As said in my previous post about Ronda it is a very special place, nestled in the mountains surrounded by magnificent views. People who were born and live in Ronda are justifiably proud of their town, a brief visit here leaves you no doubt as to the reasons why…
Therefore when Anna (the physio) who grew up in Ronda offered me the opportunity to head back there with her for a bit of Easter I jumped at the chance. The arrangements were made and I headed up with here and her husband (Gorge) after work on Wednesday and Jasbir was joining us by bus on Thursday.
There were mainly 2 reasons for going to Ronda now besides the fact that I really do love the place. Jasbir was very keen to go after seeing my photos from my last visit and Anna was keen for me to see some of the processions for Semana Santa that also happen in Ronda (for info on processions see posting about Semana Santa)
The journey to Ronda is usually very scenic and is all on winding mountain roads so is not for the faint hearted or those who suffer with travel sickness!! However on Wednesday it was pouring with rain here as we left work and so you were unable to see much….
We arrived in Ronda at about 8pm in the rain and cold (it is always colder in the mountains – no understatement that is for sure!). We went to her parents house where we were to stay. I met her mum and dad who are both lovely people, very friendly and I tried with my Spanish, with mixed results…!!
We hoped to see the Wednesday evening procession however due to the rain they were not going to go out. However we discovered they will probably process within the church. The reason for seeing this procession in particular is that it is quite different, as it is conducted in silence. The processors have chains around their feet and as they carry the truno all you hear is the dragging of the chains on the ground. As we wandered through Ronda we went to the church where they were due to leave from to find out what was happening we were told the church would be open at 11pm so we planned to get back there for 11.
Anna and I wandered about in Ronda and went for Tapas, where we had pitas filled with a variety of ingredients (sorry cant remember what now) and shared a salad… Finishing this it was still too early to go to the church and so headed to a bar (although it was far too early to ‘go out’ at 10pm!) and both had a fruit juice. We sat there chatting easily about a number of topics and after a while Anna said to me what time is it – I looked at my watch and realised it was 11:30…!! We quickly paid and headed to the church to find the door close just before we got there and we couldn’t go in…!! I put my ear to the door and could hear the chains as they processed inside…!! We headed back to the house to get some sleep in readiness for the following day…!! Anna was quite annoyed at the fact that we had gone for a drink to kill time and ended up missing it – however it has been something for us to laugh about since..!!
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