Kiwi Roaming

Two of the most photographed places in Andalusia are Ronda and Setenil. We booked a one day English speaking tour which took us to both towns, we had to join the tour at 7:40am so an early start on our first day with a 30 minute walk to the bus stop meeting place. It was a full busload of people so yes we were those people! walking around in a large group causing chaos for everyone else.

Ronda – Is a hilltop town with a long history of conquerors and architecture as a result. We were met by a local tour guide who took us for a 2 hour walking tour of the old plus the new town which are joined by the famous bridge. Our guide was young and gave us her perspective on Spanish culture and aspects of the towns history, she also didn’t use a microphone so we all had to gather close so we could hear her which was challenging at times with such a large group.

First stop was a park containing a few statues commemorating important people in Ronda’s history, Ernest Hemmingway, Orson Wells and other writers who based themselves there over the years, the architect who designed and built the bridge and the bullfighting ring, the person who invented modern bullfighting and a woman who represents the typical woman of a time in Ronda. Next we went to look at the view and could see just how high up the town is sitting on cliffs of stone. We were still in the new town (new being built in the 1700s), our last stop before crossing into the old town was the bullfighting arena – apparently the oldest in Spain and is still in use once a year. Our guide told us all about how her generation is anti-bullfighting and all boycotting it in the hope it will die out given it’s so cruel for the animals.

Before the famous and impressive bridge joining the old and new towns was built there had been a couple of other bridges in it’s place which had failed because of the height, width, design and the stone used not coping with the winds that come up the river gully. Apparently the old town was almost impossible to access before the bridge, it was on top of a cliff and the narrow access way was very easy to defend. Interestingly there are no fortifications in Ronda which is because Napoleon’s brother, who ruled Spain for a time, ordered his soldiers to destroy all fortifications when they withdrew from a town or area.

We had our first look at, and crossed the Puente Nuevo bridge next. It spans a 120m deep chasm with a river below and the architect embraced the Roman arches style in creating it, he also used the local stone which is able to cope with the weather conditions. It certainly is interesting, especially the context of the massive ravine it sits across and the sheer cliffs below. It was hard to see from the top with sooooooo many tour groups and tourists about but we had a good go of muscling in to take photos. After the tour we had 2 hours on our own to explore so Steve and I walked down into some gardens which are designed as a viewing place for the bridge and took a few more pics and got to really look at the amazing creation it really is.

Our tour however continued before that into the old town. You can still see the strong Islamic architecture present even though the Christians worked hard to evolve it – one Bishop insisted every house have windows facing into the narrow streets, and the various temples were converted into churches over the years. Apparently the muslim community was given a grace period to convert or leave the town in the early 1600s. I was pretty fascinated about the windows in the houses, they all have steel structures that look like security grates over them. Apparently they were installed in the same time frame to enable the women of the town to meet men from the safety of their homes.

After the tour ended we went down to the viewing garden then decided we’d grab some tapas for lunch. The bar we chose had a menu of €1.50 tapas which seemed too good to be true but was honestly delicious. We also had €2.90 glasses of vino each too. Such a cheap meal and cool experience sitting out in the street on a leaner watching the world go by. After the tapas we wanted to go up to the rooftop bar that overlooks the bullfighting arena where we had a quick Sangria which was also yum and €5.90 so not too bad price wise for the wonderful view. We could have stayed there for hours but the bus was about to leave for our next stop.

Setenil de las Bodegas – is a tiny town with about 3,000 residents that is built into rock and looks sensational with the massive rock overhang roofs. The modern town evolved from a Moorish town of similar structures, essentially the shops or houses are in the rock with a front wall constructed to enclose it. It’s hard to describe. There is more town on top of the rocks but we didn’t venture up there, instead Steve and I walked the lower town streets and looked at the various different structures built into the rock. We got our most expensive gelato yet and sat watching people sitting below the overhanging rocks, discussing our next phases of the trip for a while in the sunshine.

I forgot to mention our bus parked up the top and we were taken down to the lower town on a tourist “train” one of those ones designed for children. It was crammed and just weird but was handy for taking us back up the hill at the end of a long day of walking.

It was a long day out with a good few hours to sleep on the bus. The sites weren’t as “wow” as we had expected, well maybe they were smaller than they look in the photos but they were amazing and really different to anything we have ever seen before with fascinating histories dating back thousands of years.