Day trip to Ronda

<p>Ronda is the kind of place that stops you cold the first time you see it. You drive through fairly ordinary Andalusian countryside, and then the road crests a rise and there it is, an entire city perched on the edge of a sheer 100-metre cliff, with the Puente Nuevo bridge suspended over the gorge like something from a film set. It never gets less dramatic, even if you have seen the photos a hundred times.</p> <p>The Puente Nuevo is the obvious centrepiece and it deserves the attention. Built in the 18th century, it took 42 years to complete and the architect died falling from it during an inspection. The chamber inside the central arch was used as a prison and later, notoriously, as a site of political killings during the Civil War. You can visit the chamber; the views down into the El Tajo gorge from the bridge walkway are not for the faint-hearted.</p> <p>The old town on the west side of the gorge is excellent. Ronda is one of the birthplaces of modern bullfighting. The Plaza de Toros, built in 1784, is the oldest bullring in Spain and one of the most beautiful. Even if bullfighting is not your thing, the museum is worth seeing and the architecture is worth the entrance fee on its own. The Mondragon Palace houses the municipal museum with solid coverage of the area's history back through Moorish and Roman periods.</p> <p>The drive from Gibraltar is around 90 minutes each way via the A-7 and A-376. The route through the Serrania de Ronda is spectacular in itself, particularly in spring when the wildflowers are out. There is no direct bus from La Linea; the journey involves a change at Algeciras and takes around 2.5 hours each way, so for this one a car really does make the difference.</p> <p>Allow at least five or six hours in Ronda itself. Lunch in the old town, the bridge, the bullring, a walk along the clifftop path. That is a solid day.</p>