Last night the Three Kings arrived in Cartagena! (and every other spanish village, town and city!!)
The tradition in Spain is for the Three Kings that brought gifts to the infant Jesus, to bring gifts to the children of Spain on the morning of the 6th of January.Therefore they arrive, via a massive procession on the evening of the 5th.
We walked along the procession route until the police motorbikes effectively stopped us in the Plaza de Carmen where we stood and waited with crowds of excited Spanish families. The whole city has been 'buzzy' for the last few days as the anticipation of this event has grown.
The parade started with all sorts of different floats and themes, each float having many children on it - as they passed by they threw handfuls of sweets out into the crowds causing everyone to duck as these mini missiles headed their way and then scrabble around to collect them.
The final three floats had the Kings on them - they threw plenty of sweets too, but even more eagerly anticipated were the teddies and soft toys they continuously threw into the crowds either side of the float.One little blue and white teddy literally 'landed' in my hands,to my surprise, which I promptly gave to a little girl on her dad's shoulders behind me, and got a lovely smile back !
After the Kings had passed we retired to our favourite tapas bar, which turned out to be further along the windy route through the centre of town. From the relative quiet inside we saw some of the floats pass by again, this time with a cold beer in our hands!
The party atmosphere around the city was amazing, as we walked home after a nightcap at Mr Witts bar, the streets were still busy with so many families and small children, what a lovely way to wear them out before 'the big day'!
As I type this I imagine many families will already have been woken by excited small children as they rush to see what 'The Three Kings' have brought them! needless to say today is another Spanish bank holiday !