White Villages - Ronda, Grazalema & Zahara

The same day that we returned from Barcelona, a friend of mine (Laurel) arrived in Sevilla for a visit.  It's been so fun to show her around our city and watch her fall in love with it just as we have.

She really wanted to see some of the famous White Villages of Spain (and so did I!), so we decided to rent a car & head off on an adventure.  We left Micah home with Adana & Torah, so it was just us 3 girls - Laurel, Emma & me.

I was a little nervous about driving in Spain, since I've seen some pretty crazy roads and even crazier drivers since I've been here.  But it all went very smoothly.  I just kept telling myself that I've driven all over Turkey, so it couldn't be worse than that.  And it wasn't - phew!

Our first stop was Ronda.  We arrived hungry and found this fantastic little tapas cafe.

Fried eggplant drizzled with molasses.  I can't even begin to describe how utterly delicious this was!

Ronda is one of the largest of the White Villages, and it has one of the most dramatic settings.  It straddles a deep gorge, connected by an old 18th century bridge.  If you look just to the right of the bridge in the picture, you will see our hotel.  Yep, we kind of scored in our lodging!

We spent all afternoon walking the very hilly streets of Ronda, marveling at the beautiful architecture at every turn.

In the House of the Moorish King, we climbed down down down 280 dark, wet, dripping steps to the bottom of the gorge, where we found a cool little grotto.  In the 14th century, when the Moors of the city were under siege, their water supply was cut off.  They cut these stairs into the wall of the gorge and used their Spanish slaves to haul water up for the city.

Looking up from near the bottom of the stairwell.

The original gate into the Old City.

Beautiful church - Parish of Padre Jesus

In front of the church is the Fountain of Eight Spouts.  They have these water spigots all over Spain, labeled "Potable Agua," that you can drink from or cool off in. This one is an original from the early 18th century.  The water was deliciously cool!  (The other side of this large stone fountain was a long, deep trough for watering the animals.)

It was situations like this that made me a little nervous to drive in Spain.  They will squeeze their cars into any and every space, even right to the edge of a flight of stairs.

Not all of our tapas are winners.  This was "fried olives."  They weren't horrible, but they were super salty.  Plus, it's virtually impossible to get adequate water to drink at a meal, so after eating a few of these, I was dying of thirst!

Breakfast on our terrace

On our 2nd day, we left Ronda and drove to a couple other towns.  On the way, we passed through a cork forest.  I had no idea that this was how cork was harvested.

All of the trees in this forest were peeled of their bark up to  about 10 feet above the ground.  Looking at the bark up close, it is obviously cork.  Very cool!

We also passed this friendly little herd of sheep crossing the road on the way to Grazalema.

Just on the outskirts of Grazalema is this quaint little white church, shaded by lush palm trees.

Inside it was simple and peaceful.  I would love to worship in a church like this.

In the outside courtyard was the local cemetery.  It was obvious from all of the fresh flowers that these graves were well-honored and cared for.

Grazalema was about as perfect as you could hope for a village to be.  It sat nestled in the hills, secluded and blissfully uncrowded.  

These towns are tiny - just a few narrow roads winding away from the plaza (and church) in the center.  Smart drivers choose small cars here.

Plants and flowers everywhere!  They decorated the sides and balconies of all the homes.

We also saw quite a few homes with bird cages (complete with happily singing birds) mounted on their patio walls.

I loved this simple Virgin Mary & baby Jesus in a niche of the church in the Grazalema plaza.

Another Potable Agua fountain.

Fun detail on the water spigot.

It's hard to see from the picture, but the "roof" of this cafe is a lattice-work of plants.  It was so cool and shady in there!

Not just the cars are small.  I got a kick out of all the small doors we saw.

Our last village - Zahara - was high up a hill overlooking a turquoise lake.

My pictures just can't capture the steepness of these roads.  We parked at the bottom on town and had to hike UP UP UP to get to the main plaza.  It was a beautiful hike through white-washed alleys.

We stopped for lunch at this cute cafe.

I loved their buffet of dishes.  We saw these all over - terra-cotta dishes glazed white on the inside and halfway down the outside.  I wish I could bring home a whole set!

Another small door.  :)

The best part about visiting Grazalema & Zahara was how un-touristy they were.  We were able to get a real feel for the quiet, simple life that the people enjoy here.