The fiesta of San Ramón.

Mid-day mass at the church is followed by a photo opportunity as so many people are dressed in regional costume, traje regional.

To see the full sized photo, click on it with the left button of the mouse.

To see a couple more photos plus some very short video of this event on YouTube, click HERE.

Lunch is a giant paella for the village in the Plaza Mayor.

Then all the children and their parents go home leaving just the inhabitants of Torre del Compte to get on being a nice quiet, sleepy little village.

Fiesta, day 4

The meal at the peña is a special treat this evening as it is Anna's Pork slices in Roquefort Sauce. The pork slices are first fried then removed from the pan...


...and then into the juices goes the Roquefort cheese...

...some brandy and lots of cream is added then the pork is returned to the pan. Delicious!

It is served with a salad.

And Antonio won the village cards playing tournament!

Day 3. ¡El Concurso de disfraces!

Last year our peña won when we dressed as chess pieces. This year was to be even better as Majorettes! The costumes were superb with over 30 of us dressed in the same uniform.

See the big photo by clicking left on it.

We all had white skirts, a blue waistcoat with gold trim, a hat, leggings and a silver baton.

Some of the guys were not used to posing for photos wearing skirts!

The choreography was spot on with us marching to music by bands from the USA with a bit of "hip-hop" by our band leader in the middle of the presentation.

Even the children took an active part.

We provided great entertainment, sophistication and a touch of glamour to the entire proceedings taking the standard to a whole new level. To see the video on YouTube, click HERE.


Other groups were also interesting such as "The Pirates of the Caribbean"...

...a gypsy wedding enactment...

...the Romans...

...and Egyptians, complete with mummies and a pyramid, as well as several other groups.

Despite having the overwhelming support from all the people of the village, we were not placed in the top 3 by the judges.

The most important thing is not winning but having taken part!

Fiesta, day 2

It's Friday and there is a mass in the church for San Ramón at mid-day. Some of the congregation dress in local costume - including Margaret...

Click on any photo to see the image full size.

...and some children. The children are eating pieces of sponge cake which was blessed by the priest with his holy water during the mass and then handed out to everyone as they left the church.

San Ramón had his usual procession around the village. To see the video on YouTube, click HERE.

Back home, there's a photo opportunity...

...we don't get dressed up often here!

In the evening, each peña cooks food and takes it to the Plaza Mayor to eat in their groups.


The meal this evening for us is a delicious Fideuá cooked by Anna and Miguel.


Later, there is a stage act with a comedian followed by a pop group who play into the early hours.

Fiesta, day 1

Another year has gone by very quickly and already it is time for the village of Torre del Compte to celebrate it's fiesta. As usual, it starts with sausages cooked on small open fires in the grounds of the village co-operativa, (where the farmers take their olives for processing from their fields later in the year.)

See the full size photo by clicking on it.

This is now our 5th fiesta in the village and for the first time we had a light rain shower. However, the forecast is for fine weather for the next few days. Getting a little wet wouldn't have put people off though as after having eaten the sausages, everyone visits each peña in order to receive a drink. The only catch is that to get to the next peña, you have to go down the road where the occupants of the houses throw buckets of water at you; some have hosepipes! Great fun!!


A local brass band added to the atmosphere whilst hundreds of people enjoyed their sausages in pieces of bocadillo.

The pensionistas go to Cambrils.

Because we enjoyed our trip with the pensionistas to Zaragoza so much last month, we had high expectations of this trip to Cambrils which is on the east coast about 2 hours away from Torre del Compte. We were not to be disappointed.

In order to see any photo full size, click left with your mouse on it.

The first stop was Parque Samá. The founder, Don Salvador Samá Torrens, began work on the park in 1881 and it covers almost 35 acres.

It consists of many mature trees from various parts of the world around a large pond complete with ducks, fish and terrapins.


For more information on the park, (in Spanish), click HERE.


From there, it was a short ride on the coach into Cambrils where we had a walk along the seafront and some of us enjoyed the local ice-cream. Then it was time for lunch at the Gran Buffet de Cambrils, (pronounced "buffette" in Spanish as opposed to "buffay" in French), for lunch. This place has to be one of the biggest restaurants in the world with the widest range of food on offer. For example in the seafood section they had every shelled sea creature known to mankind - and you could eat as much as you wanted! To find out more about this restaurant, click HERE to go to their website.


After lunch it was up into the mountains to the Castillo Monasterio de Sant Miquel d'Escornalbou which as the name tells you was originally a fortified monastery. It is at 650 metres above sea level and dates back to the 12th century for the church with the addition of the house in the 15th century with extensions 2 hundred years later. You certainly get a good view from the dining room and bedroom windows!

After a guided tour we were back onto the coach and heading for home. Another great day out.

Birthday fiesta!

To celebrate our birthdays, Floyd's is one week after mine, we decided to have a joint party with our friends.

Click on any photo for the full sized version.

As Floyd's daughter and her 2 children were visiting from the USA this was going to give them a feel for a "typical" Spanish event...


...and what could be more typical than a paella made by Rosi and Luci. More than sufficient for the 29 of us!

We even had our own birthday cakes!

(Couldn't get all the candles on though!)