Spain for the Short of Attention Span – Part 6 – Ronda

And right next to Tarifa on the list of places I’d never heard of but am really glad I went anyway is Ronda. Like with everywhere else in Spain, apparently, Ronda has a beautiful old town. What sets it apart though, is the massive canyon running through the centre of town.

I had no idea. We had heard it was a nice example of one of the white towns of Andalusia, so we went. But no one said anything about a gigantic canyon. It was gorgeous and just went down forever.  Fantastic!

Ronda is apparently not quite famous enough to bring the hoards, which suited me just fine. Tour buses came, but seemingly only for day trips, as the town emptied out a lot in the evenings. We caught a Cruces de Mayo march and a flamenco fashion show, so that was pretty great. To be honest, I was feeling a bit ill while we were in Ronda, so I was pretty content to take it slow. Wonderful place though.

Things to See: The canyon. We were also impressed by the House of the Moorish King. You can’t actually go into the house, but the gardens are lovely and there are stairs you can take down into caves and eventually to the bottom of the canyon.

Things to Do: Have a wander. Check out the antique shops. I saw some ads for rock climbing, which might be neat if you were the type who wouldn’t be paralyzed with fear at the very thought. If you have no ethical issues with it (not that I’m judging you if you don’t) …  (okay, yeah, I totally am), you can go to a bullfight. Bullfighting is big in Ronda. They are very proud of their bullfighting ring.

If you are going to buy it, buy it here: Linens, particularly table cloths. They are made locally and are exquisite.

Worth going on a scale of 1 to 5: 5.  I should probably stop this category.  I seem to be giving everything a 5.  Oh well.