The Battle of Almansa

The Battle of Almansa was an important battle during the War of the Spanish Succession. It was fought on 25th April 1707. Almansa is about 50 minutes from Culebrón.

The commentator was really positive. "Just look at that rainbow, how beautiful, one of the best I've ever seen!" True enough. Mind you he was in a nice cosy and dry caravan whilst we were suddenly in fear of drowning to death sitting in the stands. We found the beauty of the rainbow hard to appreciate.

When the Spanish Habsburg King Carlos II died in 1700 he left no direct heir. There were two rival claims to the throne - the Hapsburgs, through the Archduke of Austria and the Bourbons, through the French King. We British backed the Austrian claim but several European powers weighed in behind one side or the other. Between 1701 and 1714 battles raged all over Europe and in North America and there were even some skirmishes in the Caribbean.

At the Battle of Almansa, just outside Almansa in Castilla la Mancha, the Duke of Berwick, the illegitimate son of James II of England serving in the French Army, beat the French Henri de Massue, leading British troops. Odd eh?

In the end the British were on the losing side but the Treaty of Utrecht signed near the end of the war handed Gibraltar over to the British. We're still there.

According to that same commentator the participants in this re-enactment, still something relatively unusual in Spain, had come from several European countries just as in the real battle. The Russians and Ukranians had apparently driven all the way. The Irish had brought their horses. Shame it rained quite so much.
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Easter

Usha mentioned in the Archers the other day that Alan, the Ambridge vicar, was very busy at Easter. If it's hectic in Borsetshire then it's positively frenetic in Spain with religious processions and events everywhere at Easter time.

We have good Easter processions in Pinoso. There are, I think, eight different groupings five of them with the tall conical hats (the ones the Klu Klux Klan thought scary enough to copy) a Roman Legion and a group of women dressed in black and wearing mantillas. I went out to see a couple of the processions but this year I missed the one that I think is most impressive on Maunday Thursday/Good Friday

The reason I missed it was that I was in Cartagena to see the equivalent procession there. I have to say that the Cartagena processions were incredible. Thousands and thousands of penitents, as many different costumes as anyone could imagine with attention to detail in every facet from perfectly straight marching lines and co-ordinated movements down to matching shoe buckles. Something of the military nature of the town was obvious from the escorts of serving soldiers and sailors marching goose step style in front of and behind the members of the various brotherhoods and their extravagant floats carried on the backs of hundreds of perfectly co-ordinated portapasos (float carriers).

It's not just the event itself either. Last night we had to move from our chosen position because of a mix up over chair reservations. By then it was impossible to get back to the front of the crowd so we wandered the streets. The bars and the streets were full of costumes and small elements of the procession being readied. Tuning instruments, polishing shoes, having that last fag, marshalling the people and sorting out those final details at every glance.

Splendid.
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The Long. arm of the law

The message said "Took police to your house to check GPS" It was from our pal who does a bit of gardening for us.

I hadn't realised that GPS co-ordinates and latitude and longtitude were different. The numbers have the same format but they are not quite the same for the same location.

Living in the country it's difficult to give an accurate address. Our address is simply Number X Culebrón. For those who live in the middle of nowhere up some track it's even more difficult.

If you house goes on fire or if you're lying on the floor suffering the effects of a heart attack the phone call to the 112 emergency services number will have people scurrying to your aid. Often though they waste precious time trying to find the place.

Someone had the bright idea of making a register, kept by the local police, to identify the house using GPS co-ordinates. It also asked questions like whether you had a brute of a guard dog.I was sent the form by email and I was offered the same form at the Village Association meeting. Being a bit of a belt and braces man I put both GPS and lat. and long co-ordinates on the form but it didn't seem to help. The police couldn't find the house in a dry run and ended up having to ring our keyholder for help.

Excellent idea though. I just hope we never need to test its efficacy.
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On Encebras

Before lunch we went to Encebras, a small village a few kilometres from us on the other side of the hill to home. From Culebrón. We didn't go into the village proper with its church, post box, restaurant, fountain and convent cum hostel but drove a little way up the hill to have a look at a sculpture and ceramics workshop run by a British woman.

It was very still, very peaceful. The only sounds were those we made and the sounds of the countryside - a cuckoo, the flies buzzing, water gurgling. It was warm too, around 30ºC, with a deep clear blue sky and intense sunlight. I wandered off, camera in hand, whilst Maggie chatted about glazes and potter's wheels. I ambled up the middle of the road past vineyards, I took photos of almond trees and terracing.

Soon the weather will be like this all the time. Things will crack and sound with the heat, the cigarras will start their singing and Spain will be like it should be. Excellent.

I love the light

One of my favourite places in Spain is Trujillo, no I mean Santiago, no, no, the Peña de Francia, ooh, or maybe that ride down to Granada over whatjamacallit pass?

Spain is chockablock with eyepopping landscapes and lively, interesting cities but Alicante and Murcia don't feature too highly on my list. Nice enough, some interesting spots but, overall, a bit ordinary.

Tonight we went to an art exhibition mounted by a couple of local British artists at one of the exhibition spaces in Pinoso. Nice show, good space, good little event.

I know one of the artists from when she was a customer in the furniture shop where I worked. In her welcome speech, in Spanish (good job Linda!) she said how the local landscapes and the light inspired her. Later I was talking to her husband, Richard, and he was full of praise for the area too - about the landscapes he rides on his bike and about the general lifestyle though, like me, he's waiting for the flag cracking heat.

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on the place.