Saturday 29^th March – Rota (Castillo de Luna)

36:36.917N 6:21.232W

Today, having broken the back of the washing, we headed into town to see the church before it closed at 1.00 (last time we visited there was a service on for Semana Santa so we couldn’t really see around).

However, when we arrived we found that a wedding was underway.  A number of other people were looking in at the back and so we watched for a while. It was a full church and the ceremony was very grand. One of the choir ladies sang a solo of Ava Maria – it was beautiful. We even recognised a few faces from the Flamenco evening outside the church and in the audience at the back. Deciding it probably wasn’t done to gate-crash a wedding (particularly as we were not dressed for the occasion) we left – so our look at the church will have to wait for another time.

We made our way across the square to the castle, the Municipal Palace Castillo de Luna.  Following considerable restoration it is now used as the local Council Chambers.  As chance would have it, a tour was about to start at 1.00, just as we arrived and although it was in Spanish we joined in.  The tour guide from the Tourist Information Office was excellent – she knew we were English and so had printed off a translation of what she was going to say onto an A4 sheet for us!  Can you believe the service?  And it was a free tour!  It was great to see around, especially the elaborate offices and council chamber, and to go on to the roof and look across the roof-tops and out to sea.