Toledo and Semana Santa

Upon several requests, I'll do a post in english. But I must warn the non-dutch speaking people that i'm funnier in dutch as in English! (and spanish for that matter, although the accent helps)


About my last week: As most of you know (except my heathen friends) it was Eastern! In Spain la Semana Santa is even more important as Christmas! As a result I had the entire week of. Besides my very busy schedule of going out, shopping, drinking coffee with my friends, lying around in the park, and sleeeeeping late, I also took the opportunity to visit Toledo.


Toledo is a small town, some 70 kilometres from Madrid. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and famous for its production of steel and especially swords. Being the genuine knights-lover as you all know (well...at least i love Monthy Python's Holy Grail), medieval towns and swords are a real treat for me! I might have to add that Toledo is also famous for its pastelerias and marzipan which ofcourse had no association whatsoever with my visit!





This is (if I remember correctly) one of the monasteries. On the side are hanging handcuffs and chains. I overheard someone saying they used to hang the slaves up there... But frankly, I think that was some Spanish sense of dramatization. On the other hand, I don't have a clue what cuffs are doing hanging on the side a monastery, but hey. Wikipedia is not telling me anything immediately but I guess all can be found somewhere on the world wide web for those interested in chains and monks! Feel free to post a comment.











The proof that I actually went, and didn't just google some pics!





This last video has no cultural or educational value whatsoever, but I just think it's hilarious. Traffic lights in Toledo, rotate your PC clockwise and turn on the sound.








Since I had the entire week of, I also decided to do some truth-verification on the supposably very religious south in Spain and on how they struggle their way through Semana Santa. For this educational quest I gathered up with a Mexican, Daniel, and an American, Nic, and we got ourselves some adequate transport.


Unfortunately (!), I was the only one with a european license and therefore it was my job driving this cooper, which we baptized Tobias, from Madrid to Andalucia. A real pleasure, but also quite different from driving in Belgium. Let's say the Spanish have a specific understanding of driving assertively, espcially the taxi drivers.


Anyway, nobody got hurt in the trip, including Tobias.



Also unfortunately, the Spanish also have a different interpretation of laboral efficiency (hope not too many of them are reading this) and therefore it took us 2 (two!!) hours to get the car from the rental office, which made us decide to spend the night around Cordoba instead of driving all the way south to Cadiz as planned.


Not such a bad decision, actually. Cordoba is an Andalucian town with Roman roots. Nice, sunny, lots of bars, my kind of place, quoi.

The first thing that struck us, was the accent. My Spanish is not so bad and Daniel's for sure must be ok, but it's really a challenge understanding every word from the Andaluces.





Coming back to our quest for the Holy Truth, we were really amazed by the way the people in the south celebrate the semana santa. It's huge all over in Spain anyway, but in Andalucia they just add an extra dimension to it. Starting on wednesday, lasting till Sunday, the Spanish have processions in the street, carrying around huge devotional sculptures ("Pasos") , symbolizing Jesus, Maria, ...



These processions are really a big event, people make reservations to get a seat close to the cathedral and tons of people show up. During the day people hand out program books to make sure not to miss anything. These program books show place ant time of every procession, the coulour of the tunics (see below) and even give a rating what "not to miss". Made me think of our music festivals, but then without the mud, drunk belgians, and euhmm, the music. National and local television is filming everything and are constantly broadcasting the highlights of the day before.









Well, the strangest thing is, the people who carry around these devotional sculptures, wear tunics ("capirotes") . The exact meaning of this is still not clear to me, but in medieval times penitents would wear them to mask their identity. The Ku Klux Clan (good catholics as they are) used these robes a the basis for their traditional uniform. Bit of an ironical act, I guess.

Anyway, these robes, because of that exact resemblance, have the same effect on all foreign people... WHAT THE F... Since I already saw them in Barcelona, I was prepared. Nic however, was totally freaking out!
























We didn't stay the night in Cordoba but in a nearby village. And also overthere the processions were very lively and very present. It's kinda funny because everybody is on the street or in a bar, drinking and eating and talking loudly and enjoying the show. Beats sitting in church,no? Little children are just dragged along, they'll sleep anywhere, no?




At about 3 AM the last procession passed our bar. The colors of the tunics in each procession differ, depending on the city, the day and the type of procession. In this last one, everybody went completely in black. Given the hour and the fact everybody awaits the processions in a bar, you can imagine the atmosphere. But still, when the procession passed, all lights in the bars were turned off and everybody kept silent for about 10 minutes!







After a relaxing night in Tobias (yep all hotels booked during semana santa) we drove south to Cadiz. Cadiz is a peninsula, only connected to the mainland by a narrow channel. Cadiz was the principal port for the Spanish Navy. It's the city where Columbus started some of his travels. The old centre consists mainly of narrow alleys and in one of them we found a hostel that despite our expectations, still had 3 beds available, jippie! We were actually counting on converting Tobias into a hostel for the entire trip.






I must say that I really had a great time in Cadiz. The old centre is very pretty, Cadiz has some nice beaches, a lot of palmtrees and parks, it was sunny, we had good fun... Guess the pictures give a good idea.











Me and the mayor!

Cider is hot in Andalucia!

And they know Kuifje/Tintin!

Our last day we took our places in Tobias and headed north, visiting some smaller villages in the province of Cadiz.



Well same old, same old, nice beaches, palmtrees, lots of terraces and bars.

Our last stop was Jerez de La Frontera, an absolutlely must-see for everybody visiting Cadiz. A shame we only discovered it on our last night! The city is famous for it's wines and bodegas. We should have been better informed before visiting the province.... Well, coulda, woulda, shoulda...