Not quite up to our (admittedly high) expectations
I’ll add more photos when I have more patience! Both my phone connection and the hotel wifi are slow.
Today’s ride was another I’d been looking forward to, based on Scott Anderson’s description from 2013. It was good, but not as good as the past few days’ riding we’ve enjoyed. As for Ronda, the jury’s out for now. We’d seen fantastic photos but we aren’t sure yet if the town lives up to its reputation.
Let’s back up to last night. After our late, decadent lunch, we wandered around Gaucin’s quiet streets and up to the castle, unfortunately closed on Mondays. We picked up some groceries for breakfast and retired to our comfortable, cozy apartment.
Sunset from our apartment balcony. It was too cold to sit out there, but the wall was all glass (openable if the temps were higher).
When the Spanish dinner hour arrived, neither of us felt particularly hungry so we decided not to go out. Instead, since we really had more muesli, yogurt, milk, and juice than we needed for breakfast, we had some of that for an evening snack to prevent waking up hungry in the middle of the night (it happens).
We finished that off this morning, packed up, and departed. It felt strangely warm…until we got into the shade. But the climbs soon warmed us up. As Scott had said, it was up and down all the way to Ronda.
I can’t help but wonder about that truncated arch on the right. Was there a previous bridge here? A miscalculation during construction? There’s an interpretation centre devoted to the New Bridge so we might have to go.
