12/3, Friday. 1 night in Ronda, a very pretty hill-top town in Sierra de las Nieves mountain range.
I took the bus from Cádiz via Jeréz (once a day, but more buses to Seville and Málaga), arrived ~2:30pm.
The bus station is a short walk to town.
It's not a large town. Soon I was walking along the cliff, now mostly public spaces with trees benches and good view. Alameda.
Even the Parador let people walk by its property.
The drop-off is quite dramatic.
The new bridge (late 18th century) over the chasm is very impressive.
It's called "Tajo" here. Great view to both side.
You can see the old bridge from here and the creek running beneath.
I walked to my hotel on the other side of the bridge.
The lady spoke good English.
After checking in, I continued down along paved path by the wall to the north side. Along the way, there's an Arabic old bath to visit, and some new (closed) power or drainage facilities.
There are stairs to get on the walls here and there, as well as benches for rest.
The wall is very "restored".
I walled all the way out the door of Almocábar to the east, all around the bluff. Right outside of the door, saw this sign of Camino de Santiago (via Serrana).
There is a paved path connecting to the road from the south side which provides multiple access to near the waterfall and some all the way to the creek below.
One trail I took that branches off this paved section requires some scramble over roots rocks and overgrown tree branches. Met only 1 person here.
Saw the remnant of some power station? or water mill?
One well engineered path leads to a closed fence right in front of the bridge. A handful of tourists here.
Around 6, sun sets. I got back to the hotel, but couldn't open my room. My keycard was de-maganitized. Had to call the hotel emergency number.
Booked a Blabla ride to Málaga tomorrow at 11am.
12/4, Saturday. Cloudy. Morning is very nice and quiet.
Walked to the municiple hall (Ayuntamiento) first. A very nice plaza, still sleepy in the morning.
Santa María la Mayor at the other end looks imposing, at least from the outside.
Ronda has many small museums for its size.
They are nice, but none worth a trip from somewhere else.
First, I visited Casa del Gigante, because it opens earlier than others, at 9:30am.
The so-called Giant is this little rock in the glass case.
It has a audio-visio room showing Ronda's developement over the centuries. Very short, but informative.
It has a tiny Moorish courtyard, but the reflection pool is dry, and not working. A nice roof in one room.
On my way back, visited Palacio de Mondragón. It has its own section of the cliff for a relaxed view.
It has some frescos. Nice but small yard, with a couple of small fountains.
I txted my ride before leaving hotel, then, went to look for them at the Parador (the former city hall).
A very nice couple. They were out looking for me already, even though I was early.
The lady is the one I contacted.
Her husband drove. He's on a crutch. He has adapted the steering wheel and pedals to his deformed leg. Very nice.
We stopped at a small town, and picked a middle aged lady. Then, all 3 of them started chatting rapidly, and non stop. I couldn't quite follow the conversation. One topic was that this passenger only rides with a woman.
