Adventures in Andalucia - Part Tres

..A terrible night's sleep but no slacking. Shane is arriving at 8.30 for our trip to Ronda. As we pass out of the town the lattice of olive groves is illuminated by the morning sun.

Appropriately, given our trip to Ronda, a herd of bulls were grazing on the sparse pickings of the nearby pasture. Shane's explanation for the sudden appearance of the massed bovine was that it was Big Cow Friday (bit of a joker our Shane). We passed through Campillos, site of many leather apparel factories with attendant bars. There are more bars in Spain than there are in the rest of Europe! In fact there are 350,000 - must try most of them.

Outside Campillos we passed by a factory that manufactured brightly coloured children's rides - huge pink swans and multi-coloured side show dodgems. Turning left off the A road we drove through Teba the site of a Crusader battle between the Moors and the Earl of Montrose in 1350.

Ronda is the fastest growing town in Spain, partially due to a number of television series being made in Ronda in summer - in winter the rain is horizontal due to the wind. Ronda is a beautiful town with a rich history of siege and counter siege built around the deep gorges.

Ronda is also the site of the oldest and most venerated bull ring in Spain. To test the quality of the bull ring I swished Kim's red wrap about a few times and only got gored a bit. The outstanding features of the sandstone built ring are its elegant proportions highlighted by the two story arcade of Tuscan columns. Since 1954 the famous Corrida Goyesca takes place at the beginning of September each year; due to the popularity of the event tickets change hands for amounts in excess of 1000 euros.

By 2.00 pm we were starting to get a bit peckish. Across the plaza, down an alley, across a street and up another alley and we were at La Tabena de Antonio. Antonio wasn't there, but Paco was. Mine host's name was actually Francesco but everyone new him as Nancy - just joking! Nobody called Paco Nancy if they knew what was good for them. Paco's wife, Maria, operating out of a postage sized cochina provided a steady stream of tapas valued at 1 to 2 euros. We enjoyed pincho de polla (chicken on skewers), pate de Pendiz and alca chofitas (dressed baby artichokes).

Following tapas we continued down Los Remedios for coffee and dessert. The four Americanos cut through the sweetness of the heavy sweet pastry and cream. I opted for a chocolate shell filled with cream and walnuts and Kim consumed an apple flan.

The trip back to Rio Gordo was pretty uneventful but was enlivened by the site of a mother carefully walking home a freshly laundered Flamenco dress in Santa Ana.

.....to be continued (now we have wi fi again)