Ronda, Spain

November 08, 2023

Holy eye candy Batman! Ronda Spain is even more gorgeous than I remember it. I must have taken 100 photos in Ronda. Ronda is one of the oldest towns in Spain and has remains of prehistoric settlements that date back to Neolithic times. It was first settled by the Celts in the 6th century. It was sought after as a strategic position to live as it is protected on 3 sides with steep canyon walls that would have been impossible to climb up and invade. The drive-up is one of the curviest roads that I have ever experienced. It is a 1.5-hour drive from where we were staying.

The highlight for all of us was the Puente Nuevo or the New Bridge, which may be the most picturesque bridge in the world. There are other bridges in Ronda that connect the two halves of Ronda that are separated by two deep gorges.

On this trip to Ronda, we were able to take in the activity of walking down to and on the bridge. There is a little museum set up on the bridge.

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful bridge I have ever seen. It is stunning and dates back to the 1700's and it took 40 years to build.

We purchased a 12 euro package at the Tourist office across from the Bullring. This package allowed us to visit a set 6 different sites. Going down into the bridge was our first of the 6 set sites to see. Our friends wanted to tour the Bullring and the museum, but we weren't interested. The Bullring is extra and not one of the 6 things on the tour. Instead of visiting the Bullring we walked around and took more photos. We went for a drink on the roof terrace bar of the Catalonia Hotel. This allowed us to get a bird's eye view of the Bullring and to wait for our friends. I had an awesome white wine from a vineyard in Ronda.

Ronda is where bullfighting began 450 years ago.

We continued on our way once we met up with them and hit the Convento de Santo Domingo which was not that interesting. We had a hard time finding numbers 3, 4 and 5 because the map that we were given was not too good. Eventually, we found them after going down some incorrect streets but in these ancient streets there is always something new to see and take photos of.

This is inside the Convento.

Here is a tiled layout of the town of Ronda below.

We went to Palacio Mondragon which is an old Palace that is now a Museum. There was an outside courtyard as well. The museum was excellent but we did not have a ton of time, so we blitzed through this but saw everything.

Casa del Gigante was an ancient house from the 1300's and Moorish owned. It was interesting.

The ceiling was stunning in Casa de Gigantico below.

The carved plaster wall murals were intricate and delicate. Parts of the murals have been recovered.

Museo Joaquin Peinado was an art gallery and I normally do not get too excited about art unless it is the old classics. This had more modern works of art but had 6 Picasso paintings and a large Picasso bowl. Most exciting to me was the architecture of this old building. The ceilings were stunning!! We were also not allowed to take photos of the artwork.

The second most exciting thing of the day was the ancient walk to the Banos Arabes or Arab Baths similar to Roman Baths. The walk there was so cool with lots of stairs and a portion of the old wall of Ronda and delightful views of the countryside and of Ronda itself and the other old bridges.

This is the ancient gate into Ronda.

The Arab Baths were the third most interesting site to see. It was set up like a museum and a portion of the ancient Bathhouse was dedicated to a 7-minute film of how the water was engineered to arrive or get to the Bathhouse, that was kind of fascinating and most of this is still there to see. The ingenuity of the people who orchestrated this is cool for the 1300's.

The ruins of the Banos Arabes.

We walked back up a different set of stairs than we had come down and this led to the Jardines de Cuenca gardens with spectacular roses that were growing and photo moments were everywhere. At the top of these gardens is a viewing spot for the other side of the New Bridge.