El viaje comienza: Marbella and Ronda

Once we landed in Spain, my phone started ringing. It was my host mom calling to wish me a happy birthday. First we drove to Marbella, a beach city and had lunch. I ordered my first tinto de verano as a 21 year old :) It was quite windy, but the restaurant had a great view of the beach. After lunch we wandered around for a bit and then decided to drive to Ronda. I had already been to Ronda once with my program, so I was able to show my parents around. Ronda is the city which has the bridge connecting the city across the deep valley. Our hotel, which sat on one side, overlooked the ancient bridge. After I showed my parents around, we had a fabulous dinner at the hotel. To end my birthday celebration, my mom wanted to take a family picture. We set up the camera on a self-timer and let’s just say the pictures below speak for themselves. The next morning we woke up and saw the bull ring. Then we walked down to the Arab baths. On our way back from seeing the baths, we ran into this old man. He started speaking in Spanish to me and kept talking about the city and how he use to work the land. I was glad I was able to understand him, but after about 20 minutes we were finally able to leave. Ronda still remains one of my favorite cities. It has an amazing landscape surrounding the city, the ancient bridge, and it is a quaint little town. After checking out of the hotel, we drove to Cordoba.