08 October- Osuna

Sitting on a balcony again.  Last night a modern hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, tonight a restored and converted monastery overlooking the hill-top town of Osuna, sort of southeast of Seville and northwest of Malaga.
We had a lovely day in La Antilla yesterday, a very 'sunday' day, beach in the morning, reading in the sun, a couple of beers in the shade at lunchtime, a late lunch, back to the beach for the late afternoon, then to the hotel for a shower and a quiet evening with a bottle of wine (another rioja) and a game of crib.
Lunch was interesting, we knew not to fall into the 'set menu' trap this time and searched out a tapas bar.  We shared a large dish of 'Gamba Blanca', ?big shrimps.  They were long and pink and shrimp-like, and very tasty.  We had a local speciality of 'Habas con Chocos', an absolutely lovely dish of tiny broad beans with chunks of squid in a thick, almost curried sauce.  The other two things we ordered were OK, but not spectacular, a salad with cheese and potatoes, and some Iberian cured ham in a roll! A mistake on my part, I made a mistake with the word for 'sandwich'.
As we had thought, the situation at La Antilla changed dramatically on Sunday evening, when all the weekenders left.  Luckily we had had a good late lunch as the restaurants didn't open on the Sunday evening.  That meant it was much quieter on our balcony.  The cafe on the corner stayed open for a football match, Barcelona v Real Madrid, I'm not sure who won but the crescendo of noise went up and down, and it was all over before we went to bed at 11.
We talked again about the political and financial situation in Spain, as it is reported in the media in the U.K.  This was a Spanish holiday resort, the restaurants were busy, the hotel was busy.  I suppose that these were the people who could afford to take a weekend break, but mostly they seemed to be pretty ordinary folk with families, no show of wealth. Everyone seemed happy, enjoying the sun, the beach, food and wine. So we are still not sure where the austerity measures are causing distress and anger.
Yesterday we decided to make for Osuna, from the RG it looked like a good base from which to explore some of the towns which had been established in Roman times, developed during the Moorish occupation, then glorified during the Renaissance and in the Baroque Period.  Looking to see what accommodation might be available we got a last minute booking for The Hospederia del Monasterio, should have been 98 Euros and we are paying 65.  It is spectacular, you know you are in a posh hotel when the bath has a jacuzzi and they provide toothbrushes. It is lovely! On top of the hill, overlooking everything, a beautiful room, an outside terrace, running water.....
We did a tour of some of the other towns and villages in the area.  Olives, and olives and olives........Nothing but olives.  So many prosperous looking villages obviously built out of the income from olives. We had heard about 'rural poverty', we didn't see it here.  Back in Osuna and a walk down into the town, the nicest of them all, lots of beautiful buildings with Moo rich facades and extravagantly magnificent Baroque palaces, now either transformed into boutique hotels or derelict, sad in their decaying splendour.
We didn't want to wait until 20.00 for restaurants to open so we got some tapas from a bar which had many similarities to Greek ouzeries 20 years ago, no women. I perched on a stool outside while John went in and got a couple of glasses of wine and four tapas dishes, very tasty ones, and we sat on the stools on the pavement to eat them. It cost 5.20 Euros!!
So, now to bed, it's so quiet.