Leaving Ronda

TAP gets in touch to inform us our December 7 flight from Seville to Lisbon has been cancelled, which forces us to return a day later. Our friends have to return to Salvador on the original date, so we decide to spend that day in Seville. Oswaldo talks to the people at Corral del Rey, who offer us, since the hotel is full due to a local holiday, a service apartment behind the cathedral, with room for 5 - the only drawback being that it's a 2nd floor walk-up in an ancient building. No problem!
Meanwhile Ronda has filled with tourists spending the long weekend in the town. We cross the bridge again and when I get my camera out to snap a picture of bright oranges against the blue sky

I realize something is wrong. The lens cover opens only a slit and has to be nudged fully open manually. Bummer. But we head for the Museo Joaquin Peinado museum in the old Moctezuma palace, which has an interesting collection of the Ronda born painter who met and was influenced by Picasso and other greats when he went to Paris in 1923. He was unable to return to his birthplace due to the Civil War and eventually died in Paris in 1974. We also see a collection of Picasso ceramics.

Our next stop is the Lara museum, a collection of many things, through which a group of children run shrieking, touching everything, which is surprising, because, until now, we've only seen very well-behaved Spanish children. Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Inquisition and Bruxaria - witch hunts -, and after a very short while I have had enough of torture instruments and return to the sun outside. This is a fortuneteller tableau from the exhibition

We meet Carlota and Abel for a leisurely outdoor lunch and then find a cab to take us back to Sevilla though the spectacular landscape.

Francisco, the driver, gets lost in the tiny streets around Corral del Rey, and eventually Carlota and Abel walk the last bit, dragging their suitcase, while Oswaldo goes to get Gabiela from our hotel, who will show us into our apartment. Francisco drops us in a quiet square, the Plaza de la Contratación, and we haul up our luggage to a charming and ample apartment, with all the comforts of the hotel, and with a view of the square and the cathedral tower.https://plus.google.com/photos/108088723826036223432/albums/5955012230479785585?authkey=CKvNx_DQs8C8qwE
Later we walk out to meet our friends for our last tapas together in nearby Casa Robles, and, like Ronda, Sevilla has filled with people for the holiday

We eat a fabulous seafood platter and grilled mushrooms with a salsa verde, accompanied with a great white wine. Then we walk back to our apartment and say our goodbyes.