Euro trip 3, 2015 – Day 29, Train to Ronda…

Standard

An early start today to catch the train from San Roque La Linea to Ronda.

Our Train at Ronda

Our Train at Ronda

We had booked our tickets the previous day via loco2.com and printed them off on our mobile printer.

Whilst it isn’t a long drive to Ronda, the train journey on the single track line is proported to be very special amid scenic views adorning the climb through the valleys and mountains.

View from the Ronda train

View from the Ronda train

It’s 9:30 in the morning and we are around the halfway point and the journey is living up to its expectation.The GPS shows we have tracked up to an altitude of 320m. Ronda itself is around 720m.

Mo had pre-planned a guided tour around the Old Town to take in views of all the old bridges and sights. This included a hike down the “Water Mines” at the Casa del Rey Moro palace – all 300 steps.

Water Mine Stairs

Water Mine Stairs

 

The journey down was ok but fairly gruelling back to the surface. In a bygone era, the water mine was used to get water to the surface from the river at the bottom of the gorge and apparently slaves were chained up in the mine shaft to perform this work.

 

 

 

Gorge at Bottom of Water Mine

Gorge at Bottom of Water Mine

 

And the reason for the water mine – the gorge at the bottom of the shaft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also hiked down the side of the gorge to take the classic view of the Puente Nuevo.

Jo admires the classic view of Puento Neuvo

Jo admires the classic view of Puento Neuvo

The “neuvo” bridge is not actually that new, as the building of this bridge commenced in 1751 and took until 1793 to complete. The Puente Nuevo is the tallest of the bridges, towering 120m above the canyon floor.

The highlight of tour of course was watching a group of Indian guys with their “Aerogenix” drone.

Highlight of Ronda!

Highlight of Ronda!

Flying it around the main sites in the town. I’ve said before that I definitely need a drone but I hadn’t anticipated the added benefit of it accompanying us on our travels. No more hiking down gorges, just launch the drone for the perfect selfie.

It did look a fairly sophisticated piece of technology and a quick Web search suggests they come in at around 15k Euros. Might have to increase the budget somewhat…