Ronda and Cordoba, Spain

Today we left Tarifa for a long drive through Andalucia via Ronda to Cordoba. I was excited to see Ronda after reading Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls". In his masterpiece about the Spanish civil war he tells a gruesome story about how the nationalists captured the republican held town of Ronda. They gathered all the republican collaborators in one house, then forced them one by one to walk through a gauntlet of their opressed townspeople who would beat them. At the end of the gauntlet they had the choice of jumping or being thrown off this bridge to fall some 400 feet to their death.
Just looking over the side of this bridge was enough to give me the willies knowing that several people had actually been thrown off it.

Ronda is a very cute little town, and we enjoyed a short stop here

On to Cordoba. Above is La Mezquita which is considered the pre-eminent islamic building anywhere outside of the Middle East. It was built in 784, and it is remarkable how well preserved it is.

While we did enjoy visiting the interior, we were not overwhelmed by it as we were by many other buildings in Spain. It is dark inside, and there are catholic naves all around the walls of the complex, with a Catholic mass being held the Sunday morning we were there.

On the whole, we didn't think too much of Cordoba. It struck us as being the "New Jersey Guido" version of Spain. Lots of trashily dressed people yelling in the main square while garbage fluttered in the breeze.