Oh my goodness - what a fiesta! The town is full of locals and few tourist and a band comprising of 5 people and a massive white tuba. The music started at about 7.15am as the small band marched around the streets near our apartment - it was very quiet until that point! All the children seem to be on holiday and their favourite hobby is letting off fire-crackers, often under old plastic beer cups for maximum sound and effect!
The town really is like a living museum full of wattle and daub houses with street so narrow that people can reach across farmhouses opposite to each other and shake hands.
The roads are all very steep so despiser what our actual footsteps count is, I think it should be tripled to take account of the effort involved.
We know that a number restaurants are closed for the duration but by chance I saw one I had earmarked was open. It was a great little tapas bar run by a lovely lady whose baby boy slept soundly in a little cradle on the counter of the bar. How he managed to sleep is a miracle and I bet when he is finally at home in the peace and quiet he probably won’t be used to it and will wake up! The lunch was great - Teruel ham and Manchego cheese, croquetes and patatas braves - all delicious.
We headed back and managed our second session of washing as the washer was free. We were planning to go back into town in the evening. The woman in the ‘Tourismo’ had told us that there were going to be bull fights in the Plaza Mayor for three nights. I have never seen one and never wanted to although Colin was interested. I decided that it is easy to have strong opinions but sometimes it is worth testing them. I had hoped that it would be too crowded to get close but unfortunately we were able to get right up to the wooden planks protecting the ring.
I watched the event until a few minutes before the death of the bull as it was too gruesome to stay. My thought are these: I can see the glamour of the Matadors and Toreodors in their amazing outfits with choreographed moves BUT it is basically a session of tormenting an animal, torturing it until it weakens and then taking time and it seems delight in slowly killing it - there was not even a swift end as the bull moaned in pain. It was awful. Bull fights should be banned (as should fox hunting). It disturbed me for quite some time.
