Before we headed to the city of Ronda, the bus took us to a sherry winery.  You know, sherry is fortified white wine produced in the southern Andalusia region of Spain in Jerez-Xérès.  The wine sold there are all labelled with Jerez, and a designated receptionlist emphasized that the winery is the very original distillery of sherry wine.  She also led our group to tour the winery on a tram and explain to us how is sherry made.  I couldnt quite understand her Spainish-accented English, anyway the process is complicated and the wine is made of local white grapes and also fortified.  (I bought two bottles, dry and sweet apiece.) 

Then to Ronda we moved on.  Ronda is a small and crowded southern town located on top of a deep canyon(El Tajo), which cleaves the town into two parts, which are connected by a short bridge called Puente Nuevo(New Bridge).  The hotel we were staying at is on one side of the bridge, and standing exactly opposite on the other side is an apartment in which Ernest Hemingway used to live during Spainish Civil War.  It is said some part of his masterpiece "For Whom The Bell Tolls" was inspired by the brutal killings he witnessed there. (Please also see my previous writing "戰地鐘聲" at http://blog.udn.com/kkuo0810/30668890 .)  Beneath the bridge is an immense but picturesque gully. 

Rondas Romero family played a principal role in the development of modern Spanish bullfighting. The local tour guide told us that the members of family are responsible for such "innovations" as the use of the cape and the sword especially designed for matadors to display their stunts and to kill furious bulls, and one descendant, Pedro, in particular transformed bullfighting into an "art" and a "skill" in his own right, and not simply a bloody bulls slaughter.  Well, I dont agree with that, for I think bullfighting is kind of relics from Romans gladiators fighting with wild animal.  Its totally an uncivilized game.  FYI, the husband of that local tour guide is a professional matador.