December 6, 2012
Puente for Constitution Day
This Thursday we had the day off. It was another "Puente," as they would call it here. That means if we have a holiday on a Thursday or Tuesday, they give us the respective Friday or Monday off as well. So that can make a 4- or 5-day weekend, since I never work Fridays anyways.
My original plan was to go to Salamanca with a friend for 2 nights and visit Santo Domingo on Sunday, but our Couchsurfing connection didn't confirm, she flaked! So, we opted for warmer weather and decided to leave Friday morning for Valencia, the town of sun, paella and oranges. That gave me Thursday to see the medieval festival in Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
The festival was in the center of town, where medieval-looking booths for vendors were offering traditional foods and souvenirs. The people of the town were dressed in traditional garments and everywhere you went you could see the cathedral surrounded by thousands of people.
Nearby the cathedral was Plaza España and the Knights Tournament with a sword and jousting competition. We had a pretty good view, minus the flood light pointed directly at us.
First, on mounted horses, they drew their swords and had to ride through a mini course slicing and swiping at cucumbers. Then, they rode under a pole with rings. Each knight had to joust their corresponding color of rings. And Yellow wins both competitions!
After standing still for too long, we were getting really cold! We had also separated from the rest of the group, so we went off in search of them and some food.
We found food first. Ribs and red wine.
Since it was such a small town, we ate our ribs and conveniently ran into our friends soon after. We visited the indoor (in a big tent) market with lots of samples of serrano ham, cheeses, fois gras and cider and then it was time to go. Cheers!
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