September 12 2019--Day 9 of the Spain and Portugal in Depth trip

Casa Grande, AZ

Now I am more than a month behind on blogging about our Spain and Portugal trip.  

On this day we left the Sol Don Hotel in Torremolinos after breakfast for a tour of one of the oldest cities in Spain.  Ronda was nicknamed the "Dream City" and once you see the 360 feet river gorge you'll know why.  Although, besides beauty if you've ever read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls you'll remember the place where the Fascists were thrown to their deaths during the Spanish Civil War.  

Whenever you book a trip with this tour company, there is always so much more than what the itinerary lists.  Bill was actually afraid there was too much time on your own.  

On our way to Ronda, Estefi said we were going to take a side trip to the ranch of a famous bull fighter.  I have to apologize because I've forgotten his name.  Our tour guide showed us inside the bull ring and the first thing I noticed was the gold colored dirt.  She told us it could either be red colored or the gold.  

I was surprised that they raised horses on this ranch.

The ranch was huge and Domingo had to really show off his driving skills manuvvering that bus through all the gates.

Everyone had a chance to practice in the practice arena. The capes were very heavy.The ranch also had a museum, chapel and of course a gift shop.

When we arrived in Ronda, we had another interesting guide.  Here's the view of the gorge below.  That's the road we drove up on.Here's a better view of the gorge.Our surprise treat for the day was a visit to a ham shop and small museum where we had the acorn fed pig with wine and cheese.  I couldn't believe 200 Euro for a kilo of ham, but it did taste good. It was another fun filled adventure.  We had time to walk along the beach when we returned to Torremolinos.  I have to tell a funny story here, Hal and Sue had dinner with us the previous night and we all loved our fresh fish dinner and wine at this cute little cafe on the beach.  We decided to return to the same place for dinner this night.  We went to the cafe and sat in the same corner table as the night before.  When the waiter brought the menu, we all looked at each other and said this isn't the same menu or special.  We ordered a wine and then walked down the street a little bit further to the place we had dinner the previous night.  We all got a laugh out of it and decided the wine at the first place wasn't as good. Turtle Safely........