Life in Ciudad Rodrigo

The Spanish military are incredibly good at the call and response "viva". The instantaneous swell of voices that snaps out the one word is impressive but the children in the main square of Ciudad Rodrigo this evening would give all but the crackest of crack regiments a good run for their money. Tonight is the night that, traditionally, The Three Kings deliver Christmas presents to the youth of Spain. We went to see our local Cabalgata, the parade of the Kings that takes part in all but the tiniest of Spanish towns. As I type I can hear the live broadcast of the rather larger Madrid version on the telly. Our parade was small, the three Kings had a float each but, other than that, it seemed to consist of men dressed as ducks riding decorated  lawn mowers and a sullen looking little girl with a tiara in a motorised pram. Both the Guardia and the Firefighters turned on the sirens to try to stoke up the atmosphere a bit. But you could feel the excitement of the children in the air...

Odd how things become "traditional". In Spain Christmas and New Year is a sales high spot for the sparkling wine Cava , the Spanish champagne. Freixenet is one of the brand leaders selling 500 million euros worth of its fizzy drink each year. Spaniards wait to see what the Christmas ad will look like. It gets on the news bulletins, people talk about it in the bars and now I've even mentioned it here! Last year the ad was made by Martin Scorcese with a Hitchcock theme but,this year, they have gone back to their bubbly roots with an advert that features the Spanish Synchronised Swimming Team. The swimmers were runners up at this years Olympic Games. Apparently the ad was made at Pinewood and took 27 hours of filming. If you want to see it have a look at this link

Last year Maggie chanced upon a craft fair sale here in Ciudad Rodrigo. She went in to see if they had any Christmas cards. The group of mature women who had organised the sale soon recognised her for a Brit and insisted that she talk to one of their members - Señora Bromfield - a Spanish woman who had married a Briton and spent 27 years living in the Midlands. A year later Maggie is still friends with Mrs Bromfield. Indeed we were invited to lunch with her today. Our meeting place was to be the craft sale organised by Manos Unidas a Catholic based charity that sells "Third World" handicrafts to raise money for humanitarian projects. We brought a brilliant nativity scene made up of a Peruvian Mary, Joseph, baby Jesús, Kings and donkeys. I was impressed by the hard sell, no holds barred advertising for the craft sale. You will see, in the photo, the huge hoardings and eye catching displays the group mounted to entice passers by into parting with their cash. Well, if you enlarg...

They were putting up the Christmas lights in the town today. Before you know it they'll have Christmas stuff in the shops in September, just like in the UK!