Search Results for: parade

Burriana / Las Fallas / Valencia

Finding Ninot: Flowers and parades

Many parades accompany the Fallas celebration, both formal and impromptu. Sometimes it seems like you can’t go anywhere in the city of Valencia during Fallas week without running into a panoply of costumed marchers and musicians. Each individual march doesn’t always seem to be a big deal for the participants. Really, sometimes people just seem to be getting from Point A to Point B, like anyone using the road. There was no escaping it. The festive fanfare was never far away, and it frequently interrupted us during our Valencian walking tour, while we were trying to take a break from las Fallas.

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Burriana / Holidays

Three Kings Day: Parades and a special cake

Doer and I admire Spaniards’ spirit of celebration, and we’ve already witnessed a number of holiday celebrations, local festivals, and parades. In early January, Three Kings’ Day (or Epiphany) is widely celebrated, with parades all over the country marking the story of the Magi who journeyed to worship baby Jesus. Though this Christian holiday exists in the U.S., there are many more traditions associated with it here, and it seems to be as widely known and celebrated as Christmas itself. Much like Santa at Christmas, Spanish children set out sweets for the kings and their camels the night before, and

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Burriana / Las Fallas / Spotted Abroad / Strolling

What’s with all the parades, fancy dresses, and fireworks?

Ever since we moved to the small Spanish city of Burriana, we have been stumbling upon longstanding cultural traditions almost every time we leave our building. Our first week here coincided with an annual festival which includes bulls running through the streets; and while I had promised myself I would never watch any bull spectacles, that resolve quickly disappeared when we needed to go to the city hall, and found bulls running in front of said hall. It was an intense week – even when we stayed home, we could hear cannons, fireworks, music, and general merrymaking from our abode.

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Burriana / Holidays

Everybody loves a good parade

The Burrianenses really seem to know how to throw a good festival. We returned our rental car to the Valencia airport on Wednesday and took a train back here, so we are without our own transportation now. So, of course, we did not make it to the market here on Wednesday, and then woke up Thursday to find everywhere closed because it was a holiday… and the same on Friday, too. Oops. I am pleased to report we survived despite our lack of preparedness with nowhere being open, and the festivities seem to have more than made up for the inconvenience. Here is

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Other Countries

Look 👀 at all the Buddies: A trip to Crufts

It’s no secret that we are dog lovers. Although we are living a travel dream, we desperately miss our furry companions (thanks, Mom and Jim!). As canine folks, we’re big fans of watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on American TV in February, and it has always been our desire to experience such a spectacle in person. Last March, we did one better and took a trip to Birmingham, England to see what is arguably the mother of all dog shows: Crufts. Billed as the largest dog show in the world, Crufts is where the Westminster winners go to

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Holidays / Madrid / Museums

Madrid Winter mashup

As we get cosy during our second Madrid winter, we wanted to look back at some of the museums, visitors, and food experiences we saw during our first year in the big city. The Royal Palace you see in the picture above was lit up for Spanish National Day, which is how they celebrate Columbus Day here. Some high-tech projection technology was involved to get the colors right on the actual architecture. The Plaza Mayor also had a strange suspended art installation. Though night began to fall earlier, the sunsets out our 5th-floor window seemed to become even prettier. We

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