Blunderbusses, half marathons, SEAT 600's Parade and a walk on the park with breaky and lunch in the middle... The festivities continue!

Sunday morning, 8:35 am when I first heard the thundering... Boom! Boom! Boom! . They were 25 minutes early and I wasn't ready, I was still in my pajamas! As a matter of fact they woke me up.

So, I ran to the other side of the apartment to have a better look at the street... they were already one block down!

First view from my window of the Trabucaires. Their mission on Sunday morning was to awake everybody!

It was ok. After all, there was so much to do that day that I would have missed half of it, if they didn't wake me up...

They are the Trabucaires, blunderbuss shooters.

The history of this peculiar group of armed people goes back to feudal Europe. They were the 'elite armed force' of the time, fighting small private wars for their masters. They also were used to announce the arrival of high hierarchy clergy figures and diplomats, so the villagers could go out on the street and greet their master.

In Spain, as the feudalism declined, so did their demand to fight. Thus becoming a luxury folkloric group where only the greeting part of their duties remained. Their first act as such is dated back to 1571 when they were used to celebrate the victory at Lepanto.

They also helped the image of the romantic hero throughout Europe, when some of them strayed from their servitude and became bandoleros. Between the XVI and the XIX centuries, these bandits armed with their blunderbusses stole from the rich to give to the poor... Who doesn't know Robin Hood!

I got dressed in a hurry and once on the street, I had to turn back upstairs and get a jacket! It was a beautiful day, but a chilly one!

I ran the streets following their trail. But they were really ahead of me. When I finally reached them it was 10:30am and the show was over. I managed to take a picture of two of them and a kid firing the blunderbuss on video.


But in order for you to have a better understanding of it, I downloaded a short video from the Trabucaires de Solsona, the oldest group existing!



I stayed to see part of the Sabadell Half Marathon since they had to pass right through where I was... until I got really hungry and went home to have breakfast and rest for awhile. My schedule was packed, but I needed to recharge my batteries for all that was still ahead...
The winner of the Half Marathon of Sabadell... 5 whole minutes ahead of the next competitor and almost 15 min. ahead of the peloton.

Going down La Rambla in downtown Sabadell.

El Peloton!

Around noon I headed towards the observatory... they had an open doors activity to observe the Sun, and you all know how much I love astronomy! lol

On my way over there I made a stop to see the '600' car concentration and parade.

This one in the front, is an ode to the typical domingueros of the day!
Those who only took the automobile to go out on Sundays, carrying the whole family in the small vehicle, mother in-law included! lol And the whole picnic stuff on the roof-rack!

The SEAT 600 was a Spanish car made by SEAT from 1957 to 1973. It helped to start the economic recovery after the hard years following the Spanish Civil War. It was a relatively inexpensive vehicle... 60,000 Spanish Pesetas back then! around $1,000!!!

It was the first car within the modest economic capabilities of many Spanish families of the mid and late 1960s.


Here is the convertible version! Ain't that cute!

After the visit to the Observatory, which was ill fated... cause right after I got there, cloud after a cloud left no break for observation of the Sun. After the head of the observatory decided to call it quits and closed to the public, guess what? Yupe! The Sun started shining again!!!!
What do you want, it's Murphy's Law!

It was beautiful again, still chilly but beautiful! So I decided to get home taking a stroll through the park.

Going down from the observatory there is a place for the young at heart... graffiti included!




Some were in the shade, others in the sun... But all of them having a moment of solace on the action packed long weekend.


A view from atop one of the park's hills. You can see the avenue bellow with some of the attractions, dormant during the day.




A group of young people were having their picnic sitting in this bronze sculpture representing a sail boat.

You can cross the lake jumping these stone paved rocks... If you fall it's no biggie, in this part of the lake the water is only a few inches deep.

In the middle of the park there is a big lake where you can rent a rowing boat.





The lake goes down to the street where passersby and kids especially enjoy feeding the ducks and swans

On my promenade I discovered they have exercise machines in the park! Amazing, a public gym never looked so public! lol Which I think is marvelous!


Once home, I downloaded all the pictures from the camera and recharged its batteries, wrote my blog entry for the day before, had some lunch, a mini siesta and got ready to face HELL! ....

TBC... next stop: HELL