"Great Danes!"
By Paul Whitelock
‘Spis lige brød til’ is Danish and translates to ‘Have some bread with that’. It is a phrase usually used to say "take a breath" to someone who has worked hard for something difficult.
For the purpose of this article, I am sticking to the literal meaning:
‘Have some bread with that’
On the eve of Andalucia Day, my wife Rita and I went de tapeo to Ronda with a Danish couple, Claus and Ellen. This recently retired couple from Copenhagen, are touring Spain and Portugal for two months. They drove from Denmark through Germany and France and entered Spain via Catalonia. They are "great Danes"! Boom! Boom!
I met them at my local, Hotel Ronda Valley (formerly Hotel Don Benito) on the Seville road out of Ronda. They were staying for two nights before heading south to Tarifa, then Cadiz, before entering Portugal.
We struck up an immediate friendship, as a result of which I offered to give them a tapas experience in Ronda. Rita came too. She found Claus and Ellen enchanting.
When we arrived in Ronda, we parked on the carpark at the old Guardia Civil barracks and walked into town. First stop was Toro Tapas, on Calle La Bola (Espinel), where, despite it being very busy, we got a nice table just inside.
We ordered several tapas: rabo de toro, chorizo al tinto, tosta de salmón and patatas bravas. Our Danish guests and Rita chose a nice Ronda wine, Lunares, while I stuck to Estrella Galicia beer.
Our lingua franca was English (theirs was nearly as good as mine!) and the conversation flowed: they were interested in us and we in them.
Next stop was the newish bar, La Caña. Guess who were there; our good friends Michael (Irish), Malcolm (English) and Elaine (Scottish), all three long-term residents of Ronda.
Michael is a translator, teacher and poet; Elaine is a successful painter and jewellery maker and Malcolm a retired estate agent.
Our foursome grabbed the last available table and were attended by the lovely Laura.
Here I chose a beer from Jaén, El Alcázar, while my companions went for another Ronda wine Niño León.
Foodwise it was albondigas, chorizo al tinto (again!), bollo de filete and bollo de calamar both con mojo picón.
After I had a brief chat with a young couple, Maria from Cataluña and Ashley from England, who were visiting with work, we decided to head back to the carpark and get one last round at one of our favourite bars, Bodega San Francisco. It was heaving but we found a table.
Here, the wine connoisseurs took another Ronda wine, this time from Chinchilla. I had an Alhambra 1925 from Granada.
We ordered our favourites: aguacate stuffed with seafood and rollito de salmón. Mmmm!
Then, it was back to the valley in their luxury hybrid BMW 504e, fond farewells and off to bed.
© Paul Whitelock
Note:
A similar article was published under a different title on 28 February 2024 at: Spis lige brød til (eyeonspain.com) .
Further reading:
LOCAL AUTHORS - Help me, Ronda (help-me-ronda.com)
Days of (Ronda) Wine… and Roses - Secret Serrania de Ronda
Acknowledgements (Photos):
Ashley Brocklehurst
Paul Whitelock
Trip Advisor
Tags:
aguacate, albondigas, Alhambra 1925, Andalucia, BMW 504e, Bodega San Francisco, bollo de calamar, bollo de filete, Chinchilla, chorizo al tinto, Claus, Copenhagen, Denmark, El Alcazar, Ellen, Estrella Galicia, Granada, Hotel Ronda Valley, Jaen, La Caña, Lunares, mojo picón, Niño Leon, patatas bravas, Paul Whitelock, rabo de toro, rollito de salmón, Spis lige brød til, tapa, Toro Tapas, tosta de salmón
