Missing Pictures: Elche, Spain, October 22

We stopped in Elche on our way from Barcelona to Grenada because it was the only town on the way that the Green Guide labeled as remotely "interesting". We arrived in the late afternoon, just as the entire town was picking the kids up from school, causing massive traffic jams around our destination, the Huerto del Cura gardens.

The gardens are small but beautiful, and are locally famous for the Imperial Palm, a perfectly symmetrical date palm with 8 tops, which you can see in the first photo. You can also see that the effect is ruined a bit by the elaborate contraption of cables and metal braces that have been installed for preservation. Less obvious in the photo, but also distracting to us, were the thirty-odd teenagers who decided to use this space as their after-school hangout (they get in for free - while we have to pay €5!), and the security cameras.

After the gardens, we seared fora place to park for the night. This was complicated by some event in the town which was blocking streets and causing detours. Finally parking in the lot of the local community college, we decided to see what all the hubub was about. It turned out to be a street fair... and, as we observed more closely... a medieval street fair with old-fashioned food (luckily they let us use forks!), crafts and entertainment.

As the night drew on, we were attracted by music in a square. Intrigued, we joined a growing crowd and found a troupe of performers including belly dancers, storytellers, jugglers and, hidden in the dark to the side, a giant puppet with a jester hat. I turned to Craig and Steve and said "I hope they bring that thing out!"

In a few moments, they did, with great fanfare, and lots of handheld pyrotechnics, slowly parading the puppet through the streets towards the old town. We followed with the crowd, pausing with the spectacle to hear stories in Spanish (something about a farmer's daughter?) and watch the unicyclist juggle. The party ended at midnight with song, dance and a shower of small fireworks that you can see in the second photo.

Exhilarated, we worked our way back to the community college parking lot (where several other campers had followed our lead and parked nearby), and fell asleep.

-SK