And there was Ronda!

You probably know Rondo Veneziano, and you’re also not bragging about it, for sure …
But what you may not be aware of is Ronda Andalucía!

So, we were chilling in Malaga (where else? George would say), drinking wine, eating crepes with one of the nice and beautiful young Mariette, the Charlotte kind of, but you know how life of Swiss people is, the schedule is the schedule, and it was already building some pressure on us, leaving no time to be bubbling around anymore.
The next stop we had decided on was in the bay of Cadix, the short name being “El Puerto de Santa Maria de España”, the long name being unpublishable, my blog package having some limits.

We decided, after the typical, short, relaxed and absolutely non-controversial 3 hours of discussion on the itinerary, to cut through the Sierra de las Nieves, hoping to see more of these Ratracks on duty. Or some ibex on whatever duty.

And we weren’t deceived: beautiful landscapes on the way, the best we have seen since hitting the road. Forget the Ratracks and the ibex, look at these few views:

The green (after so much rain, that’s a minimum …) meadows on the road climbing to the Sierra de las Nieves

Climbing to the Sierra of the snow

landing in the Sierra de la neige, but too late, it’s gone …

Sierra de las faltas Nieves.
As an artist, whose name gone missing in the slow but permanent loss of grey matter under my hairs, as if the grey transferred itself some layers up, but that is not the subject, put it once “where does all the white go when the snow melts?”

Okay, do you remember, some minutes ago, the post’s title? Something about Ronda? Now, it comes, thank you for your patience, please remain seated till the post is finished and the sign in front of you turns green.

Yes, The Puente Nuevo, built in 1570 and something, this is Ronda’s landmark known all around the world.

So we had to see it, because we are tourists and boomers, and making a blog for the others who don’t like to see the world themselves, or can’t because they are still working their a.. off to be able to see it (the world, not the a..) later.
We were a bit worried though that the whole thing might be some window dressing for the masses. That could be the case, but there is also more to it, there is a small and beautiful old town center, and there is what I thought I left behind me a few days ago: “The Mine”!

The Mine, starting almost at the bridge level.

The mine was built by the Nasrids, the Moors, back in the middle ages in order to bring water from the river to the city in case of siege.

It’s basically going straight 100m down in the cliff, with “stairs”, and the machine bringing the water up was on one side very sophisticated, but on the other side cheap and abundant in these times: a chain of Christian slaves.

Going down, approx. 20 floors …

Wet and cold

80 meters below …

you’re almost there…

The “secret room”, nobody knows what was its usage …

The last stairs, water dripping on one’s head makes you think: why doing all this, when water is going back down????

Reaching the bottom. What a view! The infrastructure is typical for the end of the 20th century, under the King Juan Carlos The Olé-Olé Corrupted.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

And exactly from there, down the river, in 1485, Rodrigo Ponce de León, after his pilates session (got it?), or more probably his soldiers got a foot in front of the small door, and the ones not fried from the burning aceite de oliva poured on their heads from 100m above were climbing the stairs (imagine it, when perfectly oiled …), and take the city from the Nasrins. Of course, there was a traitor involved. Without him, no chances. It’s always the human factor, always, says Chat-GPT.

In contrast to the wet, harrassed and half-fried soldiers of Ponce de León, after the climb, we simply took a rest in the beautiful Nasrins’ garden, where the peacocks are at home, and let you know it.