Round and round in Ronda

"What are you doing?" asked S as we walked back from the bar last night. "Oh, just taking a photo of some purple chairs." I was tempted to blip them, but then I felt I couldn't go to Ronda and blip a dentist's waiting room. On the other hand I didn't want to blip the famous bridge either.

Pepe had given us a map and marked out a route to take in pretty much all of Ronda's major sights. So after the obligatory breakfast of cafe con leche and tomatoes on toast, we set off, starting at the Alameda del Tajo, which looked lovely in the morning light (alternative version here). There are amazing views from here and we got our first glimpse of the sheer rockface on which Ronda is situated. It's like being in a plane.

From there we walked all around this newer part of town, before crossing the bridge to explore the old town. We really did do almost the whole of Ronda in one day, including the best-preserved Arab baths on the Iberian peninsula, and the town museum, in a lovely Moorish mansion. We even explored the part of town at the bottom of the hill, where there is pretty much nothing of interest. Then we had to slog right back up to the old town; it was 2 pm, our feet were very weary, so we picked a restaurant solely on the basis that it had a terrace with probably the best view in town, facing the bridge.

It was a bit pricy, but we compensated by sharing two starters and nothing else; it's great that you can do this with no hassle in Spain. And the food was lovely, especially the braised artichokes with ham and invisible foie gras. The one thing we hadn't done at this point was take the photo of the bridge, which requires walking part of the way down into the gorge. Revitalised by lunch, we did so, along with many other tourists, and here's my contribution to the mass of photos of it. Back in town we walked up the main shopping street to collect the car, pausing for a very lavish and excellent ice cream on the way. Then the drive back home; the scenery around Ronda is truly spectacular, especially in late afternoon sun, with far-reaching views over rolling hills to craggy mountains, so it was a lovely drive (apart from the early evening traffic around Malaga).