A Bridge So Old and It’s Called New Bridge
Beautiful Sight
Ronda is in the province of Malaga way up in the mountains above the Guadalevin river. It took us about two-hours from Seville. We parked at the city center underground parking garage and walked less than a mile towards the bridge. To me, it felt like more than a couple of miles walking. It’s understandable, we stopped in so many shops that it seemed long and distant.
Shops and More
Ronda has many great shops selling hand-made local crafts such as ceramics, cork work, saddlery, and woodcarving, as well as several name-brand stores. There’s no shortage of restaurants, bars, pubs, coffee shops, fast foods, and ice cream. We had already eaten at Setenil de Las Bodegas, therefore, ice cream for dessert from El Gelato seemed like a great choice — especially after all the walking (so I thought). Even though the weather was somewhere in the high 60’s it felt warm.
Amazing Structure
The highlight of our Ronda stop was Puente Nuevo. It’s a stone bridge crossing the ravine that unites the old city to the new city. The bridge is 322 ft tall and was built in 1793. They first began construction in 1735 and it was completed in 8 months but collapsed killing about 50 people. I guess the second attempt was carefully thought out since construction was not completed until 40 years after.
It’s a Way of Life Up There and So Amazing!
On either side of the bridge, you can see many white houses, hotels, and restaurants over-looking the ravine. It is breath-taking but also scary at least for me. My knees began to shake as I approached the edge of the bridge just to peek below at the ravine.
One of the Safest Towns in Spain
Ronda is such a marvelous town. It is small, charming, and captivating with all its luscious landscape and magnificent views. I would love to spend a night in one of the hotels overlooking the ravine. We didn’t know it would be such a lovely place to stay overnight and I’ve heard that Ronda is a safe city even for women alone.
I highly recommend adding Ronda to your list of places to visit in Spain. I’m in awe just looking at this magnificent structure built without our current tools and technology and I’m sure you would be too.
Originally published at http://travelerwows.com on December 10, 2019.
