Day trip to beautiful Ronda, Spain

We had originally planned on taking the motorhomes up to the mountaintop city of Ronda (pop 35,000) but that was last week when they had an oddball snowstorm up there  so we never made it. But, we thought we might be able to head there on our way back through towards the end of February.

Instead, I saw that there is a train that goes from Algeciras to Ronda and the reports said that the train journey itself is quite scenic.

We decided to leave the motorhomes parked where they are in La Linea. It then made more sense to make our way to the next stop along the line at the San Roque-La Linea station to board the train.

We took a taxi to get there. Not cheap, at €20 ($29 CAD, $22 USD) but split between the four of us it made sense just for the convenience. We had to get to the train station by 8:30am, so we were already up early. Taking the bus would have meant getting up even earlier.

Our train arrives!

From San Roque-La Linea station to Ronda cost €24 ($35 CAD, $27 USD) per person round trip. It takes about an hour and a half each way.

Kevin, watching the world go by.

And the train trip was quite scenic. But as we found with the train we took from Barcelona, it's really tough to get decent photos from the train window. Too many reflections.

Th city of Ronda is very popular with the tourist crowd. It's easy to see why though....perched atop a couple of high cliffs with an old bridge joining the two cliffs together. It's quite spectacular to see.

We got off the train and walked to the viewpoints over the cliffs.

Nice park to get to the viewpoints.

Almost at the edge of the cliffs.

Ruth, admiring the views.

Scenery at Ronda.

Looking down.

Guess who?

The most famous attraction in Ronda is the "New Bridge"...Puente Nuevo. Not really that new, considering it was built in the 1700's! But it is the newest of the three bridges that connect the city over the canyon.

Our first view of Puente Nuevo.

Looking the other way.

There are a series of paths leading down to the bottom of the cliffs and Ruth and I went down to the bottom, underneath Puene Nuevo.

An old pathway went under the bridge. 

And it led to a view of the bottom of the gorge.

Scenery along the way.

Ruth, and the Puente Nuevo in Ronda, Spain.

The bridge construction began in 1751 and it took 42 years to build. Fifty workers are documented to have died during it's construction.

These homes have a view!

The old bridge is not so special. It was built in 1616.

Ruth, with friends Glen and Steve under the gateway to the old bridge.

The Old Bridge.

And the New Bridge.

We had a mid afternoon lunch in a typical Spanish cafe away from the tourist area. Nice lunch of Paella and a couple of drinks for a total of €12 ($17.40 CAD, $13.50 USD) for the two of us tax and tip included.

Then at 3:45pm, we hopped on the train back to La Linea. Ruth managed to get a few decent photos out the window of the Spanish countryside in this area.

Today, we're going back to Gibraltar! There's still a few things we want to see, plus we're going to drive the motorhome over there to fill up with fuel. Gibraltar is quite expensive for most things, but fuel is not one of them. I figured we'll save about $15 CAD by filling up over there, so it's worth it to us to take the extra time to do that.

Another great day in Spain! But, while we've had several nice days in a row with bright sunshine and warm temperatures, they're calling for some rain to go through tonight and tomorrow. 

Oh, and we've been using our Instagram account a little bit more...if anybody wants to follow along with us there, we often post live images of where we are or what we're doing... https://www.instagram.com/travelwithkevinandruth/

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