Bangs, Bulls and Beer

We were in Spain for Fiesta in our Spanish seaside town. It's a very big event for the Spanish, with 2 weeks of events, parades and fireworks. As we were hosting an elderly parent, we did'nt get about as much as some other years, and those events we did attend were not met with huge enthusiasm by our guest. For us the event was as exciting as ever.

For example there is a large firework display which begins at midnight of the beachfront, which is attended by thousands of locals and tourists alike. I have never seen such large fireworks, which are launched with a "whump" noise and a large flash of flame, before the firework opens. We were about 300 yards away.

Then there is the "bullfighting". There is much critcism of formal Spanish bullfights, and having watched elements of the event here, I feel that it owes more to the right of passage for the young men of the town who enter the bullring in T shirts and jeans, to face a stroppy bull. Their defence is to run between the bars of the bullring base to avoid the bull. They have no swords or other weapons like the traditional Toreador. The bull's seem to be rotated, and here are some images of the bulls at changeover.

The images are a little grainy as it was dusk, and it's a bit daunting to put myself through the bars to get a good image!!

The bulls eventually get a run up the beach each evening, which can surprise some tourists.

This is the view of the bullring from the castle approach. The low building on the rear left, is the local emergency clinic!

There are many Church services throughout Fiesta at the church in the old town, which are open to the public.

We managed to entice our guest away from the only English Bar and the English Beer, to enable him to experience a bit of real Spain. He was able to put up with a pitcher of San Miguel, just occasionally.

The weather, was absolutely fantastic throughout our stay.

A great Fiesta trip, and we were quite pleased to have paid our taxes to the Ayuntamiento, and had some interesting dialogue with a proper Spanish Builder about some alterations to our house. We await their proposals and the estimate of the costs!!

The Pull of The Paper

We have just finished hosting an elderly relative at our place in Spain. This involved driving him around, and sourcing his idea of Spanish holiday bliss. This consisted of finding an English Bar, where the staff speak to him in English, English football on TV and today's copy ( absolutely not yesterdays'copy) of the British tabloid "The Daily Mirror".

Well we achieved all that, though I'm really not convinced that he had a good time, despite it being Fiesta fortnight and a really big spectacle. Of course, all this excess of English language
exposure, did inevitably lead to an unfortunate Daily Mirror incident for my partner. Despite heaping scorn on the UK tabloid press and working hard at blending in with the Spanish way of life, he could not help himself!