Pueblo Blanco Ronda

It was a beautiful day in Andalucia and we had a 90 min drive over to Ronda, one of the pueblos blancos or white hill towns. We took the scenic route, which was a very curvy drive with lots of switchbacks but with pretty views of little towns.

Despite some of the predictions I had read, Ronda was relatively deserted of tourists when we arrived. It reminded me of Gordes in Provence with the hillside perch and the beautiful views. Of course, Gordes was overrun when we were there, so the quiet of Ronda was a nice change.

We had lunch at Restaurant Don Miguel (pictured above), right under the famed bridge (this bridge is featured in all the Andalucia tourism ads). Lunch was imminently forgettable, other than the lovely location. This bridge (the new bridge, from 1793!) crossed into the old town and we had a nice hike across it, and back across the old bridge (2 centuries older).

Ronda is also the home of the bullfight and has a famous old bullring. Here are the kids doing their best matador imitations.

We've determined that a successful vacation requires one, if not two, ice cream stops per day - so we made the requisite stop in Ronda and headed home via the coast. It was interesting to see how built up the Costa del Sol was - golf courses, big beautiful homes on the hills and right down by the coast, massive, ugly condo complexes and hotels. This was quite the contrast with the inland areas.

And finally, the kids jumped into the pool and we had a quiet dinner at home at 9 pm. We're really taking to these Spanish hours ;)