We set out at 7.15 am. Well almost; the coach was there before me and I was early but we waited for the people that didn't turn up till 7.30.
I don't know why but I assumed we could doze and look at the view as we sped along; ha! First call on our attention was the menu. We were to lunch at Mas Taxonera and there were two choices per course so we had to make decisions and everyone joined in with advice and suggestions. Naturally. There were fifty-odd people on the bus so this took time and a surprising amount of hilarity. I don't know why.
Then there were riddles.
Q. What do you call the tongue of a gossiping skeleton? I don't know, I didn't understand the answer.
Q. What is big and gets small? A candle.
Q. What do a schoolboy and the conductor of an orchestra have in common? I don't know, I thought I understood the answer but as it was obscene I think I got it wrong.
Then song sheets and singing. Yup, sounds like hell on earth but really was fun, everyone threw themselves into it and laughed as if they'd been drinking for days and this was before breakfast.
La Presidente bought round chocolates and her son followed with a cup to spit out the caramel if anyone got one that was too hard for their teeth. (Think this was a joke - it was funny at the time -)
By popular demand we had a rest stop. There is a lot to be said for hanging out with people slightly older than you, various geriatric needs are regularly and nonchalantly met. The break was to take 15 mins and took 30 - not bad really. The mayor said that it was the women chattering that held things up. The blokes seemed to do quite as much.
We passed Mimosa on trees, Aloe Vera with those huge tree-like flowers shooting up, eagles, egrets, mountains and plains...
Suddenly - after 4 hours - we arrived. We were disgorged in the market, a pretty street of stalls with the usual stuff like we get at our market. Thence to pose for the group photo. This copper thang was in the street - couldn't find anyone to ask about it (they spoke Catalan) but it has an alchemical air to it.
Thence to museums. Lace Museum and here, Rock Museum. Proper museum with display cases and labels. Was very disappointed the labels weren't handwritten in faded ink - or even typewritten - but everything else was lovely.From the museums to the church, which is massively impressive - its so obviously created with reverence and pride that its impossible to think of it as over the top :) Usually it is simply called baroque -
Et voila - Msr Torrent, our mayor. Now we know why we are twinned with this place.
Lunch was extremely good and a very hysterical affair. I had a fresh salad with meat, osso-buco and vedg and kebabs of fruit with a little chocolate sauce. We drank sangria, red wine and muscat. Hola!
After several hours eating, thus missing the port, the seaside and the cemetery, we piled back onto the coach. I went to sleep. Judging from the racketing about me, I was alone - more singing, more jokes and when I did wake it was to persons pretending to be politicians.
There is a spot on the border between France and Spain called La Junquera which is a vast and depressing shopping place where everything costs slightly more than Lidls. We stopped there - there was a deal on whiskey and the smokers wanted to stock up with their drug - hated it, there was a little river being used as a sewer behind the warehouses and the olive trees on the hills adjacent were blackened from last summers fires which had stripped the earth too. Felt horribly post-apocalyptic.
But more singing on the coach dispelled that one:) Got back to Esperaza only an hour later than planned, far too wrecked to do any partying with the Tocques et Clochers. Hope everyone had fun and that the rain held off - report, someone??
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