Jacques and Rollande: March 17

Today was such an amazing day that I don’t know where to start, we were out of the apartment at 7:30 to catch the bus to plaza de Cuba where our tour began. We arrived early so we went and bought a chocolate croissant while waiting. I had made sandwiches for breakfast, so we saved them for later. We couldn’t find a place that was open and served coffee so croissant and water for breakfast.

We had a great day. The tour we took is basically a student travel agency. We did not know that when we first tried to book but they told us it was not a problem. They were the only agency that we found that offered both Ronda and Setenil. We were by far the oldest couple in the group. We could have been these kid’s grand parents the age difference was that big. There was one other lady who was not a student, she was middle aged. It was a first-class operation with a nice bus, a guide who gave us a walking tour of both places before giving us a meeting spot and leisure time. We would not hesitate to book with them again.

We started with Ronda which is 2 hours from Seville. During our walking tour, we saw the Iglesias de la Merced, Alameda del Tajo, Plaza del Toro, jardines de Blas infante, Puente Nuevo, Puente Vieja and Puente Arabe.

The normal route to go down to see the bridge (Puente Nuevo) is closed for maintenance so the only route available is to go down around the town. The road down is very steep but you really notice it on your way up. It was about 2 km from our meeting spot. It is worth the trek down, but my muscles will be stiff tomorrow there is no doubt. Today was the first day since our arrival that we did any uphill walking, so it was tough. It took a good portion of our 2 hour and 30 minutes of free time. We were glad to have sandwiches and water. We both drained our water bottles as it was very hot around 25 degrees. We were back near our meeting point with enough time to stop for a quick small beer and buy more water.

Beautiful street art outside the bus station.

Pedro Romero - 5,000 bullfights without an injury.

Orson Wells and Ernest Hemingway spend a lot of time in Ronda.

View of the gorge.

Previous picture was taken from ledge at the far left of the picture.

Our guide only told us after we took the picture.

Side view of the new bridge.

A long way down.

Many poets spent time in Ronda.

The original bridge into Ronda.

Bath house where people would cleanse themselves before entering the city.

Original gate to the city.

New bridge from the back.

On our way down to see the bridge from the front.

Beautiful mixture of yellow, red and blue flowers.

The path that is normally taken but it was closed for repairs.

A ways to go yet.

The town of Ronda

Small park in Ronda.

The first bullring in Spain.

Interesting letter slot.

Our next stop was Setenil de Bordegas. Setenil is famous for its dwellings built into rock overhangs above the river Trejo. Buses are not allowed in the town anymore, so we had to walk from the parking lot to the town of about 3,000 people. This town is the highlight of our trip. The word Setenil comes from the word septem nihil meaning ‘’seven times no’’. It refers to the seven times the Catholic rulers tried to take back the territory from the Moors before they succeeded. I don’t remember the year. It happened during the reign of King Ferdinand and Isabella 200 years after Seville was conquered. Of course, the walking tour comprised more uphill climbs.

We went inside a few of the stores and restaurants. The ceilings and backwalls and some even a sidewall as well are stone because they built their buildings using the rock ‘cave’ as part of their walls. It keeps them cool in the summer heat when temperatures can reach as high as 45 degrees.

Jacques and I made the Instagram page of ‘welovespain.org’. There is a spot where there is a plaque saying kiss me in this place. According to our guide who posted the pictures of the people in our group kissing, we were in 1^st place in the kissing contest by the time we arrived back to Seville. Not bad for two old farts.