Day: April 5, 2012

Processions in Toledo

Post by Wynette: In addition to the Palm Sunday procession that Charlie wrote about earlier, we saw two other semana santa (holy week) processions.  For all 3, we more or less just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

For the first, below, we were sitting on the main plaza having coffee and noticed lots of people and said “wow, people sure like to hang out on this plaza”.  Then we heard a band and saw a float with Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem.

Following the float was a marching band.  They were good.  Incredible trumpet playing.  Even though the songs weren’t exactly spanish songs, they sounded so spanish with the trumpet.  I was quite moved by it.

Then, our last night inToledo (April 2), as we were heading back from the restaurant to our hotel, we saw crowds lining up along one of the main streets, so we found a spot and waited for another procession.  Another float with Jesus, and, I think, the same wonderful band we heard before. That’s the top of Toledo’s stunning cathedral behind the float.

Notice that several people, in hoods, are carrying this one.  The first one, of Jesus on the donkey, was on a wagon that was pulled along by a single man.  We were amazed he could do that.

 

Paella

Post by Wynette: Well, we haven’t had any paella yet.  We are holding out for a place that comes with a good recommendation.  Do you think we should have tried any of these places in Toledo?

I think the person who decided on the following brand name didn’t quite understand nuances around the word “ok”.

We met a couple waiting outside a restaurant, he was from New Jersey but had lived in Spain for 20 years.  She was Spanish.  He said his theory was that a company manufactured these and froze them and the bars all around sold them.  Because we saw LOTS of signs like the 3 above.

Or, how about something we saw in the market, what Charlie calls “shake and bake Paella”:

Meditating in the Center of Barcelona

Post by Wynette: Our first night in Barcelona (April 3) we walked down to La Rambla and then, on the way back, through the Plaza Catalonya which is near our hotel.  Paz, who checked us into the hotel and gave us a long  and delightful introduction to the sites in Barcelona including how to get to them, told us Plaza Cataloyna is considered to be the center of Barcelona.  As we walked through the plaza we spotted a circle of young people who appeared to be meditating, sitting in the center of the circular plaza so, the very center of Barcelona.  As Charlie mentioned in an earlier post, the first day we arrived in Spain we encountered what they called the “Huelga General”, a country-wide strike, I think having to do with the terrible economic situation here in Spain.  It affected us because all the trains and 80% of buses and metro were shut down.  We saw a large peaceful demonstration in Toledo.  Paz told us that in Barcelona the protest turned violent and some of the violence was just outside our hotel — people were not able to leave the hotel for hours.  I think, perhaps, these young people meditating is part of all this.  But, emphasizing the peaceful part.  It was nice to see them.  We’ve heard that the unemployment among people younger than 24 in Spain is around 46%.

Charlie and Wynette go to Palm Sunday Mass

My Catholic boyhood is coming in handy. We got up, in Toledo, on Palm Sunday and I was saying to Wynette on Palm Sunday back in Duluth MN we would get these palm leaves and we would parade (process?) around the the church holding the palms. I guessed that since the Spanish seem to favor religious processions they would do that on Palm Sunday too.

We lucked out and got down to the big cathedral just as they were gathering outside. We waited along the street (a very small street) and about 10 minutes later they were parading past us. First the young boys, singing:

then the choir

then the older guys.

Holy cow! It’s the Archbishop of Toledo! They’re bringing out the big guns (or canons).

And how about those palm fronds? Back in Minnesota we had these little wimpy things but there we were far from where palms grow. I never thought about it but I guess the church had to order them months in advance and there are companies that supply palm fronds to churches all around the US.

Next came the guys with the really cools outfits:

Mixed with what seems to be people from the congregation:

including 4 or 5 women in black outfits and with small black clutch purses (which we didn’t get a photo of).

Okay, it’s over so we just fell in behind. No need to be shy. We didn’t have palms but we had some olive branches that they had provided for the crowd (you can see the bystanders holding them in the above photo). We marched right around and into the church and the service continued. There was a choir in one end of the church that was singing as we came in and then the “real” choir in the fancy choir section that we had seen the day before on the church tour. Then I never even gave a thought that a real choir might be in there singing.

The choir area is opposite the high alter which in pretty fancy:

They had a bunch of large monitors around so you could see what was happening. There must have been 4 or 5 cameras, maybe more, since they showed the high alter, the choir, both from a couple of angles and other views also. So there must have been a director somewhere in a control room deciding which camera feed to show at any time, “Cut to the choir”, “Now the congregation”, “Now the high alter”, “Zoom in on the chalice”, etc.

The video shows the priest who is reading the pulpit, and here’s the archbishop on video:

And then the part I remember so well from my boyhood, where the communion is over and you know there is only five or ten minutes to go and you are ready for it to be over. This little girls needed to move around a little during that time:

The choirs and the organ were magnificent. The acoustics in the church was very, very good. It was a bit long, as it always is, but we enjoyed it.

 

Electric candles

Am I the only one fascinated by the concept of electric candles? I have never seen them in the US. As you know in Catholic churches (and maybe other ones too, I don’t know) you have places where you can light candles to remember people or whatever. They have these little candles and matches to light them. In Italy and here in Spain you don’t see real candles much, just the electric kind. In Italy there was a switch on each candle as I remember. Here in Spain you just drop your money in and some electric bulb lights up. They have them in front of the side chapels in large churches. I noticed that on some lots of “candles” (lights) were lit and some not so many. this was for some unpopular saint I guess.

Politics

Hey, we’re not supposed to talk about that right? I guess we all know the Europe is a bit to the left of the US. You don’t see graphitti like this in the US:

This was, by the way also by the river around Toledo. Here is one more by the river:

Gaudi

Post by Wynette: I haven’t posted any yet except for small comments on Charlie’s posts.  It’s overwhelming.  Hard to single in on one thing. But, we are in Barcelona so have to talk about Gaudi.  Or GaudI (accent on final syllable) as they pronounce it here.  Yesterday we toured the Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral Gaudi started and didn’t get to finish.  But he left behind plans and the people here are slowly finishing it.  The cathedral now has a roof and much of the interior seems finished. Charlie said that when he was here 10 years ago the interior was filled with cement mixers, etc.  I knew Gaudi made beautiful and strange sculptural places but didn’t realize how well designed the places were with respect to light and comfort.  Our first day here we toured his Batllo (sp?) house.  So worth the 16 euro each admission.  Below is picture taken on the roof. Pointy things on the left are chimneys.  Roofline on the right is meant to look like a dragon’s back (St. George’s dragon). It looks like people are talking on cell phones but those are the audio guide phones. Even though this looks whimsical, everything is designed to be extremely functional as well.