Los Pueblos Blancos area Spain sept 2012

Arcos de la Frontera

pretty cobbled stone street in Arcos

Gothic-Mudejar church of Santa Maria de la Asuncion, Arcos

beautiful views on the road from arcos to Ronda, a large part of it was a national park

you can see road we drove on, great views

day was beautifully clear but quite warm

one of the towns

outside bullring in Ronda. statue of pedro romero probably Spain's most famous bullfighter. his claim to fame was that he killed over 6,000 bulls

great poster in town

ronda bullring, just outside entrance 

view of  precipitous drop in ronda. due to its position it was one of the last moorish towns to fall to the christians in 1485

the bullring, plaza de toros, one of the oldest in spain,  was inaugurated in 1785

it was very pretty really with stone, wood and tiling

they had a nice little museum so you could learn everything you ever wanted to know about bullfighting

they had a display of all of their different yearly posters. this was a pretty watercolor 

even though i can never imagine going to a bullfight I found the ring fascinating

the staircase had wonderful ceramic tile scenes of bulls

the detail was amazing

Donna and Greg imagining the bulls

the old and the new building in the town behind it

where the bulls are kept

door the bulls come through 

archway into the ring

 Puente Nuevo "new bridge" in ronda connecting the two parts of town,  bridge was built in 18th century

another view of the town

the old roman bridge in town

palacio Mondragon in Ronda with its moorish features and garden

bullring in Malaga we could see from our parador (hotel).

view of Malaga's ( our overnight stop)  port

thriving port of malaga, was a busy Roman trading port with the east

 Malaga's cathedral built on the old mosque in the 16th-18th centuries

our parador where we stayed in Malaga, was originally part of the moorish fort

view of malaga's bullring in the daylight taken from our parador

view of the Med from the parador

pretty outdoor area of parador where we enjoyed some great laughs the evening we spent there

 we left seville and drove to arcos de la Frontera (nice stop but not overwhelming), then onto Ronda which is definitely worth seeing. The ride through the mountains with the pretty, white, hilltop towns was really beautiful. We climbed to an altitude of about 1300 meters ( I believe that was correct) and then dropped down to sea level as we approached Malaga, our overnight stop. We arrived just in time for dinner which we had in the hotel and then we sat outside on a gorgeous evening and had some great laughs while taking in the pretty view of the Mediterranean.  Not bad!