She said:

How exciting to walk into a bus station and have no real destination . The original plan was to head down to Tarifa, then daytrip to Gibraltar. However, buses and trains didn't work out, and we decided to divert. Ahh, the beauty of travel with no real obligation. We recognized a city from Bethany and Andre's trip to Spain, so we bought tickets to Ronda, another hill town in Andalucia.

We arrived late at night after a full day in Jerez, and found cheap accommodations. Chad took me to a nicer dinner overlooking the big bridge to make up for the hostel, and we called it a night early. To my delight, the hostel didn't have availability for the second night we were there, so we switched to place called Herminos Macios. This family owned hotel, with an accompanying restaurant and bar, was much nicer and atmospheric and it even had a ceiling fan! The owner was extremely accommodating and breakfast was on the house!

Our first full day in Ronda, we explored much of what they are know for, bridges . Particularly, there are three bridges, the newer one Puente Nuevo is the biggest and much bigger than the other two put together. Chad was reminded of his fear of heights when we looked down, and after a good laugh and lots of pictures, we moved on. We saw an old Moorish castle with a mine and gardens, so clearly we could not pass on the self guided tour (sarcasm?). As we descended down into the mines, the temperature was dropping and the atmosphere was getting eerily cool. We got to the bottom and took pictures of the ravine, and then realized there was really no more to see, so we began the long climb back up. Since this tour was Chad's big idea, and he began to complain about the stairs back up, I decided to count them to remind him later when he wanted to see yet another Moorish castle. One hundred and eighty seven stairs later we arrived back to where we started. Chad was truly the picture of Chevy Chase when he gets lost in the desert in National Lampoons Vacation, "Thirsty kids?"

From there, we explored a little more and while Chad was exploring some Arab baths, I met up with a wonderful couple from Washington state. Rick and Judy were carrying a Rick Steve's travel book so a conversation starter was easy (Rick Steves has basically guided our whole trip thus far). They invited us to check out their hotel room, bad idea, they had a swimming pool! They offered for us to hang out there, but there was more touring for the Stamm's this day, so we declined and made plans to meet for dinner .

We ended up eating at the restaurant downstairs from our room at the recommendation of a local woman. The food was as great as the company, and we really enjoyed the night.

The next morning we bought our overnight train tickets to Madrid and locked our stuff up at the station. Unfortunately for us, it was Sunday, and just like Sevilla, everything was closed. The only "attraction" open was the bullring tour, so off we went. Thank goodness there was no bullfight that day, so instead we heard of the history and legacy of bullfighting and toured the bullring. From there, we still had about 8 hours to kill before the train left, so we sat in the middle of the park and miraculously found a wireless signal. As the battery of the computer died, we moved to a McDonalds, bought a $2.00 medium coke (can you believe that?), and sat upstairs for another few hours using the plugs and internet. We grabbed a quick bite (not at mickey d's where a quarter pounder was like 8 dollars), and headed to the train station for our overnight train to Madrid ...

He Said:

After a long day of traveling and sight seeing, and especially after Alli sacrificed a touch-screen-elevator hotel to save 22 euros at the local pension, I thought it might be nice to treat us to a splurge dinner overlooking the Puente Nuevo, a bridge built before the birth of the United States that sits 100 meters above a narrow gorge. What ensued, though, was a decent dinner with a great view consisting of bad goat cheese and an Argentinean wedding singer that sounded similar to me belting out my favorite Menudo tunes in the shower. Needless to say, I think he was pissed about the shootout loss to Germany and decided to make the whole town pay with a Spanish accent version of "Just the Two of Us" that eroded the canyon walls.

Ronda and its famous bridges were quite a site and a definite surprise since we hadn't planned on coming here. It's also one of those places where you could see yourself living. It's only about 35,000 people, but it has a lively newer section of town with café filled plazas, cliff-side parks, and square blocks filled with restaurants and pedestrian thoroughfares. It's older, medieval side of town has Arab baths, old monasteries, narrow streets, and a Moorish king's house that was once used as a fortress. The three bridges connect the newer and older sides of town that are divided by the gorge .

The city of Ronda also lays claim to the oldest bullring in the world, which is considered the birthplace of the modern bullfight and was often visited by Ernest Hemingway. A museum in the old section of town had an amazing exhibit of photographs all taken on one day when Picasso attended a fight. Judging by the photos, he was as big a star as the matadors.

On our only full day in Ronda, we climbed down to the river's edge through access at the Casa del Rey Moro, the Moorish king's house. I then visited the best preserved Arab bath's in Spain while Alli waited outside in the sun and met a couple from Washington state in the parking lot. I could instantly tell they were both teachers, and later that night we ate dinner and talked about teaching, skiing, the sites we have seen, the people we have met, and anything else that needed to be discussed. Over two hours and a pot of jerez on the house later, we exchanged numbers and wrapped up one of the most pleasurable dining experiences we've had thus far. We made plans to go water skiing with the Wrights on the Columbia River after they come down to Colorado for some back bowl skiing in Vail.

Meeting people along the way has been one of the best parts of the trip so far, which is not nearly as big of a surprise as finding out that my wife has problems with her short-term memory. Who was complaining again? OK, better check myself. I was only looking for shade.