Ronda
Well, Ronda you caught my eye (caught my eye)
And I can give you lotsa reasons why
You gotta help me Ronda
Help me get her out of my heart
Help me Ronda - The Beach Boys :-)
When I woke up this morning I felt like a train had run over me. I had a very bad night's rest, probably dreaming of lost love. What's worse I had caught a nasty cold, probably because of the airconditioning of the car. The weather in Ronda didn't help much since there was a chilly cold blowing through the El Tajo gorge and every time you came close to it you'd almost be blowing out of your shoes. The sky was cloudy but fortunately there were more than enough moments of warm sunshine.
Ronda is one of those places to die in, or at least a must see before you do.
Mark and I stayed at this square with the statue of Hercules with two lions getting some extra beers and joking about classic Monthy Python scenes until we were in a mood silly enough to visit the Museo Lara that had an exposition about the Inquisition (' Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!'). The museum was a weird place with the strangest collection of old stuff, ranging from guns to clocks, old film cameras to telephones, with not much of a central theme (besides 'old junk').
We got back to the hotel, took the remaining bottle of Licor 43, two glasses and a bag of nacho chips and found us a nice spot near El Tajo with a marvellous view. Not getting too close we could enjoy the warm sunshine while fantasising which of the houses on the mountain at the other side of the gorge would be ours when we'd retired. A perfect way to spent the rest of the afternoon, which we ended with a cup of coffee and an ice cream at a place I normally avoid like the plague: McDonalds. They had wifi internet so it gave me a chance to check some emails.
By the evening it had gotten really cold and my own cold was getting worse, so after having dinner I got between the sheets early after taking a couple of painkillers.
Everything was basically average about this place. It does not have any Internet access or PCs and don't expect anything special besides a coffee room, dining hall and lobby. The breakfast was okay, but nothing out of the ordinary.
But the worst thing was ... that awful smell that hung in the rooms when they had cleaned it. What the hell are they using? Aqua de Garlic? It smelled like somebody had started a shoarma restaurant in there. And it most certainly wasn't just our room. We checked another one which was even worse! Surely, there must be places with a much nicer odour in lovely Ronda.
Also, the hotel has its own parking beneath the building. But make sure you bring a small car, because navigation with our Opel Zafira was almost impossible in there.
