Ronda: Part 2

Hello! If you haven't yet read part 1, you can read it here

Day two in Ronda was also awesome!! Our original plan was to wake up to watch the sunrise at 7:03 am, but I unfortunately was suffering from some minor food poisoning.  Kelley and Elle hung out on the terrace for a while, and the whole time were being so sweet and accommodating to me. I was very appreciative. Around 9, the two of them headed out to first hike down to the bottom of the gorge, which they said was a wonderful, yet challenging adventure! Then, they visited the Bandit Museum, which I believe they also enjoyed! And although it was definitely not fun to be sick while traveling, I feel lucky since this was probably the best hostel to be cooped up in, because it was basically just like a gorgeous white house with the most epic view ever, outside my window!! Most of the guests had checked out too, so everything was very peaceful!

Kelley and I texted each other when she was on the bridge so I could take a picture of the two of them!

This was still a view from the terrace. The building is an old palace.

A waterfall in the bottom of the gorge! Ronda is GORGES... shoutout to Uncle Bill and Aunt Barb when they bought Lizzie and I those t-shirts that said "Ithaca is GORGES!".

Our first stop after we checked out of the hostel at noon was going inside the Puente Nueva, but I didn't really take many pictures there, although it was cool to be inside the bridge!

Next, we hiked down into more of the Old Town, and we saw the Puente Vieja, or "old bridge"! It was also gorgeous, although I prefer the Puente Nueva. 

The next stop were the Arab baths, which are apparently the best preserved Arab baths in all of Iberia. I'm not sure if I have explained the significance of the Arab baths before, but they played a crucial role to the Muslims living in Andalucia generally before 1492, when the Christians took over.  In Islam, cleanliness is incredibly important, and people would come to wash themselves prior to prayer.  In the Arab baths, there are many rooms, that would serve as cold rooms or steam rooms, and other things like that.  The temperatures were all powered by an underground heating system the Arabs developed, which was super advanced for that time period! Another fun factoid, the Muslim population survived many major outbreaks of disease, like the plague, much better than the Christians, because cleanliness was not important to the Christians in Europe at the time, who would sometimes only bathe twice a year.

 We felt this picture was appropriate since we were in the Arab baths. Also, Kelley, Elle, and I are working on a project where we are dancing in front of all these historic or beautiful places we have been! Once we return home, I will be creating a youtube video by compiling all of this footage together and adding an awesome song in Spanish!

 No big deal... just an abandoned castle.

Another beautiful bridge along the way!

 This is another side view of the Puente Nueva, definitely still not as good as our hostel view :)

 I am excited when there are nice animals to take pictures of, although this cat was looking a little annoyed to say the least, haha!

 I understand that this is just a sparrow, but it got really close to us!

We ended at this church/nunnery which is famous for the nuns selling baked treats, so Elle and Kelley tried those out and thought they were delicious! Then, at 5:30pm, we got on the train and returned to Granada! It was definitely a wonderful weekend!