Jamie Fehr

So, what’s to see in Ronda? In a word: Lot’s. Ronda is the closet thing you can find to North Africa (Architecturally, that is) without heading across the Straight of Gibraltar. The only problem I had, was that I didn’t bring enough money to pay for entrance to all of the historical sites and still eat some lunch and I just didn’t think lunch was a good trade for the seven euros it was to see “Casa del Rey Moro.” So, in the end I stuck to the sites that ranged in price from free to two euros, which included:

Alameda de Tajo

A really nice park situated on the edge of the cliffs of Ronda in the new part of town. You can find some fountains here for cooling off after a hard day of sight seeing. The park was unusually green for being in the south of Spain in August, the trees had leaves and there were flowers and everything.
Price: Free

Puente Nuevo

The name means “New Bridge” but don’t let the name fool you, it’s construction was finished well over 200 years ago. This is probably one of the most famous structures in Ronda and while you can cross it for free the actual bridge museum costs a paltry two euros. The tour is actually very interesting, did you know that they used to have a hotel inside of the bridge?
Price: 2 Euros

Murallas de la Albacara

Walls of Albacara. The best part about being in Europe is that you don’t have to go far to find a Castle. Sarah and I were doing the very spanish “pasear” thing (I think it means “to wander” and yes it is an actual activity that you would call up your friend and say “So … want to go pasear tonight?”), anyway, we climbed a parapet and hung out on the wall for a while.
Price: Free

Palacio de Mondragón

The Palace of Mondragon was one of the coolest places in Ronda. It was an old Moorish style structure not at all unlike what you might find in Morocco, it had a cool inner courtyard, gardens, fountains and some great exhibits on the area of Ronda. From the paraphernalia given to me by the Ayuntimiento de Ronda:

Important building of the 16th century. It emphasizes the Mudejar style and it’s magnificent courts. The most significant civil monument of Ronda. Headquarters of the Museum of Ronda.

I know, the english used wasn’t very good, but it does say it’s an important building and …
Price: 2 Euros

Iglesia del Espíritu Santo

The Church of the Holy Spirit was very typical of your average European cathedral. I didn’t bother to take any pictures because it wasn’t that impressive. It was, however, a very cool and dark building to enter during the hot August sun and it only cost one euro to get inside (it really did feel a little blasphemous to have to pay to get into church).
Price: 1 Euro

This isn’t the exhaustive list, but at this point I think you might be ready for a summary. Ronda is a small town in the Andalucia region of Spain. It really is a great day trip and when you do go plan on a few things:

1. Spending about 30 euros to see all the sights there are (really, you can do this in one day and I think that they all would be worth seeing)
2. Doing a lot of walking. Ronda is pretty small and it is possible to see the whole town walking but there is a lot of stairs and hills.
3. Getting there early and checking the bus/train schedule for the last few buses/trains back to your home (lest you get stuck for an unexpected night in a small foreign town).

One thing that I didn’t comment on was the Bullring as I am not really into that kind of thing, but I think Ronda’s is pretty famous. You might want to check into it if bull-torture is your thing.