Ronda

Today we took at day trip to Ronda, which is a province of Malaga. It is located at a basin surrounded by mountains and is one of the oldest cities of Spain.  There are many archaeological findings in the city space that belong to the Neolithic Age.  We met at Correos at 8AM and took a two hour bus ride to the city.  The views there were amazing!  
Some of the important places that we saw were:  
1. The New Bridge and the Bullring of the Royal Cavalry Order of Ronda-the New Bridge was constructed from 1751-1793, after the first bridge that was built in 1735 collapsed and killed around 50 people.  The construction of the Bullring of the Royal Cavalry Order of Ronda took more than 40 years.  The building has a height of 98 meters.  It allowed for the connection between the modern quarter of the city, called the market's quarter, and the old quarter of the city.  This allowed for the urban development of Ronda.  

2.The Palace of Mondragon-this building is considered the most significant civil monument of Ronda.  It is also known as the Palace of the Marquis of Villasierra and has several distinctive architectural aspects. 
3. The Bullring- Because of the history and architecture of the bullring in Ronda, it is recognized as one of the oldest and most monumental bullrings in Spain and the place were the modern bullfighting art was born. 
4. The Arab Public Baths- These baths are located in the old Arab quarter of the city, today called the San Miguel Quarter.  These baths were really cool to see.  We also went into this little room and watched a movie that told us what the different rooms were used for and how they operated.
After the tour, we had about two hours to eat, shop, and explore the city.  Some of us ate the lunches that our Senoras had packed us in the beautiful park that was right near the Bullring, while other's went to eat at McDonald's.  It's funny that although there are several McDonald's' all over Europe, they seem to have a few very different items from city to city, or country to country.  The McDonald's in Ronda sold beer, chicken wings, and "build-your-own" McFlurries were you choose two different toppings/syrups from several different choices such as kit-kat, chips ahoy, white chocolate syrup, caramel, and more.   I bought three post cards for my postcard collection.  Around 4:30, we boarded the coach bus for the ride back to Granada. It was definitely a fun, interesting, and exhausting day!