Big adventure on the agenda!

Thanks to our friend, Shannon of Grapehops Tours fame, we booked train tickets to Girona to see the Castellers. These human towers of Catalan are part of the Intangible World Heritage by UNESCO. We took the Metro to the main station in Barcelona; it’s really a big station and we had to go through security to get to the platforms. The ride was under 40 minutes on the fast train and there we were, in Girona. We made a bee line for the Plaça de Sant Filue and found the last two spots on a bench, albeit in the sun, to watch. It was a warm day–temps in the low 80’s so being in the bright sun was not ideal for sitting or for photography.

There were three teams, red, blue and gold. The blue team was local, from Girona. At first they were all hugging and talking and wrapping their waists with a long, wide, black fabric:

Then there is a lot more back slapping and hugging of children until finally the music began. Each team had their own musicians, too. The first two towers were pretty small and the young (7 or 8 year old) girls on top each lifted a flower. The rest of the towers were finalized by the child on top lifting one arm. What you can’t see here is that at the base of each tower, all the teams gather with their arms up around the shoulders of the person in front of them to make a deep human circle of support.

I loved this experience! Something about it reminded me of the Palio culture in Siena–the team spirit, the apparent reverence for the youngest participants, the love of one’s own historic culture.

The photos really didn’t work out, mostly because I was so intent on watching without the phone, but here are a few shots:

After a while we went to see some of the flower show that was happening simultaneously. We didn’t see much. This was the final day of a week long festival and a lot of the exhibits were really dying. And then the sun, again, made the photography impossible. Here’s one that still looked good:

We didn’t go into the main hall because it was just too crowded and the line was too long.

Finally we went back across the river and found a place to eat. Again, it was very crowded and we were lucky to get a table anywhere. We ended up having a nice selection of cured meats, including jamon iberico, and delicious cheeses, beer and an excellent vermouth for me, and a super kind waitress. Public transportation took us home and, now that we are about to leave, we are finally comfortable with the system.

So happy the air conditioning worked, we relaxed for a while and heated up some of the very salty prepared foods we had in the fridge for dinner.

What a full day!