Whitewashed Towns, White Capped Mountains

Last weekend was a long(er) weekend because Monday was a holiday, Día de Andalucía. With four days to fill up, my friends and I decided it was finally time for a couple of day trips. Friday we just stayed in Granada, and did some shopping and people watching. The weather was perfect last week, the temperature close to 70 or over every day. Friday night I stayed in and went to bed early, because on Saturday I was getting up around 5 A.M. to catch a train to Ronda. Ronda is one of Andalucia’s whitewashed towns. It gets so hot in the summer, that all the buildings are painted white in an attempt to keep heat at bay on the streets. We got to the train station around 6, and boarded the train at 7. After a two and a half hour train ride, we finally arrived in Ronda.

It was nice to get away from the big city feel for a day. Ronda is very quiet, and although there are plenty of shops and restaurants, it definitely achieves the quaint town feel. We walked through a park in search for Puente Nueva, a bridge built in the 1700s. Ronda is located in a very mountainous area, and the Puente Nueva is situated about 400 feet above a canyon. All the view points of it were also about 400 feet above the canyon, which made me a bit nervous, but it was amazing. After getting a view of the Puente, we headed to the tourism office to see what they suggested we do (we are, after all, still tourists sometimes).

The woman at the tourism office was very nice, and suggested we check out the Plaza de Toros, or bullfighting ring. It is the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain, and has a little museum inside. Once inside the bullring, we posed for a few ridiculous pictures and just hung out and tried to imagine what it must be like when there is an actual bullfight happening. It was very warm that day, so we sat in the stands and enjoyed the sun and the weather. I was pretty excited about the whole thing, because you can actually go down into the ring where the fights happen and walk around. I think it is the closest I will come to a bullfight while here in Spain, I don’t know if I could handle a real one. We also walked through the museum. I learned that in somewhere around three hundred years of bullfights, the bull ring we were in had only seen one bull fighter die. After hanging out in the bull ring we grabbed lunch and then crossed over the bridge for a hike through the other side of Ronda. I really wanted to get a good view of the whole town, because it was absolutely amazing. We found a few great views, and got a good walk in. We finally went back to the train station, on the other side of town, and were pretty relieved to finally board the train and head back to Granada. It was a good day trip, but we were all pretty beat and ready for home cooked food and sleep.

The next day was not one for resting after the last day trip. We got up relatively early again and headed to the bus station. We caught the 10:00 bus to the Sierra Nevadas, an absolutely terrifying 45 minute ride. I don’t ever get motion sick, but I did on Sunday. The altitude change, combined with the fact that when you looked out the window of the bus you were literally looking over the side of the mountain, did not combine for a settled stomach. The ride was definitely worth it though. All three of my friends and I come from places where there is usually a lot of snow in the winter, and being surrounded by it once again made us feel a little like we were home. Although, it was in the 50s, so it wasn’t quite the same as a New England winter. There are many ski resorts up there and a little tourist town has built up around them, so we just walked around and enjoyed the little shops and the scenery. We had a couple impromptu snowball fights, ate some lunch, walked around a bit more and then boarded the bus back home. Although it was a pretty laid back day, it was still a lot of fun. I got to see another part of Spain that is beautiful and enjoy it with friends. That’s a good day in my book.

Monday we stayed in Granada, but because of the holiday almost everything was closed. Our program sent us an email earlier in the week letting us know that because of the holiday, la Parque de las Ciencias would be free. Parque de las Ciencias is a HUGE science museum, with interactive exhibits both inside and outside. It was at least twice the size of the Boston Science Museum. My friends and I spent three hours there, and I don’t even know if we saw half of it. We went to the Planetarium first. The presentation was in Spanish, and it was very excited because I actually understood a lot of it. It was a presentation geared towards native speakers, so I was thrilled that I understood as much as did even though the presenter was speaking at a typical pace. After the Planetarium we went through a few of the exhibits inside, and then went to the outside half. There was a lot to do, including a butterfly exhibit, and a giant chess board. My friend Jennie and I started a game of chess, and we were both loving it, until a group of about 4 kids ran up and grabbed a bunch of the pieces and fighting each other with them. That was the end of the chess game. The exhibits were very interesting, and we are definitely going to go back and try and see the rest of them. We spent the rest of Monday shopping in the Albaicin where there are a lot of little shops that stayed open despite the holiday.

The whole weekend was really enjoyable, but I was exhausted by the time Monday night rolled around. The early mornings and day long adventures can really take a lot out of a person. The exploration, however, absolutely outweighs the exhaustion. Spain is a beautiful and breathtaking place, and being able to experience so many aspects of it in one weekend was amazing.