Puntos de vista - a personal Spain blog

La familia Real (Pepe, Francisca, Cristóbal y Armando) fueron invitados esta semana como huéspedes de honor a su antigua casa de familia en el pueblo blanco más bonito de la Serranía de Ronda.

El británico Pablo de Ronda, que lleva 14 años viviendo en esta parte de Andalucía, compró la casa a la familia, los herederos de la casa, en octubre de 2020.

Pablo acaba de terminar la reforma y quería enseñar la casa a los antiguos dueños.

La casa, llamado Casa Real por Pablo en honor de los vendedores, cuyo apellido es Real, es una vivienda rural oficial y está disponible para alquilar a un precio económico.

El día del estreno ofreció Pablo a sus invitados un aperitivo, cerveza, vino y pacharán y unas tapas mientras echaron un vistazo a la casa.

En el ultimo momento ocurrió algo y la familia Real no pudo venir.

Sin embargo los otros invitados lo pasaron bien, entre ellos británicos, holandeses, canadienses, un sudafricano, una danesa y una alemana.

Francisca Real, que había visto fotos de la casa reformada, comentó: “Mi antiguo dormitorio se ha transformado completamente. Me encanta.”

Su hermano menor, Armando Real, ex-albañil, que también había visto fotos, cumplimentó a Pablo en particular por la calidad de los dos cuartos de baño, que éste había instalado.

“¿Has hecho todo? ¿La solería, el alicatado y la fontanería?” pregunta Armando. Pablo responde: “Me ayudó José ‘El Suave’ con la fontanería, pero lo demás hice yo.”

Desde el principio del proyecto Pablo decidió crear una casa tradicional, pero con toques modernos. “He retenido las lozas tradicionales de los dos dormitorios y del salón-comedor y todas las sevillanas en el corredor, el patio y la escalera. También abrimos muchas vigas de madera.”

“Quitamos dos tabiques en la planta baja para hacer un especio abierto en forma de “L” que contiene salón, comedor y cocina.”

Pablo quería también una casa ecológica. Ha instalado una estufa de pellets y ventanas de doble acristalamiento. Los electrodomésticos son nuevos y de bajo consumo. Muchas cosas han sido recicladas de la basura o ha comprado Pablo de segunda mano.

“Pero las camas y los colchones y toda la ropa de la cama son nuevos,” aseguró Pablo.

Los invitados a la "casa abierta" han dejado comentarios muy positivos. Hazel Terry de Derbyshire Inglaterra, escribió: “Muy bien ubicada y muy cerca de la plaza. Una casa de mucho espacio con una terraza y un patio exteriores excelentes.”

Hazel y su marido Peter quieren alquilar por un mes a lo mejor en agosto. ¡Ojalá!

A Ivo y Katya de Holanda, que acaban de comprar dos apartamentos en Montejaque, les gustan las vistas estupendas desde la azotea sobre el Hacho y el Mirador.

Kevin y Carolyn Emmett, residentes en Montejaque, han vivido en todos los rincones del mundo: Canadá, Sud África, Botswana e Indonesia. Carolyn comentó: “La casa es muy divertida y peculiar. Tiene dos dormitorios muy amplios, dos baños fabulosos y un patio privado y una azotea con vistas. Recomendada para alquilar.”

Pablo ya ha alquilado la casa cinco veces a ingleses, españoles y alemanes. El próximo fin de semana está reservada para la duración del festival de música de los pueblos blancos, pero todavía hay disponibilidad para la semana cultural y la feria del pueblo.

Detalles:

www.a1-holidays.net

Available on the VoiceMap app. Download free from PlayStore or the Apple Store.

I’ve lived in the Ronda area for 14 years and know the City of Dreams like the back of my hand, so I wasn’t expecting too much from this audio guide. How wrong could I be?

Although I was familiar with every location included on this tour, I learned loads that I didn’t know from this very thoroughly researched guide by Clive Muir, of the website Ronda Today. In particular, the historical aspects.

Clive’s voice is easy on the ear and the accompanying music by local professional guitarist Paco Seco made for a very pleasant couple of hours.

We broke our journey in the Barrio San Francisco, where we had an excellent breakfast at Bar Sánchez by the Almocabar Gate.

I was accompanied on the tour by friends Brenda and Jeremy White, who own property locally and have been coming to the Serrania de Ronda regularly for over 20 years. Like me, they thought they knew all there was to know. They were also wrong.

At the end of the tour, we gratefully sank a refreshing beer in Bar El Rincón de la Manzanilla on Calle Virgen de Los Remedios and discussed the audio tour we had just taken.

“I enjoyed the tour very much,” said Brenda, “although I felt some of the historical information was a bit long-winded.”

“I disagree entirely,” responded Jeremy. “I found the history sections fascinating and I learned a lot.”

We all agreed that we had spent a delightful morning and had enjoyed the whole experience immensely. Strangers to Ronda would find this audio guide fascinating, as well as informative, we felt.

You can choose to enter any of the sites during the tour, eg the interpretation centre of the Puente Nuevo, La Casa de Don Bosco, El Palacio de Mondragón with its municipal museum, La Casa del Rey Moro and the water mine, la plaza de toros or the Arab baths.

Or you can come back another time.

If you purchase a Bono Municipal (Tourist Ticket) at the Tourist Office near the bullring, it will work out cheaper.

And remember, if you are a senior citizen, and can prove it, you should get a discount. If you’re a Ronda resident, there is usually free entry, certainly to municipal sites.

You can also book a Paco Seco concert at La Casa de Don Bosco. I’ve heard Paco Seco play elsewhere and he is really good.

Highly recommended.

The Meter Maid and I have rarely been de tapeo in the 14 years we have been together. Yet, on Tuesday, the eve of mi santo (Peter and Paul, 29 June) she suggested we do just that. Fine by me. Going on the Spanish version of a pub crawl is something I’ve always loved about Spain, since I first came here in 1970 aged 20.

Tapear is all about the tapas, whereas an English pub crawl is all about the beer. For older English folk it’s about sampling a range of cask ales, easy in the northwest of England where I used to live. For younger people it’s about guzzling as much disgusting lager as possible to get as p****d as possible.

Whilst I have to confess, I’ve participated in both English versions, I much prefer the Spanish option.

So, off we went. Rather than go to the tried and tested bars we know from over a decade of living here, we decided to try out new places.

We started at Bar Mimanuela in Plaza Carmen Abela. It used to be a jeweller’s but since Covid it has opened as a rather stylish but unpretentious café bar with a lovely terrace outside the Caja Rural.

A beer and two tapas each for 13 euros was perfectly acceptable. Rita chose snails (caracoles) and mejillones. I had alcachofas con jamón and anchoa cantábrica  Well-presented and delicious. The owners are delightful.

Inside they have a permanent exhibition of paintings by Elaine Moore, an English artist long resident in Ronda and a good friend of ours.

We then shuffled up Calle Tiendas to Bar Bodeguita, also unknown to us. And guess who was sitting there talking on his mobile? None other than Michael, who was to blame for me meeting the Meter Maid (yes, you guessed it, her name is Rita!) at the Feria de Pedro Romero in September 2008.

We hadn’t seen him for a while so after warm hugs (Rita, not me!) we joined him at his table. Serendipitously he had been on the phone to Malcolm, who is the husband of the afore-mentioned artist Elaine Moore. They were on their way to join us! ¡Qué coincidencia!

Another friend, Hilde from Belgium was also on her way.

At the table next to us I recognised Maria, a customer of one of my locals, Venta El Puente in La Indiana.

After a beer and a tapa and some catching up, Rita and I moved on to Bar La Flamenca, which in a previous incarnation had been my internet café of choice back in the day before smartphones and widespread computer ownership.

The terrace was full, so we sat at a table for two just inside the door. It was next to a mirror and I kept noticing this fat, long-haired, old guy sitting opposite a beautiful, elegantly dressed septuagenarian lady! Oh! Blimey! They were us!

Also in that bar was Eduardo, another customer from Venta El Puente. Guess who he was with -  Nerea, a waitress from said bar. It was the bar’s dia de descanso. I later established that Nerea and Eduardo are an item.

The tapas here were arguably the best so far. Again, we had two each plus a drink. 12 euros.

Next up was El Almacen. The last time I’d been there was that fateful night with Michael in 2008 when I later met Rita. It was under different management back then. I gather it’s now the hottest place in town.

We had a beer and a tapa each – 7 euros.

It was now quite late, so we decided to head for home. On our way back to the car we passed Pizzería Michelangelo. Sitting outside were Manolo (El Corcho) and his wife Carmen, the owners of Venta el Puente.

What a great night.

I must add that Rita’s beers were cervezas sin, as she was driving.

Further reading:

Ronda is just a village.

Pablo de Ronda fell in love with Ronda the first time he went there in August 2000. By the end of 2001 he had bought an apartment in the Barrio San Francisco. In 2003 he bought a doer-upper nearby and did it up. In 2005 his girlfriend of the time bought a house in Las Peñas and Pablo, by this time retired, “reformed” it for her.

In 2008, single again, he met the girl of his dreams and moved out to live permanently in the Ronda area. He married his “Meter Maid” in 2010 and in 2011 they bought the house of their dreams just outside Ronda.

In 2020 he bought another doer-upper in Montejaque, a pretty pueblo blanco near Ronda and despite Covid-19, lockdowns, and other obstacles, he finished it earlier this year.

Although it’s a city, with a current population of round 33,000, Ronda has always felt tiny. Just like Madrid, Berlin, Liverpool and London. They are really just big villages in the sense that most of what you want to see as a visitor is within walking distance.

In Madrid everything you want to see, eg Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Parque del Retiro, El Prado, Las Cortes, La Moncloa, is within walking distance or a short metro ride.

In Berlin everything is centred around Checkpoint Charlie and the Alexanderplatz. Namely the Brandenburg Gate, the German Parliament, the Holocaust Memorial, the TV Tower, the remains of the Berlin Wall.

In Liverpool the Anglican Cathedral, LIPA (Paul McCartney’s fame school), the gents toilets in the Philharmonic Pub, the Everyman Theatre and Paddy´s Wigwam (the avant-garde Roman Catholic Cathedral) are all on Hope Street. It’s then only a 10-minute walk via Mathew Street and the Cavern Club to the glory that is the restored Liverpool Docks with its Granada TV Studios, Tate Liverpool and Liverpool Maritime Museum.

Even in massive London most of the sights/sites are close together. The Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Madame Tussaud’s, Hyde Park, Harrods, Fortnum and Mason, the London Eye, the Royal Festival Hall, Tower Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre are easily managed in a couple of days.

Compared to the above-mentioned cities Ronda really is tiny. All you want to see is within walking distance. Parque de la Alameda, Plaza de Toros, Parador de Turismo, Puente Nuevo, El Tajo, Casco Antiguo, Palacio de Mondragón, Plaza Duquesa del Parcent, Almocabar Gate, the Arab Baths and the Casa del Rey Moro constitute a walk of a couple of hours.

But the main reason that it feels like a village is that you are always bumping into someone you know or used to know.

This week alone I bumped into Clive and Elisabet (ALDI), Antonio; Yaiza and Viviana (Décor Asia), Ian; Geoffrey (LIDL), Michael, Elaine, Malcolm and Hilde; María (Bar La Bodeguita), Nerea and Eduardo (Bar La Flamenca), Manolo and Carmen (Pizzería Michelangelo).

So, La Ciudad Soñada or Ciudad del Tajo, as Ronda is sometimes called, truly is a village or even, maybe, a hamlet (aldea).

***

Note: Some of these people the "Meter Maid" and I met when we went de tapeo on the eve of mi día santo (Peter and Paul, 29 June). For more about that little “pub crawl”, please read: De Tapeo en Ronda.

Other articles of possible interest are:

Saints Peter and Paul

What’s in a name? Pedro y Pablo