The thing we have loved about this trip is the getting to know all the people on route and returning to Camping Villasol meant that we could actually say hello again to some familiar faces from our visit in October. Most of the folk we spoke to were looking forward to the big parade, or the massive firework display and even some of them were going to the fancy dress day.
The week of festivities were great, the Spanish love their big firework explosions and every day at 2 pm, there was a Big Bang display in the Main Street. I've never seen daytime firework explosions before, so Jake and I took our place as near as the police would allow to the display, along with thousands of others and waited expectantly for the off.
I've never witnessed war and have never been in a situation where explosions have been set off in close proximity. Jesus H Christ on a bike. We were both stunned, literally by the impact of these cannons let off in the streets of Benidorm. And, as it is a town of high rise buildings, the noise was magnified over and over by the echoes. Absolutely amazing!
I'll just mention here that the fiesta itself is built around groups of families and friends called Penya's. Each Penya group save money all year and at Fiesta time, spend this cash on hiring shops in the town for four days and turning them into bars and dance places. They eat and drink and party in the streets outside these places, but it really doesn't really get going until after midnight, when the bands and dancing in the streets becomes noisy and raucous.
We stayed in the Old Town of Benidorm several nights until the early hours and watching Jake dancing with the locals and having as much fun as we did, is one of the highlights of the trip. Not many Brits venture into the heart of the fiesta as we did and it's a shame, as they miss what it is really all about.
Days and nights flew by as we partied as hard as age and legs would allow. Even our fellow campmates passed comment about 'are you two going out again?' It's why we were here after all.
The night before the parade we decided to be sensible and take it easy on the partying. We went for a walk early in the evening and wandered back to the van just before 9 pm. As we approached our camper, Jake's attention was drawn to another van along side us and her eyes and head were focused on the awning at the side of the van. Suddenly her feet hit a speed bump in the road and she fell face first to the ground. I managed to get a hand onto her shoulder, which gave her time to put her hands out. Instead of landing face first on the gravelly road, both hands and knees took full force. Blood everywhere, top of her finger almost sheared off on one hand, scraped fingers on the other, knees bloodied, muscles twisted and pulled!
All the other nights we staggered home just about holding each other up nothing happens and the night we decide to take it easy.......
There's a moral there somewhere!
The final day parade was wonderful. Each of the Penya's build a float and fill it with people and millions of sweets and confetti to throw to the crowds of people that line the streets. We got a couple of street side seats to watch it all go past and sat next to another Scots couple who were great fun. He was celebrating his 70th birthday and his patter was straight from 'Still Game'. Jake had great fun collecting armfuls of sweets and passing them back to the aged Spanish ladies behind us, who were almost crying with gratitude every time Jake showered them with sweeties.
No sooner had the parade finished, then we were off, along with countless tens of thousands of others to the beach at Poniente, to witness the closing fireworks display of the fiesta. And what a display it was. Pictures would just not do it justice, it must be seen once in a lifetime. The BEST display we have ever seen.
And then it was over for another year. But not quite...............although the Spanish Fiesta was done, there still remained the little matter of the 'British Day'. We had no idea what this would be like, other than it was fancy dress. OK, It's the largest fancy dress in Europe, but hey, how big can that be?
It was MASSIVE!!!!!!!!!
To say there were 20,000 people in the streets could be accurate, but who knows. I've never seen so many people dressed up in one place. The day started at 12 midday and ended, well it ended when the last person left, whenever that was.
We bade our farewell to the masses around the 8pm mark and wandered back to the van with laughs and smiles and a touch of sadness. After all, we go back to Orkney tomorrow.
Could the three months have gone by so fast? We had seen and been to so many places and done so much. Life on the road, albeit in a certain amount of comfort, is better than we ever thought it would be. So back to Orkney for Christmas and New Year, refresh, play snowballs, do Hogmanay and then come back and do it all again for longer.
The Road Trip hasn't ended, it's just begun.......................
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