Ronda and around (photos now included)

For our last full day in southern Spain we rented a car to visit all Pueblos Blancos In the neighboring hills. First Alexa took us to the small artesian town of Castellar (de la Frontera), and we wandered around this beautiful old castle with a view of a huge reservoir and the noble looking rock of Gibraltar.

View from Castellar with the Rock of Gibraltar

Castellar

From Castellar, we headed toward the quintessential white town of Ronda…we got to peak at some other white towns along the way…

los pueblos blancos

Ronda is nestled on a hill top and straddling a huge gorge, with a new town on one side and the old town on the other (European new and old to be clear since old and new has a completely different connotation here.

the "new" bridge

After Ronda, we headed back down south to the coast and checked out the Roman ruins in Bolonia, which served as a very important port for the Roman Empire

the roman forum

preparing for our theater performance

And to finish the day we had one final evening of tapas back in Algeciras with Alexa and her friends. We feel so lucky to have had Alexa's home in Spain as our landing pad and beginning of our trip here in Europe. It's always a bonus to get an insider's view and perspective, rather than what we normally get as tourists, which is often just the surface of a culture and city. All of her friends were so sweet and welcoming; we immediately felt at home and loved getting to see how the real Andalucians live. 

last night of tapas with antonio and alexa

Today we headed to Madrid by train, caught the beautiful Reina Sofia Museum, and meandered the lively streets of Madrid. There are numerous areas of protesters around Madrid peacefully demanding change in the government. When we walked by the Parliament tonight, it was under the careful watch of three police vans and we were shoed off the steps when we tried to take a picture. Tomorrow morning we head to Greece! There is also lots of political unrest there as well; it will be interesting to see how it affects our trip. More to come soon!