Boda en Coruña

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Wedding in Santiago de Compostela

So, my sister-in-law got married this past weekend. They had been living in La Coruña for the past 2 years and had already planned their wedding in the Santiago city hall and a lovely restaurant in a small town near Coruña, so, even though they are back living in Madrid, they still had the wedding up north. It was a good choice. Beautiful location! The town hall in Santiago is across the plaza from the cathedral. Let me give some background on Santiago.

Legend says that the remains of the Apostle James were found in the 9th century in Santiago and the cathedral was built around them. On another of the four sides of the plaza is the Parador de los Reyes Católicos. This is a hotel that was built for the pilgrims as they made their visits to the cathedral. My parents and I stayed here in 1995 when they came to visit me while I was in grad school. I'll never forget the "little snack" this super nice waiter prepared for us of some seafood. It was a platter the size of the table that cost probably $150. (Yeah, the tourists got suckered on that one :) Across from the cathedral in the plaza is the town hall. It's not an american style town hall. This is a beautiful former palace type town hall. Beautiful chandeliers and tapestries. Encarna María and Juan Carlos got married in this framed type throne area. Really cool! To the right is a picture of Carlos and María with their "primas grandes" (big cousins) María Dolores and Isabel María (the cathedral in the background). They are both studying in university now- María Dolores just graduated from nursing school and is studying to specialize to be a midwife. Isabel María just finished her first year of medical school. Beautiful and smart young ladies! Carlos and María had a blast at the wedding with them. When I met Guillermo they were just little girls. It's so weird to see them so grown up!

The building to the right in the picture of the plaza is the Parador Reyes Católicos. The building to the left of the picture is the Town Hall that Encarna María and Juan Carlos got married in. You can see them coming out of the building in the picture above. Below is a picture of Papá José and María with the Parador in the background.

Here they are sitting in their thrones with Juan Carlos' mother and José Antonio behind serving as the witnesses. In the previous photo you can see more of the room where the ceremony was. The guests mostly stood in the back of the room and there were a few seats for the close family. .

 After the ceremony, we waited for the couple outside and threw rose petals. Then off they went to have pictures taken and the guests all piled onto the bus to head back to Coruña for the dinner and dance. Santiago is like an hour from Coruña.

The bus finally arrived at the banquet place. It was a beautiful old home on top of a mountain above Coruña. The pictures I got don't do the place justice. We had a cocktail hour while we waited for the couple to arrive. Carlos, Maria, and Juan Carlos' niece and nephew entertained Gloria while the rest of the guests partook in the food and drinks.

Finally they arrived and another photo session ensued. Have to document all the guests and family relations for the wedding album!  it was probably close to 11pm by the time we entered the hall to eat.

We had a huge three or four course meal. As I said in a previous post, I had the child's menu. But, really, the meal was delicious. They had grilled lobster, baked clams, then there was a filet wrapped in bacon, and the wedding cake (which interestingly, they cut before the meal rather than after) and ice cream followed by coffee and liquors then the open bar and dancing followed the meal. (That didn't get started till 1:45am or so.) Following are pics of the cake cutting, Gloria clapping when they cut the cake, various family members enjoying their traditional after dinner cigars, Maria and Tita Loli dancing, and my favorite: Carlos giving Gloria a goodnight kiss as Mamá María is trying to get her to sleep in the middle of the dancing at 2 am!

Parade

I'll let the video speak for itself. (Note: Paul the Octopus at the front of the bus- he is just as much a celebrated hero as the team is!) Just a little background, Guillermo went to watch the bus with the team pass by at 7:30 and they didn't pass until 9:30pm. There were so many people in the streets that the bus couldn't move. And this was only en route to the huge stage they built down by the river. We just watched that celebration on tv. There were so many people there- they were interviewing people that had been there since 9 am- they hadn't eaten all day. But, they were still going strong! This is absolutely amazing. I always said that Spaniards have a gene that allows them to function on much less sleep. If the past two days doesn't prove it, I don't know what will.

The adorable little princesses, Leonor and Sofía get to hold the Cup and Leonor gives Iker Casillas a kiss.

 

David Villa holding the Cup

I hope anyone who is reading my blog is enjoying all this. I cannot give the experience justice!

Stay tuned... Wedding this weekend up north.

Jane

Somos los campeones!!!!!!!

In case you haven't seen my facebook posts, Spain won! Yep, historic game- finally Spain wins a World Cup! Last night was one of the most phenomenal of our lives. Guillermo's definitely. The kids thought all the people were crazy, but they enjoyed being out among all the chaos. Maria was more worried about how they were going to clean the streets with all the garbage! She is a very environmentally conscious young lady. (I am very proud!)

This is the final whistle of the game and Guillermo celebrating with the kids. We celebrated more with the goal just a few minutes before, but I didn't get that on camera. And what a goal it was. Just four minutes till the end of overtime! Thank goodness it didn't come down to penalty kicks. It's funny, when I first came to Spain and started watching soccer, excuse me, fútbol, I thought ending a game with penalty kicks was so awesome. But, as the years have passed and I actually watch the games and can understand the play on the field, I have come to the decision that penalty kicks really put the previous 120 minutes of play in the trash. What I mean is that even though no goals have been scored and technically both teams are even, there usually is one team that has played a better game. I've been rooting for teams on both sides of this. Penalty kicks can go either way. So, I am so happy Iniesta was able to convert his awesome play throughout the whole tournament into the most important goal of all!

So, after the game we went out to the streets. I have honestly never seen anything like it. There must have been very few people inside their homes. We took the metro towards the celebrations, but looking back, we probably did not even have to go as far towards the center as we did. We came up to Calle Alcala right next to the Parque del Retiro. (It is like the central park of Madrid) We walked down towards the Cibeles fountain and the Paseo de Recoletos where the big screens were. This is where things got crazy. Really crazy. The streets heading towards Cibeles were full of cars going nowhere and people. Waving flags, singing, horns, and lots and lots of RED. When we got to Cibeles, I realized it was even bigger than we thought. The Castellana is the main street that divides Madrid and runs north/south. Normally it is six lanes of traffic, but last night it was six lanes of people. The whole street! So cool.

We bowed out at 1:30 or so, but I don't believe there are many people working in Madrid, or the rest of Spain, today. We just finished watching the airplane carrying the team arrive in Madrid. The team was received by a huge party. They got on a bus and are headed to a luncheon, to meet the King and then the president. After that, this afternoon they will get on a double decker bus and there will be a parade through through the streets of Madrid. We are planning of venturing out to see that as well!

Now it's off to buy tshirts and posters and all those "souveniers" that you have to spend money on for these types of events. I am happy to do it! Love to everyone!

Stay tuned...

Jane

Final bet: Oracle Paul the Octopus picks Spain over Netherlands to win W...

Okay, so the octopus says Spain's going to win. And, well, since he hasn't been wrong yet, we might as well trust him, right?? It seems there is an octopus somewhere in Germany that has predicted all the world cups games correctly. The news here in Spain is taking this guy pretty seriously, so why should I, right? Well, I should probably mention that there is also a parakeet somewhere that predicted the Holland would win over Spain. But, really, what does a parakeet know about soccer! I'll go with Octopus Paul.
There is also a big controversy over whether the president, Zapatero, should go the the final game. It seems he is "gafe" (which means bad luck) and no one wants him to go. The Queen, however, is a different story. They love her and she is such a great lady. She dresses in red and wears a yellow and red scarf and goes to many of the big sporting events. She was there for Nadal at the French Open and Wimbledon, and was at the semifinal game on Wednesday. After the game she went down to the locker room to congratulate the team and caught Puyol, who scored the only goal, in his towel. Now, of course many will say, what did she expect in a men's locker room, but really, she was just so happy for them that they had won, it was a great moment.

Okay, well the weekend is upon us. We will hopefully do something worth blogging about. Definitely expect some stuff after Sunday's final. Aupa España!!!!!!!!!!!

Stay tuned...

La Reina Sofia saluda al equipo   

El saludo entre Puyol salido de la ducha y la Reina Sofía

Videos of the Celebration

Sorry about the bumpy quality, it was hard to keep my hand still.