Ronda

Today Tim picked us up early at the house around 9:00. We are becoming best buds with him…=]. We stopped by the bank at Sotogrande Port to pick up some cash for the trip and then went down the street to get a coffee. It was so good, a lot better than the instant de-caf crap that we have been drinking at the house at night when it gets cold. It is amazing how the weather changes from day to day here.

At 10:30 we made our way to a gas station in Torreguardiaro, a small town between our house and Sotogrande Port. I started getting nervous when the bus hadn’t shown up and it was 10:45. Not long after a coach bus pulled up into a parking lot and a British man named David stepped out. He would be our tour guide for the day accompanying Julie for the day. There were about twenty people total going on the tour.

We rode the bus from Todaguardiaro to the train station at Algeciras. This is where we may catch a train if we want to travel to Madrid and Barcelona during Thanksgiving break. I talked to the employee at the train station about the cost and length of a trip to Madrid…in Spanish. I was so proud. Before getting on the train we walked though a Spanish market. This was one of our first real cultural experiences since a lot of the area is actually occupied by the British. The market was very busy and loud, ladies hang on to your purses. We saw some very interesting things, especially in the meat section, not very appetizing looking at whole animals hanging dead from the ceiling. I looked briefly and then decided to walk quickly through the rest of the market with my head down to avoid feeling nauseous.

As we boarded the train on platform four we passed a very large group of soldiers (500 at least)…not sure where they were from.

Our train ride was a little about two hours through the mountains to the town of Ronda. The line opened in 1896 and was built by an English engineer. We made a few stops along the way at small diminutive stations almost all identical. When we got to Ronda we walked through the town and looked at the beautiful scenery. We stopped to take pictures of the old architecture and statues including the bull statue outside the bullfighting ring! After eating lunch at a café we walked through the town over the Puente Nuevo y Puente Roman (old and new bridges in the city). The town streets are uneven cobblestone and very narrow, not a fun place to drive, or wear stilettos!

Around five o’clock we made our way back and rode by coach home. David, our tour guide was hilarious, cracking jokes and narrating the entire two hour drive home. One of his jokes was that when people thought the world was still flat if you sailed between the two large rocks out at sea (Gibraltar and Africa) you would fall off the edge of the earth and go to hell….now you just go to America.

After listening to his narration, my brain was exhausted from soaking in all of the information he had to provide about little towns, landmarks along the way and Spanish history. I learned that Spain produces 25% of the world’s olives and olive oil. I also learned how olives are picked and how extra virgin, virgin, and regular olive oil is processed. I would love to go to an olive orchard/factory for a tour. We also learned that 75% of the worlds cork comes from the cork oak trees in Spain and Portugal alone. The tour was great, I am learning so much about Spanish culture and history.