New Year's Eve in Madrid

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This year our Christmas holiday was not as fun-filled as usual as we were plagued with illness.  Tessa was sick from Dec 24-31, Grace from Jan 1-9 and Cathy from Jan 7-13.  In between Christmas and New Year’s we had planned to go to the mountains but with Tessa not well we cancelled those plans.  We then decided to go to Madrid for 3 days to stay at a hotel and do a day trip to Toledo.  To our dismay Tessa continued to have a fever and so we cancelled and rebooked, planning to go from Dec 29 - Jan 1st.  On the Sunday morning Tessa was still not well but we were all 'sick' and tired of being stuck at home so we delayed our departure but left for Madrid at 11am.  Tessa slept a lot of the way so we headed straight to El Escorial which is the castle of Philip II and is from where the Spanish Inquisition was conducted.  The castle is huge and quite austere and also very interesting.  It has a great collection of art and one of the halls boasts huge murals that depict in great detail military tactics, formations, armour and strategy.  It is said it is here that Philip II learned about military techniques.  Another highlight was the beautiful library: it is a testament to the royal family’s value of education.  Tessa did very well making her way through the tour but was definitely done by the end.  She was in bed asleep by 7pm and the next day she clearly was not up for a trip to Toledo (besides, there was a very think, all-engulfing fog, that swallowed the entire Madrid area, so Toledo in a cloud would have been a loss; saved for another trip).

The next day was foggy and cold so we did a short trip into Madrid to have lunch at a highly recommended pizza place (Pizzateca) and then, with Tessa napping again, we drove to Mejorada del Campo.  This small village 20 km outside of Madrid is famous for the cathedral that has been built by hand by Don Justo for the past 50 years.  Don Justo was planning on becoming a monk but a diagnosis of tuberculosis made that impossible.  He had to leave the religious community and he was so distraught that he could not commit his life to God as a monk, he decided to build a cathedral to show his devotion.  It is truly amazing what one person's commitment and vision can create.  Anatolijus and I went in and met Don Justo who was having lunch with a friend.  He encouraged us to look around and at 88 years old all his years of labour show.  The cathedral is amazing and it has all the components of a true catholic church.  There is the crypt, cloister, domes, upper choir stall, altar, stained glass windows and side chapels.  We had seen him featured on a documentary and were delighted to see his creation.  You can click here for a commercial that made this cathedral famous!

Our "misadventures" continued on Dec 31st when we miscalculated the Spanish time schedule.  Usually it is impossible to get food at a restaurant before 9pm so we hung out at the hotel until 7:40pm and then went over to a Mall to a restaurant.  When we drove into the empty parking lot we knew we were in trouble.  It turns out in Spain everything closes early on New Year's Eve, including restaurants.  The only options are paying a lot of money for an all-inclusive evening at a special restaurant or eat at home.  So, with no food in our possession we got back in the car and after making a wrong turn onto the major highway we found an El Corte Ingles which is a major department store with a grocery store.  We were just about to park when Tessa noticed a McDonald's, promising never to tell anyone we ate there on New Year's Eve. We started to walk over and realized the lights were out and the people leaving were the staff.  In Spain McDonald's closes at 8pm on NY Eve!  Our last hope was El Corte Ingles so we walked in at 7:56pm and the security guard told us they closed at 8pm so we should go 'muy rapido".  As we walked in they started turning off the lights so all four of us ran and started grabbing food off the shelves.  Prepared salads, cold meat, pickles, bread, chocolate, fruit, cookies, peanuts, licorice.  The manager was waving her hands at us to come to the checkout and 'get out' so we quickly complied feeling relieved we had something for dinner.  Back in the hotel room we popped open our bottle of French champagne, which we had brought, and enjoyed our feast thankful to have some dinner. 

Welcome 2013.  Hope the rest of it is better than the end of 2012.

Truffle Festival & Culinary Delights

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December 10^th was Anatolijus’ birthday so for his birthday weekend, Dec 8-9 we indulged in a number of culinary delights.  On Saturday the four of us drove 1 hr and 45 mins south to the small village of Sarrion which holds an annual International Truffle Festival.  These black truffles are cultivated and harvested by dogs and pigs.  In the small pavilion there were booths representing all different parts of the process and produce of the truffle industry.  We tasted cheese infused with truffle, truffle sausage, truffle liquor, olive oil infused with truffle and a lovely onion and truffle marmalade.  Anatolijus bought one of each and then realized his dream of buying his very own truffle and truffle cutter.  We did not spend a long time in Sarrion but came away with many delicacies.  The next day Anatolijus and I made our first Truffle Risotto which was ‘fenomenal’!!!  Anatolijus also made a peppercorn and rosemary encrusted beef tenderloin and we paired it all with a bottle of Sangiovese a friend brought from Italy.  As a starter, we made a terrine of foie gras with tarragon and granny smith apple (a recipe of our good friend Marc).  What a feast!

On Sunday Grace, Tessa and I made Anatoijus a very special birthday cake.  Tessa is obsessed with watching YouTube videos of Betty Crocker kitchens and Nerdy Nummies which teach you how to make and decorate amazing types of cakes.  So inspired by Tessa we undertook to make the “Hamburger Cake”.  The candies we needed are not here in Spain so we improvised and were delighted with the results.  Take a look!!

Lastly, after all this cooking I then proceeded to spend the next two days in the kitchen baking traditional Canadian Christmas treats for, ‘Cathy’s Canadian Christmas Coffee Party” (CCCCP in short).  I invited a number of moms from the school and prepared fresh scones, Nanaimo bar, decorated sugar cookies, banana bread and scotch shortbread.  There were a few hiccups with some people not able to come and some coming late and others leaving early – however overall I was very pleased!

Now time to get ready for Christmas and do a bit more baking, cooking, grilling, tasting….

Sarvise in Pyrenees

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On the weekend of Nov 16-18 we spent a wonderful weekend in the Pyrenees with our good friends Eduardo and Sira, and their children, Edu and Claudia.  We rented a lovely Casa rural which was grey stone and looked old but in fact is a new build so has all the heating and plumbing of a modern home.  It had two separate apartments and a lovely yard.  We arrived at night and could hear sounds and realized it was cow bells from the pastures surrounding us.  In the morning we were in for a treat, we opened the curtains and the mountains were aflame with yellow, orange, red, green and brown.  The autumn colors are particularly spectacular this year due to a warmer and longer fall.

On Saturday morning we started with a great crepe breakfast then went for a short walk down the road to where the horses were.  We all saddled up, for a wonderful one hour trail ride by the pastures, through the forest and down by the river.  This was Tessa's first time on a horse and she was a little nervous, however with a little encouragement she was hoisted onto her lovely brown mare and she was at the front of the line with the man walking leading her horse.  It was so wonderful to be in the mountains surrounded by beautiful nature, this is something we miss living in a desert.  A highlight for the girls was the four week old kitten that came to play; he basically kept them entertained the whole weekend.  One funny thing is that the kitten’s name was socks because of its white feet, and in Spanish the name is calcetines – not quite the same feeling as the English word.

In Spain Comida is the main meal of the day and it is at approx. 1:30pm - our lunch but they always have a proper hot meal.  On Sat we planned to make a big Comida as Eduardo enjoys cooking very much just like Anatolijus.  We were given the use of a chimney, literally a metal shaped structure we could build a fire in with a chimney.  You then put your food on grills that sit in the fire and cook.  Our menu included: fresh artichokes, tomatoes and large green onions cooked right in the fire, sausage, steak and teriyaki chicken wings.  We also did skewers of mushrooms, red pepper, cherry tomatoes and onion in balsamic vinegar.  WOW!!!  Anatolijus' new favorite thing is fire roasted onions.  To wash this great meal down we enjoy a number of good Spanish red wines – Protos and Priorat, to name two.  We now completely understand the Spanish siesta and its importance after drinking and eating that much in the afternoon.

On Sunday we were able to drive into Ordesa National Park which is fabulous.  It has beech tree forests that are beautiful with their white trunks and colored leaves.  There is a lovely river which we walked along and although there is a famous 4 hour walk/hike we weren’t prepared for that so will go back in spring or summer to enjoy more of the beauty of the Pyrenees.  

Living a dream: Extreme Sailing Series Nice

Pictures from the event are here

Videos from the live race is here

Nice promo video is here

Bliss. 25 degrees and torquoise water.  Light Mediterranean breeze caressing the palm trees that welcome a small group of visitors to the airport. Welcome to Nice!

Exactly one year ago we saw that the Extreme Sailing Series of Formula 40 catamarans was coming to Almeria, Spain. Unfortunately we weren't able to go. At the same time our interest in  being a part of this exciting event was peaked so we immediately checked the schedule for 2012 and booked a hotel in Nice, France, the closest venue to Spain.  To put some context around the importance of this event one must go back to 2001.  At that time Anatolijus was a keen sailor of HobieCats and in 2001 at one of the starts of the Swiftsure race he saw a Formula 40 catamaran called Dragon Fly and a dream was born: one day to sail on one of these.  As with many of his dreams, he put it on paper and....

So we got to Nice, weather was amazing. We got a very nice hotel with a little balcony several tram stops away from the Promenade Anglais (main promenade of the city on the sea) where the racing event was to take place.

The amazing thing about the Extreme Sailing Series is that their main purpose is to promote extreme sailing and bring it to the masses.  The event is free to watch from the shore and the stadium style racing allows spectators to see and hear the action, take pictures and make friends.  At the same time, the event is televised and is streamed live over the Internet.  We were very excited to see the event up-close.  Of course, getting onto one of the boats was not possible, because, according to the event site, you had to buy a hospitality suite (I believe they were starting at about 7k) which included one sail on the catamaran.

As we arrived on Thursday, we anticipated the first event but it was cancelled due to too much wind.  The next day there were races planned in the morning and afternoon, but we decided to take a train to Monaco and Monte Carlo to maximize the morning.

In Monaco we saw the harbor with a million massive yachts, we saw the Ponant cruise yacht coming into the harbor (the yacht is famous as in 2008 it was hijacked by pirates), visited the Royal Palace, which is a very nice place to visit and has an excellent audio guide, went to Monte Carlo to see the casino and admire Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley and Ferrari exhibits in the street.  I am not sure why we always imagined these places to be much bigger, but they were much cozier and had a very friendly, rich feeling...

We got back to the Promenade Anglais for the second set of racing and enjoyed the spectacle.  The race included several crashes we could see and hear which took 2 of the 8 boats out of action.  They  both had to go back and make repairs for the next day's sailing.  In the meantime, my head was full of thoughts on "I need to find a way to get on one of these!" so following the philosophy of "if you never ask you never win" I dialed the UK number of the event hospitality organizers to see if there is any way to buy a "ticket" to get on a boat.  A lady answered, but she had no info on this and said she would get back to me.  In the meantime, we went to check out the Extreme Sailing gear that was being sold at the racing village on the promenade.  There I asked one of the people working at the store if there was any way to get on one of the boats.  He said that I should talk to the woman who is the event coordinator.  He introduced me to Priscille and she was very energetic and excited about me being excited.  She said: “so nice to see fans that love this sport” and was very surprised we flew in just to see the event.  So I asked if there was any way to get onto one of the boats and she said "there may be", she just needs to check if there are any VIP tickets available.  Just as I am talking to her, my phone rings and I am getting a callback from the UK number from a different woman to whom my message was forwarded.  As we are talking we realize we are standing about 10 feet away from each other.  She tells me she got my message about tickets and was calling back to let me know there was a POSSIBILITY!!!! So I was standing there with the two very nice ladies telling me that Cathy and I could have VIP tickets for the Saturday hospitality suite which would include one live race on a Formula 40, spectator trips on zodiac inflatables to watch event from the water and full day access to the hospitality suite which is right on the edge of the promenade overlooking the race course.  At that point the price didn't really matter, as how can you put a price on living a dream!  So we said we are in and the ladies were very happy to have their new, extremely excited VIP guests.  To add to the excitement, Priscille told me that she would also try to see if she can get me onto two sailings on Saturday.  We finalized the details sitting in the VIP lounge sipping a drink and tasting what our future held.  Needless to say it was hard to fall asleep that night.

The next morning we got a call saying we needed to be at the race village at 10 and my first sailing was on!!! So we got there, I got into my sailing gear and we headed off to the harbor.  Cathy also came to go on the zodiac to be the official photographer of our first sail.  We got to the boat, got our instructions, met our crew-mates (guest sailors and crew). Our boat name was ZouLou skippered by a French skipper and we were off.  We got to put up sails, winch some sheets and steer a bit.  There was not much wind in the morning but we did manage to fly a hull with full sails and spinnaker deployed, it was amazing.  The nice part was meeting several very interesting (and I later learned, important) people.  We later had a nice time in the VIP lounge, exchanged info and I was able to send them video and photos I took with them.

After the sail they asked us if we were interested to go in the media zodiacs to watch the race from the water, to which we said yes (of course).  So we spent about 2 hours watching the races up very close, chasing the boats to get best views and shots.  It also allowed us to get a good perspective on how fast Formula 40s are...

As we were flying around, I was told I was slotted to go on the Formula 40 during the 3rd race of the second set.  When it was time the team zodiac came and picked us up, I handed over the photo equipment to Cathy and then I was delivered to the sailboat.

I got to ZouLou and boarded.  The crew was surprised to see me again, sailing for the second time.  Later I found out that there is a max one sail per VIP and that day, after my race they cancelled guest sailings due to conditions being too windy and dangerous.  So I got on, got my GoPro video cam setup and got ready for the pre-start sequence.

Things were different from the morning sail.  Things were intense before the race even started and it was interesting to see accomplished sailors concentrating, adjusting, counting and getting their mental state set to WIN.  The race started and the work began.  Pulling, jumping, hanging on the edge, tripping, avoiding the boom hitting me on the head.... Even without having to actually do anything for the boat, I was busy keeping out of the way and acting as the "rail meat" to provide some weight once the boat was flying the hull.  I also have to say that with all the adrenalin, coming to a near collision (you can see it in the video at about 5min 40s mark when The Wave Muscat came within inches of crashing with us) the race seemed to last an hour versus the 15 minutes it really was.  We finished the race, I thanked the crew and we went off to the VIP lounge.

At the VIP lounge upon our return at about 5pm, they served champagne as we finished watching the final races of the day.  We met lots of people from the event and many sponsors: SAP, Oman Air, Extreme Sailing and media.  Priscille and the others continued to be excellent hosts throughout the evening.  After the races we got invited to the staff BBQ that was happening late at night, which ended up being amazing.  All in all we felt like VIPs and the experience was truly unforgettable and worth it!

The next morning I went to the harbor where the boats were moored to get my team shirts that crews had promised me the evening before (things you cannot buy in a store) and said goodbye to my new friends.  Then we went to the real French flower market, had breakfast and headed out to the airport.

While at the airport we could see the boats lining up for the final set of races for the Sunday.  My dream was accomplished and we were very happy to be heading back.  Our plane got delayed an hour, but after an experience like this I was just sitting and quietly smiling to myself... My blue suitcase nicely matching my Extreme Sailing shirt I was wearing.... An experience we will both never forget...

Look at me now!

El Pilar Festival

In Zaragoza the most important day of the year is October 12^th, the celebration of the virgin of El Pliar.  In 2009 a record 450,000 attended the festival and this year saw many people come again.  The central activity is the ‘Ofrenda’ (offering) in which thousands of people in traditional dress process with flowers that are placed around the figure of the virgin which is sitting 40 feet high with a structure around it to hold the flowers.  The people who come with the flowers are dressed in traditional outfits from their city, or village or country and belong to a group that participates every year.  This year Anatolijus wanted to do more than just watch the procession; so he and his colleague Nacho borrowed traditional Aragonese outfits and through a woman at work were able to join a national police group, process and offer flowers to the Virgin.  Anatolijus looked very ‘authentic’ in his traditional dress called Baturro and is now considered ‘Mano’, which is a person of Zaragoza. 

During the festival, the town bull ring is open and there are 12 days of bullfights planned out.  This year one of the special events was the return of Juan Jose Padilla, the bullfighter that last year was gored in the eye and almost lost his life.  We had best seats for the event and watched this incredible bullfighter brave yet again those 1000+ lbs bulls.  On one hand this seemed very brave, on the other hand…

What was most amazing was the fact that he regained all of his motor skills and put on an amazing show exactly one year later after his injuries.  He ended up getting 2 ears (best ever performance gets you 3) and he was carried out of the ring on the shourlders of his friends.  As a special gesture, he dedicated one of the bulls to the doctor who saved his life.  We were told that this doctor only specializes in bullfighter injuries and when the bullfighter enters the ring, he first looks if this doctor is there, to feel more assured for the fight.

On Saturday we decided to go for a day trip to Olite which is 1.5 hours from Zaragoza and has a fabulous castle that is not very well known.  Olite is surrounded by vineyards (Navarra region, famous for its rose and red wines) and has a number of bodegas right in the town.    The castle has been restored and rebuilt in a number of projects but the space to explore is huge and there are at least 4 or 5 towers to climb for incredible views.  The next day my legs were a little sore as the spiral staircases never seemed to end!   One of the main reasons for going to Olite was: we tried to visit last May when Edita (Anatolijus’ mom) was with us but it was raining so hard we couldn’t even get out of the car.  So when she returned this October we went back on a beautiful sunny day that showed off the interesting landscapes and geography.  We packed a picnic and ate it overlooking the Puenta le Reina which is a bridge that brings the two paths of the “Way of Saint James” together as pilgrims then make their way to the famous Santiago de Compostella.    The bridge is in a small town of Gare and is about 30 mins from Olite and while we were there a number of pilgrims passed by on the bridge.  It was a very ideal place for an afternoon picnic.

That evening, to say our goodbyes to the festival of el Pilar, we went downtown without kids to see the Rosario de Cristal (crystal rosary), which is a procession of people, dressed in traditional costumes, carrying candles, floats made of glass and chanting the entire rosary.  We had a cerveza nearby and finished our evening at an amazing vegetarian restaurant called Baobab.

Then was Monday.  Back to reality, which takes a couple of days getting used to.   

On a separate note, just before the Pilares, we had our very good friends Alma and Evaldas visit us from Lithuania.  We had them only for a few nights, but managed to cover Spanish cooking, Spanish wines, some key tourist attractions and just catch up.  It was very wonderful to see them again and speak some Lithuanian.

The City of Lights!

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In the summer of 2010 when we told Grace and Tessa we were moving to Spain we promised them we would take them to Paris.  On September 15th we made good on our promise and spent 3 days in the City of Lights.  There is a Ryanair flight that goes directly from Zaragoza to Beauvais airport which is one hour and fifteen minutes north west of Paris.  There is a direct shuttle bus into the city so it was very easy and then we took the metro and had to walk 10 mins to our 'hostel'.  We were very fortunate to find out about a Catholic hostel that is in the heart of Paris, 1.5 blocks off the Champs-Élysées, and is reasonably priced.  Adveniat is the association and they provide you with sheets and we had two rooms with private bathrooms.  The place is very modern and nice with friendly helpful people.

The first morning we headed out and walked 25 mins along the river to the Eiffel Tower.  It has been a while since we were all very excited to see something and we were not disappointed.  We bought 'skip the line' tickets and had a great guide who made it very interesting.  Did you know Gustave Eiffel had to pay 80 percent of the cost to erect the tower for the World's Fair and then as a way to recoup his money he made a deal that he would get the revenue for the next 20 years?  (By the way, the tower was supposed to be taken completely down after the fair of 6 months)  Interestingly he made all his money back in the first 6 months!  The day was sunny and clear so the views were spectacular and Anatolijus took amazing photos.  Grace and Tessa were a little nervous when we took the elevator to the sommet (summit) but the view from the very top was incredible.

Following our time at the Eiffel Tower we took a taxi down to the Latin Quarter where a former colleague of Anatolijus now lives.  She and her partner had invited us to their apartment for lunch and it was so lovely to be 'in' a neighborhood and not just looking at it.  The lunch prepared by them was amazing and by far the best meal we had in Paris, thanks to our friends.  After eating we went for a walk to Pont Neuf and then to Notre Dame, it was Sunday and a Mass was starting so we were able to enter for free to look around.  We walked through the Latin Quarter and the girls each got gelato which was scooped to make a flower - lovely and tasty.

On our second day we headed out walking once again but this time we went up to the Champs-Élysées around the Place de la Concord and then through the Tuileries Gardens to the Louvre.  We had not planned to go to the Louvre but the line-up was short so we went and hit the highlights of Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, Winged Victory and some of the Egyptian display (Grace's choice).  After our whirlwind tour we had to walk very quickly to the George's Pompidou Centre where we had reservations for lunch at the roof top restaurant.  The lunch was very nice the sun came out just as we were eating and we had great views of Sacre Coeur, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.  One food reviewer described this restaurant as “The food was amazing.  I do not remember what I was eating because of the view”.  It was true.  We were then ready for another 2.5 hour stint viewing the history of Modern Art which was fabulous.  The girls really enjoyed it as well and interestingly Grace said she liked the feel of Pompidou better than the Louvre.  At the end of our time we went to the children's gallery where they had an interactive display about funny things children say when they are little.  Grace and Tessa each wrote and drew their example and then they got to videotape their examples which are shown in the exhibit!   The museum then emailed it to us they will be included in the videos that are playing in the gallery - very cool! So you could say our girls were displayed in a museum J.

We were all tired after our long day so we had a coffee at a cafe looking at the modern Art museum, the building is 'inside out' and very fun to look at.  We then got subway sandwiches and took the Metro back to our hostel.  At 8:45pm we got ready and walked 10 minutes down to the river Seine to see the Eiffel tower lit up and then at 9pm on the dot the whole tower sparkled for 5 minutes - muy bonito!  We ended the evening sitting in the lounge of our hostel checking Internet and reading children's bedtime stories.

The highlight of our last day was visiting San Chappelle which is a small chapel where Louis IV kept the relics from the Holy Land (supposedly the actual Crown of Thorns!).  The amazing thing about this chapel is that the whole thing is stained glass.  They are in the process of restoring the windows and the process is incredible.  People who love puzzles and have an amazing attention to detail are good candidates for that job.  The rest of the day involved Anatolijus needing to be on a three hour call with work and the girls and I buying Eiffel tower t-shirts and necklaces.  Our flight left at 7:05pm but with catching the shuttle bus and needing to be there early we finished touring at 3pm retrieved our luggage and had a stress free journey home.  We all thoroughly enjoyed our time and all of us are keen to go back again.  We will watch for deals on Ryanair and a cold, rainy February weekend may be the perfect time to go and explore the Musee D'Orsay, Invalides and Versailles.

Festes d'Algemesi

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On return from Canada vacation, we headed down to Algemesi, close to Valencia, where our friends Katia and Vicente invited us for the fiesta de la Madre de la Salut (Mary mother of health).  This festival last year was declared an UNESCO World Heritage event and we got to experience it in from row seats, literally.  On the Friday night when we got there, Katia arranged for us to have seats in the street through which the processions were passing, and because the streets are so narrow, there is no place to stand for tourists, unless you know someone and have reserved seats along their houses.

Just as last year in their fiesta of the bulls (which starts two weeks after this fiesta) we were overwhelmed.  The procession started at the city square, main Cathedral and City Hall, where they start with muixerangas, which are pyramids built of humans, who are dressed in colorful costumes.  Blue ones are the traditional muixerangas, where previously only men participated (that is so Spanish!) and the green ones are relatively recent alternative muixerangas which developed as a movement to include both men and women.  In fact, the green ones are much more advanced as they push the limit of height and risk.  In one of the pyramids the next day they had the child on top of the pyramid grab onto a black scarf lowered from the 4th story of a building and the greens on the balcony pulled him all the way up.  You can only imagine the crowd at that moment, truly incredible!

So on Friday night we had our seats and experienced the procession with muixerangas and dances.  After a nice Spanish dinner we went to the procession at about 10pm and the procession went till about 1:30 in the morning.

The processions start with muixerangas teams walking through the streets and building different kinds of pyramids every block.  At times multiple pyramids are built simultaneously, and some have layers of multiple rings of people on top of one another while others are a single stack of people up to 7 or 8 high with no support other than the bottom.  Typically a child climbs to the top and when there he or she stands on one foot and with hands horizontally to the sides.  And sometimes in the process they fall.... Of the entire thing tumbles... In any which way, it is a spectacle to watch and see...

Then they have special dances where men and women dance with batonettes (which are wooden sticks) and brass cymbals, which they clang against one another in a very specific pattern to their traditional music.  The dance is very intense and quite hazardous if your face or arms get out of sequence, because you can get clanged right into your face.... In fact, many men feature blistered and bleeding hands after 3 days of processions... I am sure some refreshments keep the spirits and the flesh high for the duration of the processions.

Women do same dance, though not as violent, but still with enough force and attitude to command the respect of the spectators.  Their costumes are blue (men's are red) and the hats are adorned with colorful peacock feathers.

In the midst of the processing dances there are groups of children performing theater acts to raise money for their clubs, special traditional dances with tambourines, and the Valenciano artichoke dance, where kids dance around a pole with ribbons attached to the pole.

Of course, no fiesta in Valencia would be complete without valencianas, which are men and women dressed in traditional Valenciano costumes and dancing a traditional dance with castonettes.  Definitely one of my favorite dances, as it is so graceful and Spanish, and full of emotion and feeling that is so common to the Spanish south.

And then the procession features the most special dance of men dressed as medieval white soldiers holding very long tapered sticks.  It is a very primal looking dance, maybe resembling a mating call or some very intense and emotional struggle, where at one moment the long sticks get thrown very high into the air in a hope of catching them again.  Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.  I figured it is better not to look up when they do this, as a 2 meter stick falling onto you from 4 stories high cannot be a good thing.  But all of us were fine, standing in awe of this spectacle....

And then people processed with candles in their hands... Hundreds of people, mostly women, even thought in the recent years men started to join... People make promises, not unlike our New Year's resolutions, and march to demonstrate their commitment.  We tend to eat more turkey and have an extra glass of champagne.

And the grand finale was the Mary herself.  Ushered in by several white kings with humongous candles, cities' dignitaries, the Mary float, while not as large as some of the ones we saw in Seville during Easter processions, was still very impressive, being carried by about 20 men and women of the town.  Everything goes quiet and it creates an opportunity to make a promise, say a prayer or think about those who we value and who we care about. And then it was over.

The next day we were invited to another home with balcony views of the procession, where we saw the event from a different vantage point and in daylight.  I got to see the president of the Comunitat Valenciana, standing at the main entrance of the chapel where Mary stayed overnight.  With my massive photo equipment looking like paparazzi I had no trouble getting into the middle of the famous... So took advantage and snapped away...

After the procession we went to the Casino, which is a spectacular restaurant in an old city casino building.  Lunch lasted only about 3 hours and included about 5 courses, culminating in a dessert featuring but the Mary herself in chocolate and gold!  The girls and Cath and I had an extensive discussion on how to handle the dessert without being sacrilegious: should we start with the baby Jesus' arms, Mary's crown or go for her legs... In the end we worked around the vital parts and no saints were hurt during the lunch in Algemesi.

After lunch we were packed and drove to Cullera, Katia's beach home and spent Saturday afternoon and most of next day on the beach, with about 34 degrees, more Spanish food and fun...

With another wonderful and unforgettable experience under our belt, we returned back on Sunday with anticipation of the children starting school the next day.