Visiting Spain during holy week

It was Palm Sunday and our arrival by train in Valencia thrust us into mobs of milling people. They were waiting for the nighttime torching of the giant statues and effigies that are the hallmark of the Fallas festival of Valencia, Spain. During our visit, the Fallas coincided with Holy Week.

Missed opportunity

The streets around the railway station were jammed with expectant crowds. We had to be aggressive to finally obtain a cab to take us to the airport where we had an auto reserved.

Along the route we got glimpses of the statues waiting to be burned. But we had our doubts about their ability to burn, as it was raining and had been for two days.

After getting our car, we drove to, the parador on the beach outside of town; we had been unable to get reservations downtown. By this time we were tired and could not envision taking our car downtown for the firing of the Fallas in the rain.

In the morning we learned that the parador had provided buses for guests to go to the festivities. C'est la vie.

The next morning we wound our way across Valencia to the factory outlet for Lladro porcelain figurines. I had a vague memory of its location from a previous visit and after a few false turns we found it. It was marked in no way. The most evident indication that this treasure house existed was the presence of several tourist buses.

Entering an unmarked doorway, we found a world of beauty: an almost unlimited selection of the output of this famed house of ceramics. All items exhibited were factory seconds and considerably lower priced than in the USA.

The big problem was to restrain our greed as we knew that we would have to carry our selections throughout Europe. We relaxed this restraint somewhat after we decided that we would package and mail some items from Spain.

Granada challenge

We had reservations for that evening in Granada near the Alhambra, so we turned our way south along the expressway to Alicante.

The lush vegetable fields of Valencia faded into the vast citrus orchards on the landward side of the highway. Equally vast on the seaward side were the clusters of highrise apartment buildings.

We left the expressway at Alicante and took the back roads, which we prefer when there is time.

Having tarried too long at the Lladro showroom, it was after dark when we arrived in Granada. I had never entered Granada from the east, but I was sure that once I reached the downtown area I could find my way. I was wrong.

The city was very crowded for the Holy Week processions. The streets that I knew were blocked off. A bewildering maze of one-way streets quickly got me lost.

We finally had a brainstorm. We would hire a taxi to lead us. The extremely tortuous route we finally took would have been impossible to navigate without our guide.

Midnight procession

Despite our late arrival, we had dinner and then walked through Alhambra Park, down the hill to the city center. At midnight, the last procession of the day started.

Each procession included a brass band and various brotherhoods of the church in their cloaks and tall, pointed hats with mask extensions.

Each brotherhood had a different color. Some brotherhoods were made up of men and some of children. I am sure that originally only boys participated, but we noticed occasionally when a youngster removed the hot hat that the wearer was a girl.

Each procession had a float of Jesus on the cross. Each float was carried by a large number of men; only their feet showed below the float's skirt.

As the men walked in step, the float swayed from side to side. The speed of the procession was determined by the number of times the floats were stopped to permit the men underneath to get just a bit of rest.

The last float of the procession was the float of the Virgin. The procession in Granada was the first in which I had seen women; a group of about 30 or 40 women, all dressed in black and wearing black mantillas, escorted the float of the Virgin. In all the processions the Virgin's float invariably was covered with flowers, with dozens of candles burning around it.

The Alhambra

The next day we moved, to the parador inside the walls of the Alhambra. Paradores are Spanish-government-owned tourist hotels, usually located in restored historic buildings or castles.

The parador was in an old convent. It was a very charming but popular hotel. We could get only one night's reservation, which is why our first night was in the Washington Irving Hotel.

We spent the rest of the day savoring the Alhambra and the Generalife gardens. Early in the evening we walked back down through the park to the city center.

We savored coffee and churros in the square as we watched a procession. At about 9 o'clock we started back to the parador and got entangled in still another procession.

On the road

We drove to Cordoba the next day, again via the back roads.

For the first time I viewed the harvest of ripe olives. This still is a manual task in this part of Spain. A cloth is spread under the tree and a man uses a pole to thresh the olives.

In Cordoba, after visiting the mosque, we checked into the parador, which in contrast to the one in Granada was a modern highrise hotel.

We had been unable to get reservations in Spain for the rest of Holy Week. We originally had hoped to be in Seville for the Good Friday processions but, even starting six months ahead of time, we had been unsuccessful in obtaining reservations within a radius of 30 miles.

Before this trip to Spain we had no idea how much the Spanish take to the road during this week. We headed into the interior of Extremadura with just a bit of trepidation.

Out from Zafra

Driving over the back roads, we came to the small farming town of Zafra. Noticing a sign for a parador, we checked there for a room.

The parador in Zafra was a restored palace of a local duke. It was in the heart of the small town. We could walk to the edge of the town in any direction in 10 minutes.

Being lucky enough to have secured a home for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, we made this our base of exploration for the next three days.

On Good Friday we took a day trip to Guadalupe just as the procession had ended. The participants still were circulating through the area, however. We had a sumptuous lunch at the parador across the street from the cathedral.

Returning from Guadalupe, we visited the Roman ruins at Merida. The sports arena and theater are remarkably preserved and the Roman bridge over the broad Guadiana River still is in use for automobile traffic.

On Saturday we visited the town of Jerez de los Caballeros, the hometown of Balboa.

This is a town built on the sides of a very steep hill. It was obvious the entire town did not have running water, for the public water fountain was busily in use.

More tradition

Returning to Zafra, we found the town quiet and there was not a soul on the streets. We soon found out that everyone was at the bullfight. We walked by the bullring and it was obvious that there were no empty seats available, even if we had wished to attend.

At the rear of the bullring there was a knot of young boys. They were peering under the gate through which the heroic bulls soon would be dragged. The scene was reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell scene of American boys peering through knotholes at a baseball park.

We witnessed processions in Zafra on Thursday and Saturday nights. They were remarkably similar to the ones we saw in Granada, only smaller, and the women accompanying the Virgin's float wore white mantillas.

There also were horsemen in the processions and many children wore Roman armor (maybe in memory of the extensive Roman occupation of this area).

Early Easter morning we continued on to Portugal.

During our trip, we experienced rail and hotel strikes in Spain and Portugal. Even without these difficulties, it would be challenging to visit during Holy Week. Reservations are a must. Plan well ahead. The ceremonies are worth it.

COPYRIGHT 1993 Martin Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group