Ronda, Spain

Top Left: View of Puente Nuevo from below. Top Right: Outside the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda. Bottom Left: View from Ronda toward Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves. Bottom Right: Alameda del Tajo.

Ronda was the perfect way to pick up where we left off in last year's trip to Andalusia, described in A Tour of Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Granada. For the start of this Andalusian tour, we flew into Madrid and took a train to Ronda. We spent 2 and a half days in Ronda, and we felt like we really needed another two days. The weather cooperated with mild temperatures and sunny skies. Ronda was not as crowded as it might get at other times of the year, this being low season. We hired a tour guide, Alfredo Carrasco (www.visitaronda.com, guia@visitaronda.com) and spent a wonderful day walking and talking with him. We highly recommend a tour with Alfredo.

We stayed in an AirBnB accomodation near Plaza Carmen Abela and it was adequate for everything we wanted to see on foot. We took the train to Ronda (from Madrid, one change in Antequera) and from Ronda (to Algeciras for the next leg of our tour).

For an overview of this trip to Andalusia, see A Second Tour of Andalusia: Ronda, Cádiz, and Algeciras.

Flora

Almond - Prunus dulcis [Rosaceae – Rose family] Almond trees were in bloom a few weeks earlier than usual.

Left: Almond trees starting bloom in El Tajo del Ronda. Right: Almond tree blossom.


Chinaberry – Melia azedarach [Meliaceae – Mohagony family] We saw this through our trip to Andalusia and into Portugal.

Left: Chinaberry in front of Iglesia Maria Auxiliadora. Center: Chinaberry near the municipal pool. Right: Chinaberry berries.


Spanish Fir – Abies pinsapo [Pinaceae – Pine family] This was our first encounter with the stately pinsapo, the national tree of Andalusia.

Three views of pinsapo easily seen around Ronda center showing close-up of leaves and conical crowns. Far right: A door made of pinsapo in the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda.
 

Spanish Iris – Iris Xiphium [Iridaceae – Iris family].

An iris blooming in El Tajo Canyon, not far from the Puente Nuevo.

Bulrush [Cyperaceae – Sedge family] Anea is Spanish word for bulrush. We saw a man using it to make small ornamental items using it.

Hackberry tree - Celtis [Canabaceae – Cannabis family] This tree was common around the Arab baths. Nicely branched tree with welcome shade in the summer and a beautiful leaf color in autumn.

Bitter Orange - C. × aurantium [Rutaceae – Citrus family] Street tree in Ronda as elsewhere in southern Spain. A few days later in Algeciras, we saw cleaning crews gathering upthe fruit of the bitter orange trees in Plaza Alta.

Far Left: A man weaves bulrush in Ronda. Center Left: A hackberry trree in Ronda. Center Right: A bitter orange tree in Ronda. Far Right: Maintenance workers collecting oranges in Plaza Alta (Algeciras).

Retama sphaerocarpa [Fabaceae – Pea family] We were given to understand that is plant was used to make a broom we saw being used for street cleaning (photos below). Our guide called it Escopa de palma (“palm broom”). However, escobón (“broom”) seems to be the common name for many plants of the genus Cytisus so there may be some confusion on our part!

Street cleaning brooms in Ronda, Spain. (Isn’t this why people come to Ronda? To take pictures of brooms.)

Fauna

A bird we see commonly seen in the gorge is called Cueva del Gato, a Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax). They have a beautiful call and mate for life. Our guide Alfredo helped put together the map “The Birds of Malaga” (available on the Serranía de Ronda site). The chough is characteristic of the Serranía de Ronda, where Serranía means “mountain range”.

Sites

Here’s a list of some on the things we saw in Ronda:

• Bridges: Puente Nuevo, Puente Viejo, and the Puente Romano.
  The obvious place to start is with the new bridge, but don’t forget to follow the gorge “tajo” east (upstream of the Rio Guadalevin) to find the old bridge and the roman bridge.
• Jardines de Cuenca - Cuenca Gardens.
  This is a park that has gates at either end, which follows the north edge of the Tajo. The gardens are a series of terraces that take you from the new bridge to the old bridge.
• Arab Baths - Baños Arabes - Arab Baths (at their height in the 13^th – 15^th centuries during the Nasrid rule of Granada, which fell in 1492) Colegiata Santa Maria la Mayor
• Arco de Felipe V
• Plaza Duquesa de Parcent - Duquesa de Parcent Square.
  This is a great place to sit and relax under the large trees growing in the square.Nearby is the main cathedral.
• Palacio de Mondragón - Mondragon Palace (municipal museum). 
• Plaza di Toros, Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda. 
  The bullring visit was more interesting than we expected. Our only other visit to a bullring was in Seville which wasn’t as informative as this visit. Why? Because in the Ronda bullring you learn more about how bulls spend their last night and get guided to the ring for the fight. Also, we got to stand in the center of the ring and test the acoustics.
• Palacio del Rey Moro y La Mina - Palace of the Moorish Kingand the Water Mine “La Mina”. The gardens were constructed under the orders of the Duquesa de Parcent, who entrusted their layout to the French designer Forestier. During our visit, the gardens were nice, but not as outstanding as they might be in spring and summer. The real attraction for us was going in the mine and taking the 300+ winding steps down to the Gaudalevin river.
• Plaza de María Auxiliadora
  Great views west. Also, the bath to go down beneath the Puente Nuevo can be found at the south end of this plaza. The path can be slippery. And, there’s a point where you can continue under the bridge and walk upstream along waterworks infrastructure, but it’s not for everybody.
• Arabic walls and city gates - Murallas de La Cijara (Walls of La Cijara).
  Starting near the Arco de Felipe V, you can head south (and up) following the line of the walls. You will end up near battlements and towers in the wall that you can explore.
• Mirador de Aldehuela and Balcón del Coño Viewpoints
  We totally missed this part of Ronda on our first day because were were concentrated on the area around the Puente Nuevo. Great views west from these viewpoints. Nearby, don’t forget the Alameda del Tajo.
  

Food

Tragatapas for two lunches and a dinner. Obviously, we really liked it.

Casa de Clemente. Basic, hardy food. +1 on lentil and bread soups.

Las Martirio for dinner – gastro – flamenco - fish restaurant.

Casa Ortega in Plaza del Socorro for dinner. +1 for Casa Ortega’s fried bread crumb / sausage / green pepper dish.

Graffiti

We didn’t find much graffiti, which is a a good thing for Ronda! Two shots and some scribblings on a wall.

Guidance from Above

Left: Altarpiece of the Marian Way of Light in Colegiata Santa María la Mayor. Center: Menu at Casa Clemente with a little heavenly intervention. Right: A procession we saw at Church of Our Lady Round.

Scenes Around Ronda

Left: Puente Nuevo from below. Center: Below the Puente Nuevo. Right: Calle Pedero Romero in Ronda.


Left: Ronda Old Bridge. Right: Night view from Alameda del Tajo.


Left: View from the Palacio del Rey Moro y La Mina. Right: Entrance of the Palace of the Marquis of Salvatierra.

Views of the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda bullring.


Left: View from Ronda to surrounding countryside. Right: Walking the La Cijara walls.

Brochures

Arab Baths of Ronda


Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda

Colegiata Santa María la Mayor


Forestier’s Hanging Gardens and the Secret Mine.

A Second Tour of Andalusia: Ronda, Cádiz, and Algeciras

Top Row. Left: View from the Palacio de Mondragón in Ronda, Spain. Right: View toward Catedral, Cádiz, Spain.
Bottom Row. Left: Cap Spartel, Tangier Morocco. Right: Gibraltar, view of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

Overview

In last year's trip to Andalusia, A Tour of Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Granada, we explored the central part of Andalusia. This year, started in Ronda and headed to points further south in Andalusia, Algeciras and Cádiz. We finished up in Lisbon, Portugal. While not in Andalusia, Lisbson was on our long term list of cities to see so we lumped it in with this trip. We also wanted to see Gibraltar and spend a day in Tangier. That’s a lot to pack in 13 days. 

3 nights in Ronda
3 nights in Algeciras
2 nights in Cádiz
4 nights in Lisbon

Weather

We were lucky. We saw mild temperatures and sunny skies for most of the 13 days. In particular, we had spectacular blue skies in Ronda, spent a crystal clear day in short sleeves walking the Mediteranean Steps in Gibraltar, and explored Cádiz under partly sunny skies and balmy temperatures. In Lisbon, we had one early morning rain that cleared before noon, but otherwise, great weather.

Transportation

Planes
Fly into Madrid and out of Lisbon.

Trains
Train from Madrid to Ronda with one change in Antequera. Train from Ronda to Algeciras.

Automobiles
We took a taxi from Algeciras to Gibraltar and back. It took about 20 minutes and 25 euros. We opted for the taxi instead of figuring out which bus to take. You take a taxi to the border of Gibraltar and Spain, from there you walk across the airstrip / border. The taxi doesn’t take you into Gibraltar.

We picked up a rental car in Algeciras, drove to Cádiz, and then on to Lisbon.

Boats
We took an FRS ferry from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco. We took the free FRS bus from Algeciras to Tarifa to catch the ferry.

Photos of Cádiz. Left: View from Torre Tavira. Center: View from Castillo di San Sebastián. Right: Plaza de la Catedral.

Lodging

We booked AirBnB accomodations for all four cities. Two were good (Ronda and Cádiz). Two were “odd” but serviceable (Algeciras and Lisbon). I realized that when we look at photos in AirBnB (and other sites), we tend to overestimate how nice a place is. To be fair, the “odd” places were economical, so we felt it was a fair deal overall.

Tour Guides

We booked all of these guides ahead of time. We got recommendations by asking tour guides from last year’s trip (see A Tour of Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Granada). We strongly recommend these tour guides; all three made our time spend in their respective cities very special.

Ronda
Alfredo Carrasco, www.visitaronda.com, guia@visitaronda.com

Cadiz
Juan Antonio García, Viator profile, Juanantonio@cadizguia.es

Tangier
Ahmed Taoumi, www.visitangier.com

Lisbon
We hired an ecoTukTuk tour. We liked it because it was an electric vehicle, quick and quiet. However, due to the nature of the job of driving and ensuring safety of passengers, the drivers can only give some basic stories and ancedotes about what you see – at least that’s what we experienced. It was nice to get a quick overview with the TukTuk, but it’s not a must do. And, there are no shortage of TukTuk’s to choose from, almost too many we were told. Low season booking wasn’t really required.

Photos of Gibraltar. Left: The Mediterranean Steps in Gibraltar. Center: View toward Algeciras over Gibraltar’s moles and dockyards. The Gibraltar Barbary Macque (Macaca sylvana).

What worked?

Ronda and Cádiz. Both were both standouts for us, to the point we are planning to go back. We wished we had doubled our time in both cities. The risk of packing a fixed schedule with many stops is when a place really stands out, you feel like like you’ve miscalculated in your planning because of the desire to spending more time there. From Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera is not far and is definitely worthy of visit (we only stopped for lunch).

The train rides to and from Ronda provided beautiful scenery for relaxing and staring out the windows.

In Tangier, visiting the Cap Spartel Gran Reserva Natural de Tanger and Caves of Hercules. When I read about these, I thought they both sounded a bit boring. But, we were glad we got to see the outlying area around Tangier, which is surprisingly extensive and lush. The caves are interesting because the walls, which  are patterned from the extractions of millstones cut out of the limestone.

We had originally planned to spend a day in Sintra by taking the train from Lisbon. Due to fatigue and one of us not feeling well, we ended up scrapping a day trip Sintra. We were glad we did because we got to spend more relaxed time Lisbon. Also, from what we could tell about the number of things to see in Sintra and how we travel, one day in Sintra would not have been enough. So we chose well to skip Sintra this time and visit it by itself as a 2-3 day future trip.

On our way from Algceris to Cádiz, we stopped in Jerez de la Frontera for a wonderful lunch at Bar Juanita.

What would we do different?

First, our decision to base ourselves in the city of Algeciras, was based on our desire to see both Gibraltar and go to Tangier for the day. In retrospect, we could have stayed in Tarifa or La Línea de la Concepción. We were trying to avoid staying in Gibraltar.

Side note on Algecerias. Algeciras tested us on our belief that every town has something to recommend. We arrived late on a Sunday afternoon, and the town was absolutely dead. Our mood was further dampened by a weird experience finding our AirBnB lodging, followed by trouble finding a place to eat. Eventually, we warmed up to Algeciras and found interesting things like the the daily market (except Sunday!) and Plaza Alta with its beautiful tile work. However, it’s a port town with lots of people just passing through, which lends a ragged and transitory feeling to the place.

Second, we wouldn’t be a slave to having to stay in a central location in a city. Staying too centrally, burned us a bit in Lisbon. We thought that being centrally based in Lisbon would make the most sense because the city seemed big. We stayed dead center on the beautiful, but noisey Rua Augusta. Its shining marble paved streets were beautiful to behold through the apartment windows, but not to listen to all night through single pane windows. Also, some apartment buildings in the tourist areas of the Baixa lease out the bottom space to businesses to help defray the costs of building maintenance. This meant that the entrance to our AirBnB in Lisbon was through a souvenir shop. Charming or tacky? Your call. Where we were staying, the shop on the ground floor closed up at night and if you didn’t know better, you wouldn’t even know it was there. Next time in Lisbon, we’ll stay in the Chaido, Barrio Alto, or Alfama neighborhoods.

Third, we would choose different routing from Cádiz to Lisbon. It was odd, in retrospect, to tack on Lisbon to this trip. You will either pay in time or money getting from Cádiz to Lisbon. We rented a car with an exorbitant drop off fee in a different country. That said, it was an easy and beautiful drive from Cádiz to Lisbon, with a surreal lunch stop in the mining town of Alustrel, Portugal. I think if we had more days we would have spent a few days in Seville after Cádiz, and then moved on to Lisbon with a short flight. As it was, to get to Lisbon from Cádiz, we end up driving around the outskirts of Seville. Check Rome2Rio for other options between Cádiz to Lisbon.

Photos of Ronda. Left: View from Palacio de Mondragón. Right: Horses in Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Ronda


Photos of Ronda. Left: Calle Pedero Romero, Ronda. Center: Exploring Called Escolleras. Right: View toward Parque Natural Sierra de Grazalema.

Photos of Ronda. Left: Alameda del Tajo, Ronda. Right: View from the walls of the Cijara.

Photos of Tangier. Left: Cave of Hercules. Center: Tangier medina. Right: Alley in the medina.

Photo of Algeciras, Spain, Plaza Alta

Photos of Lisbon. Top Left: Jardim de São Pedro de Alcântara - Jardim António Nobre. Top Right: Praça do Comércio. Bottom Left: Rua Augusta in the morning. Bottom Right: Time Out Market.

Seduzione Repulsione: What Plants Don't Say

Left: Flyer for the exhibition Seduzione Repulsione; Right: A statue shivers in Città Alta.

We've been in Bergamo for several weeks (on and off) and haven't seen much precipitation, let alone snow, and finally one Sunday we wake to snow. Of course, we do what's everyone else thinks to do and we hike up to Città Alta to see how the jewel of Bergamo looks in snow. The answer: pretty as always. With the flow of tourists, we amble up via Gombito, which changes to via Bartolomeo Colleoni, and find ourselves in the Piazza della Cittadella. In a tucked away corner we never noticed before, we stumble on the Sala Viscontea dell’Orto Botanico and the fascinating exhibition Seduzione Repulsione: quello che le piante non dicono ("Seduction Repulsion: What plants don't say").

The exhibition is travelling exhibition ("mostra itinerante") sponsored by the Rete degli Orti Botanici della Lombardi. The exhibition consisted of large information boards discussing various aspects related to seducing and repulsing abilities of plants. Items to touch and smell and associated research papers accompanied the boards. In other words, a place plant geeks could spend hours.

Examples of the information in the exhibit Seduzione Repulsione.

Colli di Bergamo Hike

 

Left: Hike overview. Start and end was in Bergamo. Right: View of San Vigilio from Via Colle dei Roccoli.

Hike Notes

Length: 14.3 miles (23 km).
Duration: About 6.5 hours, with a little futzing time at Santuario del Sembrano our turn around point.
Elevation: Total elevation gain 2,832 feet (863 m), max elevation 1,563 feet (476 m), starting elevation 844 feet (257).
Location: Parco di Colli di Bergamo, Bergamo, Province of Bergamo

Overview

The first hike of the year is in the city we are on the verge of adopting as a home and it was a great introduction to the hills and forested area just north of the Bergamo. This area is part of what is called the Parco di Colli di Bergamo. On this hike, we walked out of the Bergamo historic center (we are staying on Via Tasso) up the Città Alta and kept on going northwest until we reached the Santuario di Sembreno. These series of hills are part of the Bergamasque Prealps with Bergamo at the southeastern tip and Paladina at the northwestern tip.

 

There are many ways you could walk these hills. With a good paper map (for example, we used the map Carta dei sentieri del Parco dei Colli di Bergamo and the book Escursionismo nelle valli bergamasche) and your favorite map application, you are set to explore and make your own path. Once you get used to the red and white signs, you can find your way around with confidence. The signs show time (h) to destination, and on occasion distance (km).

 

On this first day of 2016, we walked under a sunny winter sky which forced us to shed our jackets a few times when in the sun and climbing, especially on the west side of the hills. We saw bikers, joggers, and walkers of all types taking advantage of the sun and the holiday.

 

We started our walk from from Caffè Papavero (Via Pignolo, 96) -- a perfect start to any day – and after coffee headed up to Città Alta. From the Porto S. Agostino, we went northwest to Santuario del Sembrano and then reversed our path with some differences on the way back. On our return trip we took the Sentiero dei Vasi (912) and then came straight back through the heart of Città Alta, with slighty muddy boots hoping to pick up pane noce e uvetta and pane cioccolato at Il Fornaio (Via Bartolomeo Colleoni, 1).

 

It's one of those hikes (like the Canto Alto hike we did a few days earlier) that combines city, maintained countryside "agroforestali", bits of wild and neglected spaces, and always something interesting to stop and puzzle over. Along the way you are never far from the sound of church bells, sometimes in chorus as they ring from different towns. Walking the spine of these hills feels like you are eavesdropping on the towns below.

 

Left: At the beginning of the hike - Fontana del delfino; Right: House and persimmon tree on Via Colle dei Roccoli. The weird look to the atmosphere is due to high particulate matter, a problem in the Milan and Bergamo area this year due to unusually warm weather and lack of rain.

 

Left: Southern part of sentierio 711. Center: Example signage for sentiero 711.  Right: Entrance to Santuario di Sembreno.

Left: A woman reading at Santuario di Sembreno; Right: More trail signage.

Left: The prize at at the end of the hike at Il Fornaio in the Città Alta, pane noci e uvetta and pane cioccolato. Right: A “roccoli,” which is a bird snare that was common hundreds of years ago. Some roccoli are still in use for catching or studying birds. For more information, see Italian Historical Rural Landscapes: Cultural Values for the Environment and Rural Development. The Colli di Bergamo includes the streets Colle dei Roccoli and the Colle di Roccolone (big roccoli?).

 

Signage along the Sentiero dei Vasi (912) trail, a walk on an ancient acqueduct.This trail has interesting and signs with interesting tidbits of information spread out along the trail. In one part, gold flashy leave shapes dangled from the bare trees living up the late winter afternoon. The photo here shows recipes based on the local flora: Piantaggine lanceolata (Plantain), Fragaria vesca (Woodland strawberry), Symphytum tuberosum (Tuberous comfrey), and Rumex acetosa (Sorrel).