Kings' Day Parade

People in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, take parades seriously. In preparation for the Christmas parade, they put chairs out along Coleman Boulevard for front row seating. They back their pick up trucks in parking lots days before the parade occurs so that they have a place to settle in and enjoy once the parade begins. Since Barcelona is a big city, setting up chairs and parking for days are not options, but the Spaniards are just as serious about their parade watching.

Kings' Day (January 6th) is a huge celebration in Spain. Apparently, the story is that the three kings arrive in Barcelona on January 5th by boat and then they ride through the city. Some old friends from Eygalieres were in town for the weekend, so we made plans to meet them along the parade route and we would watch some of the parade and then go out to dinner. Little did we know that the parade was such a big production!

We took the metro to meet our friends and everyone in Barcelona was on the metro. We were crammed into the car and were held up but each other! When we got on the metro at our station, people just pushed each other in and we just rode the wave. As we went to find our friends, I noticed some people with ladders walking through the streets and assumed they were finishing up some work. When we arrived at the parade route, however, I learned that these inventive Spaniards were using ladders to see the parade! They had hauled them on the metro and through the streets so that they could perch upon them and see the sites. 

That is obviously the way to watch the Kings' Day parade in Barcelona, because we could see very little from street level! What we could glimpse was spectacular and we will plan better for next year's event! Even though we didn't see much of the parade (since we were without a ladder!), we ended up having a wonderful evening with friends!!

Smart people on a ladder.

Ladder in the metro!

Me with Veronique!!!

Bucky and Alain!!