Monday-Friday Feb. 25-29

Not much to report for Monday-Wednesday and Friday, besides normal classes.

Thursday was Day of Andalucia, which means schools and businesses close for the day. Beth, Dan, Amanda and I decided to go to Ronda, a nearby town, for the day. We left around 10 am and took a 2-hour bus to Ronda. First on the list of things to see there is the bullring, which was built around 1785. This bullring is, appropriately enough, the birthplace of the Ronda school of bullfighting, which is said to be more severe than that of Seville. Bullfighting isn't especially friendly to begin with, so I'm not sure what "more severe" really means. Anyway, the ring is truly beautiful, and we were able to walk all through the behind-the-scenes area, where the bulls are trained, and where they're kept before the fights. The ring is still used for fights today. Check it out:
Next we headed to Puente Nuevo (the new bridge), the name of which is deceiving. Even though it's the newest bridge in Ronda, it dates to about 1785, like the bullring. It is a feat of 18th century civil engineering, graceful and completely functional. It looks out over a beautiful gorge and surrounding countryside that looked a whole lot like Tuscany. Ronda's natural beauty and open green space were a really welcome change from the concrete and buildings of Seville. Look at the view from the top of the bridge (looking down into the gorge):
We climbed all the way down into the gorge, which was full of little yellow flowers and green green grass. On the way to the very bottom, we found another cool bridge thingy, and naturually had to climb up on it. Look at all the green around me:
Then, the breathtaking view from the bottom of the gorge. It speaks for itself:
Next we walked over to the Arab baths, only to find that they had closed about 30 mins earlier due to the holiday. Really disappointing. But then we walked all over the "other" side of Ronda and found that huge sections of its original Muslim-built wall are still intact (Seville has lost most of its wall). Unfortunately, there aren't many serious preservation efforts in Ronda (same case in many Andalucian cities), and motorcycles and cars drove right up next to beautiful old towers from the 9th century and sections of the precious wall. Makes you wonder if it will all be there in another 1,000 years.

After that it was time to get going because the bus left at 7. We walked down the main street to get back to the bus station, and I walked past a butcher's store, and saw a reassuringly familiar sight: hams:
And then we went home.