitted. When the group returned, we had a little party. Someone bought champagne, someone bought typical Spanish Christmas cakes.

That night, the restaurants opened up and we went for a typical Spanish meal -- paella, pork roast and wine -- as it would be our last night in Spain.