Wanderlust: Day 27 Granada to Ronda

Our travels have been fairly relaxed so far but today we are up early to catch the 6.45am train to Ronda - which is actually a bus! Apparently there has been work going on with the "fast train" for the last 4 - 5 years so the first hour and a quarter of our journey is by bus to Antequera St Ana where we then board the train to Ronda. A cab to Hotel Monelirio, which literally sits on the very edge of the precipice that is the feature of Ronda. It is an old hotel but quite comfortable, lacking some basic items such as bottled water and a few other luxuries we have become accustomed to .... but, it's just for the night. There are a number of hotels in Ronda an in retrospect this hotel was probably not the best choice for me given my fear of heights - sleep eluded me almost entirely when it finally came time for bed. The view of the gorge was amazing and the Roman bridge that spanned it was another engineering feat of brilliance, but it was all fairly scary nonetheless. We spent the day walking around the township - in most of these towns it really only takes a brief reconnaissance before you can get your bearings fairly easily and feel confident in traversing most of the areas. There is a park in the middle of town with tributes to both Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles, both of whom spent considerable time in Ronda. We also visited the Ronda bullring. Of the five bullrings still in existence in Spain the locals consider their bullring to be the oldest (1779 - 1784) though I think Sevilla may have the edge. It is home to a riding school, Escuela de Equitacion, and we were able to watch one of their beautiful horses being put through his paces. There is a main mall through the town with most of the major shops there. We stop at Las Maravillas for tapas for lunch and it was great! For dinner we head to Tragata and despite it's good reviews, (and the first time we have ever eaten pig's ears - they're not just for Poppy and Molly!) I think we both preferred Las Maravillas.