WOW!!! That was a late night – 3am we got to bed! We were completely blown away by this event.
We went back into the town around 10pm last night, expecting to be kicking around for a couple of hours as we didn’t have tickets for the stage play in the square. What we didn’t expect was to be sitting in the streets with hundreds of others waiting until around 1:30am. The Spanish people were so patient, just quietly chatting, not a yawn in sight and no alcohol to mention involved either. It was just us, sliding down the wall, yawning our heads off wondering if anything would actually happen.
We were all given long thin candles and instructed to light the snail shells on the walls once the procession came around the corner. Eventually there was a hush and an old man in a hooded sackcloth with a crooked staff and bare feet came around the corner shouting something about christians. He was followed by the slowest moving procession ever, sporadically acting out the last three days of Jesus’ life. I don’t know if I felt more sorry for the poor bloke carrying the cross or the little children kept awake till the small hours to parade through the streets. More Roman soldiers marching, people of all ages in the scary pointy hat get ups, lots of folks dressed in biblical era stuff and then, of course four massive flower lined floats to be carried through the narrow, crowded streets.
Then, sometime well after 2am, comes the dance of death. Five dancing skeletons – 2 adults, 3 children carrying symbolic items including a scythe and a clock with no hands. Further skeletons bang the drum and carry torches.
Amid all this, we get talking to a Spanish man and his son, who offers to lead us through a short cut to see the crucifixion in the square. As we got there early, he decided to show us the inside of his huge house which took up about a quarter of the square. It all seemed a bit surreal at 2:30 in the morning but what a house! Wine cellars, old ovens, even a well! He apologised for not showing us upstairs but his wife and daughter were asleep 😁😳
We rejoined the crowd to watch the crucifixion – all looked a bit too real to me. It was definitely a real man and the whole thing was played out in shadows on the opposite wall.
By the time we got back to the van I was pretty frozen. Although it was a warmish night if that spectacle doesn’t give you the shivers nothing will!
Today, Good Friday, we’ve come back to the lovely Camping Moby Dick at Calella de Palafrugell. Good weather is forecast for the weekend so I think we can squeeze a few more days in.