Our first day we woke up after a very late night, got outside and were greeted by beautiful blue skies! We got a better look at the Johnson’s rental van which was huge! Chris looks tiny in this van! Not only that his seat was raised up like he was a truck driver. So after we had a lot of laughs and joked about the “Milk Carton on Wheels” we hit the road for our 1 hour drive to Ronda.
Ronda is one of the larger “White Hill Towns” of the southern region of Spain, called Andalucia. The White Hill Towns are known for being the ideal of what Americans picture Spain to be. Rick Steve’s says, “ These towns were established on the front line of the centuries-long fight to recapture Spain from the Muslims, who were slowly pushed back into Africa. The Hill Towns-no longer strategic, no longer on any frontier-are now just passing time peacefully emerged in Spanish Culture”. Ronda is one of the most spectacular White Hill Towns because of its gorge-straddling setting. Its main attraction up above is this “Puente Nuevo” bridge which spans the gorge. It is known as the “new bridge” only because it was rebuilt in the mid 1700’s after the first bridge built did not hold up and fell only 6 years after its completion.
Spaniards know Ronda as the birthplace of modern bullfighting. It is home to the first great Spanish bullring. Bullfighting was initiated by Philip II as war training for knights in the 16th century. Ronda’s bullfighting star Francisco Romero melded the noble and chaotic kinds of bullfighting with rules to establish modern bullfighting right here in Ronda in the early 1700s. He introduced the scarlet cape, held unfurled with a stick. His son Juan further developed the art of bullfighting, and Francisco’s grandson Pedro was one of the first great Matadors (bullfighters), killing nearly 6,000 bulls in his career.
We paid to go into the Museum of bullfighting and into the bullring. It was really impressive. It tried to be rainy when we first entered, but soon the blue skies came back.
These little areas behind this board where Jared and the boys are standing are where the Matadors would run and hide from the bulls if they were after them. The matador can squeeze in for safety, but the bull can not fit. There are several around the arena to offer the Matador safety.
After playing for a good half hour of “pretend bullfights” and getting lots of footage for home videos, we decided to move on to other sights of Ronda. Our group is pretty silly when we get together….cameras are snapping constantly and you never know when silly things are getting made into forever memories on videos!
These red doors below are where they would house the bulls until it was time for them to be led into the ring. They were like small little prison cells.
It was a really cool city to hike around and see the unique landscape from every angle.
The kids always know how to have a lot of fun wherever we are. They paused here for a game of Missionary Tag.
We hiked down for a new view of the Puente Nuevo and took some pictures. It was such a great day to kick off our week in Spain! Can you believe how happy all these kiddos are…..those Johnsons must drink a lot of sugar! It is nice to vacation with them. They are so easy to get along with and travel with. You would hardly know that there are 15 of us! Well, you might notice:)
The Tajo ravine divides the city of Ronda into the whitewashed old Moorish town (La Ciudad) and the new town (El Mercadillo) that was built after the Christian reconquest in 1485.
I loved all the yellow paint on the houses…..its my new favorite color these days. 
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