Ronda is not too far north of Estepona but both routes wind through scenery that is wild and rocky. By going slightly west along the coast and then heading northwest to Ronda, we were able to do a triangular trip. (The return was southeast from Ronda.) The day was heavily overcast with low, dark clouds, but it wasn’t until our return that we had a few drops – enough to put the wiper blades on once. ;-) That amount does nothing to alleviate the drought here in southern Spain.
We stopped at a little taverna for a coffee, and while the sun was shining outside, there was a small twig fire inside. Unfortunately, one man was sitting right in front of it, so while there was a nice wood scent, no heat got past him.
We arrived in Ronda, and then got out of the car to try and determine where WE were, and where the car park was.
Once we crossed a bridge, looking all over to see signs for our parking area, we followed the P signs into a No Auto zone. Hmmmm..sure enough there was parking, in a tunnel entered into in the plaza. Back out on terra firma, we walked and came across the Bullfighting Museum.
The city of Ronda covers two sides of a massive gorge, and massive in comparison to the other mountains in the area which have tremendous mass of their own. The old and the new (relatively) are connected by a bridge which is a marvel in itself. With a good town map, we headed back to the Old Ronda.
We had a museum pass which gave us a Senior rate, and we were sent off to the Giant’s House (?) which was closing at 1pm. Well, up and down the streets we went, passing a hotel that became a bit of a joke since we kept passing it. We both now know how to get to it…
While we came to what seemed to be the Giant’s House entrance we were told to go around, and while we kept going around, we never did find it. We did find the Mondragon Palace which was on our list, and saw a beautiful home with our firs examples of Moorish architecture and gardens.
The Palace contained a very nice ethno museum and many artifacts. Someone later ‘pinched’ an orange from the tree in the courtyard. Do you know how bitter a marmalade orange is before it becomes marmalade??
Tired legs and empty tummies, and we started looking for lunch. We were so hungry, we almost finished the chicken soup before snapping a pic.
I had the sea bream with a tomato sauce that DID look this bright but tasted very good.
Note the bit of bread with the drizzle of olive oil….olive oil is served and you drizzle as much as you like on your bread instead of butter. Most people also added salt to the bread. Dick’s pork loin a la Carmen (the name of the restaurant) tasted more like the pork cheeks he said. 
We each had the same dessert, a pinon topped tart with both whipped cream and dulce de leche.
and a cup of the everpresent café con leche. The Starbucks of Andalucia? 
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