After Pat's sister Paula departed for the US we entered our week of "descanso" or "vacaciones," SYA's spring break. Pat did a time-share exchange for a week in an apartment on the Mediterranean coast, between Barcelona and Valencia, in a town called Alcocéber (or Alcossebre, if you are speaking Catalán, the language spoken commonly along the northern Mediterranean coast of Spain). We were in a cute, little apartment in a HUUUUUGE apartment complex (well, huge by my Bethel, Maine standards). The apartment had a giant balcony (sweet) and a couple of swimming pools, and was a 5-minute walk from a really nice beach.
Now the Twilight Zone-like part: The beach was empty. As in, there were usually enywhere from 10-20 people at any time on the whole beach. The water? Clean, nice little waves, not super-cold.
There were only two swimmers in the sea all week: Ben, and Chaia.
Apparently "beach weather" in Spain only means "super-hot, too-crowded-to-see-the-water, between-June 15-and-September 15 weather." At least that's what it said on the sign next to the giant, empty swimming pool: Open June 15-Sept. 15, 10AM-8PM. Now, I'm no cold weather swmmer. I don't even like to go in the ocean off of Maine in the heat of summer. but C'MON!! It was in the mid-sixties while we were in Alcossebre, and sunny. The swimming pool was as empty as the beach, which was as empty as the condo complex.
We were early. So we enjoyed something rare and special: An empty, sunny, kinda-sorta-warm beach.
We also took a couple of day trips to Peñíscola and Valencia. Peñíscola is a beach town that also has a waterfront mini-mountain, crowned with a castle built by the Knights Templar. It was also the temporary home of one of the Popes, at a time when there were actually two Popes at the same time (it's true, look it up- "Antipope Benedict XIII").
Castle, Peñíscola.
We also went to Valencia, about an hour south of us, to visit Ximo (our friend who picked us up in the laundry truck last July). We had a terrific day visiting the historic center of Valencia as well as the VERY modern Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences, in Catalán). A truly terrific day and evening spent in Ximo's company. Here are a couple of shots from that day:
After a few days on the beach, as headed back to Zaragoza for one of Spain's really special events: Semana Santa, or Holy Week. During this time between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, in a number of cities in Spain (although I'm told that Sevilla and Zaragoza are notable places), statues of Jesus are carried through the city by organizations called cofradías, in reenactments of the stations of the cross. Each day various cofradías (origially "brotherhoods," but many members are now women and children) follow different routes through the city, accompanied by drummers, incense-carriers, and women in black. It's very cool pageantry, and tends to shake Americans to their politically-correct cores. It seems that the KKK co-opted the costumes of the cofradías, which pre-date the Klan by several hundred years. It takes a bit of getting used to:
The processions, very LOUD here, I might add, go on throughout the city day and night, as there are probably 25 cofradías in Zaragoza. the other thing I forgot to mention is that they also carry/push large floats of very realistic-looking scenes of the Passion of Christ along with them. the biggest procession of them all happens on viernes Santo (Good Friday), and it's more than 2 hours long as it passes any given point, with all of the brotherhoods (their outfits Do give a whole new spin on the word "brotherHOOD") participating. And, of course, the BIIIG procession came right down our street, right under our window.
It was a loud evening.
Next up: "I don't know where I'm-a gonna go, when the volcano blows."
After a few days on the beach, as headed back to Zaragoza for one of Spain's really special events: Semana Santa, or Holy Week. During this time between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, in a number of cities in Spain (although I'm told that Sevilla and Zaragoza are notable places), statues of Jesus are carried through the city by organizations called cofradías, in reenactments of the stations of the cross. Each day various cofradías (origially "brotherhoods," but many members are now women and children) follow different routes through the city, accompanied by drummers, incense-carriers, and women in black. It's very cool pageantry, and tends to shake Americans to their politically-correct cores. It seems that the KKK co-opted the costumes of the cofradías, which pre-date the Klan by several hundred years. It takes a bit of getting used to:
The processions, very LOUD here, I might add, go on throughout the city day and night, as there are probably 25 cofradías in Zaragoza. the other thing I forgot to mention is that they also carry/push large floats of very realistic-looking scenes of the Passion of Christ along with them. the biggest procession of them all happens on viernes Santo (Good Friday), and it's more than 2 hours long as it passes any given point, with all of the brotherhoods (their outfits Do give a whole new spin on the word "brotherHOOD") participating. And, of course, the BIIIG procession came right down our street, right under our window.
It was a loud evening.
Next up: "I don't know where I'm-a gonna go, when the volcano blows."
