Ronda and a Road Trip to the White Villages

On Wednesday we traveled from Granada to Ronda. Ronda is in the south of Spain and is one of the bases for visiting what are known as the white villages, small towns that typically are set up on hills with whitewashed buildings that stand in stark contrast with the rocky background in which they are set. We spent two lovely nights in Ronda. More details after the jump.

We arrived in the middle of the afternoon to Ronda. Our apartment was just a 10 minute walk from the train station so we just hoofed it. Easy, pleasant walk, and the temperatures were much cooler in Ronda than in Granada due to a higher elevation and cooling breezes. We had a small snafu with getting into our apartment, as the owner was stuck in a meeting and took much longer to let us in than expected. That’s never good when the LL is ready for a nap. We got in eventually and the LL conked out for a good nap.

The LL on the train to Ronda

After the nap, we decided to take a walk around town and find some food for dinner. The apartment owner told us where the best views were, so we headed that way. There are a handful of popular things to see in Ronda itself – the old part of town, the view over the cliff, and the new bridge (which is actually really old). We headed for the cliff and new bridge immediate. Just gorgeous natural and man-made scenery. You have to understand that Ronda is truly built on a cliff. The drop-off from town down to the river valley is straight down. It makes for an impressive vista. And it also creates a need for an impressive bridge to connect the parts of the town located on opposite sides of the river valley, which is quite narrow at this point but very deep. The bridge is very tall and an impressive building feat.

The cliff of Ronda

The "new" bridge

Another view of the bridge

The town of Ronda itself is an attraction. It is just very pleasant. Wonderful stores. Wonderful food. Friendly people. But we found out quickly that they take their siesta seriously in Ronda. Everything is closed in the middle of the afternoon. And they do not modify their behavior to accommodate tourists. Restaurants open at 8pm, and that’s just the way it is. The LL’s schedule does not work very well with 8pm dinners, so we had no luck that first night finding a place we could go out for dinner. So we bought some stuff at a grocery store for the LL and figured we’d find some take-out later.

After the LL was down for bed, I went back out searching for food. Take-out is not a normal part of Spanish culture, so I was not sure I’d have luck finding a place to accommodate my request for food to go. We wanted real local food, and that was going to be a tough find in combination with take-out. But I found a place. A tapas place (and they also take the tapas culture very seriously in Ronda). They were willing to pack stuff up for me, and it was really delicious. Croquettes with jamon iberico, shrimp skewers, stuffed egg, and several other small plates. And in Spain, tapas are the norm, so we had a bunch of food for only 9 Euros. Nice. And a local bottle of wine to go along with the meal and the dinner that looked like a bust turned into something great.

The next day we rented a car and headed out for a driving tour of several white villages. Each place we stopped had its share of interesting things to see. Our route was Ronda-Grazalema, Benaocaz, Ubrique, Zahara, Setenil, and Acinipo Roman ruins. The driving was fun, at least for the most part. I always get a little nervous renting a car in a foreign country, especially from a mom and pop sort of place like we used in Ronda. Driving internationally is always interesting and Spain was no exceptions. The roads were in pretty good condition except for a total washout of the road to Setenil. But they were not big. If you had a U.S. sized SUV on these roads you would not be happy. We had a little Hyundai I20 and it was still tight in places. But there really is nothing better than getting out onto the road if you want to really see a place. So that is what we did.

Grazalema was starkly white. Really pretty views over a valley. Just a great place to walk around a bit while the LL napped in the car seat.

 

 

 

Benaocaz was our lunch stop. A really tiny village, with just a couple of restaurants, one of which actually had good reviews in Tripadvisor. We had a lunch of various specialties, including potato salad, eggplant béchamel, braised lamb. Very good, and just 14 Euros including drinks and coffee. They even modified the menu to minimize eggs given the LL’s allergy.

Mmm, lamb!

Running around Benaocaz

Ubrique is a leather making town. It’s pretty big, but we arrived after the start of siesta. So, no luck on leather shopping. And I was not sure we’d ever make it out of that town given the small windy streets. Thank goodness our car was tiny. No photos here. Not that much to look at really. Zahara was very pretty. Nice view of a lake. Cute restaurants. Neat little churches. A very pleasant stop.

 

 

Setenil was a bust because the road was washed out. And we arrived after the Roman ruins closed. That would have made me upset except that there was still plenty of room to run around for the LL, we arrived late because we had such good times at the other places, and we still got to take some photos of the ruins from a distance. 

Back to Ronda where we found a restaurant with an open kitchen at about 7pm. (Obviously and overpriced tourist place, but goon nonetheless.) This is where the LL discovered jamon Iberico, and she loved it. The girl apparently has both good and expensive taste.

Then it was back to the apartment via the nice overlook with a quick stop at an aviary along the way where the LL tweeted at the birds and met another baby. Always fun. Up at a reasonable time Friday morning to catch a high speed train to Cordoba, our next stop and final stop before we transition from tourists to residents in Oviedo.