
Mrs RM were discussing the places that have bowled us away over 30 years of travel.
Cappadocia, Genoa, Kathmandu and the Annapurnas, Naples, the Blue Lagoon, Havana, the Antrim coast, the blue penguin crossing in Dunedin, Stockport, Venice (the view from the station exit).
To that list we unanimously add Ronda, a mountaintop city set above a dramatic gorge in Andalucia.

If it’s worth going to Buenos Aires just to have steak and chips and a bottle of Malbec, it’s worth visiting Ronda just to stand on top of the bridge over the Guadalevin and go “WOW !”.


You feel almost giddy at the sheer drop down to the plains, which pleasingly contain no micropubs, GBG or otherwise.

The Old Town over the bridge isn’t actually that stunning once you’ve done Andalucia,


Most day trippers seem to stop at the restaurants looking into the gorge, giving up on the steep lanes to the south where you can get lost and then pick up calorific pastries.
“Excellent choice, it is LOCAL !” said the pastry man, the way that craft bar in Windsor would enthuse about your choice of a pastry stout from Eton.

Don’t be fooled; just because it’s LOCAL doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
What did you do to the poor penguin to turn it blue?
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Use yr imagination. No, please don’t.
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Looks lovely! Probably a good idea to go before all the tourist hordes arrive.
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Exactly, Morten.
I went again at 7am and it was deserted. And beautiful.
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They are the tourist hordes!
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“I AM Ronda’s Tourist Horde”. Reader’s Digest September 1997.
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I Was A Teenage Tourist Horde – The Cramps
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An extraordinary place, as you say. Did you drive or get the train? We drove from Marbella up the mountains – very alarming in places!
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Ha ! Yes, caught the train from Cordoba, and then the bus to Marbella and then back to Malaga. We both felt sick on the bus as it wound down those mountains. Good bus driver, mind.
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