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Posts Tagged ‘parade’

Sun. Paella at La Pepica. Roman architecture in the city centre. Spontaneous street parades. Independent designer street vendors. Reflexology from my beach chair. 14 girl hen / bachelorette party. Sangria. Cava.

A great weekend in a beautiful city with a wicked group of ladies. I really do love Spain. Although Seville is so far my favorite Spanish city, it does lack a beach, a quality Valencia delivers highly on. Unfortunately my fancy pants camera is in the shop. Again. Well, technically it’s not in the shop anymore. It’s being held ransom in UK customs. Here are a few shots I took with my extremely vintage iPhone. Let me know what you think.

We were greeted at the airport by these lovely gluten free, vegan hen cupcakes. What a great way to start our journey.

Valencia has a thriving night life and the old city at night is absolutely breathtaking.

The silly sunglasses man made out like a bandit on us. Here is the normally gorgeous Anna giving the rest of us a fair shot at looking beautiful too.

Valencia Beach. If you get a reflexology on the beach, pick the lady with the Dora the Explorer bag and flowered hat. The rest pale in comparison. Kind of like standing next to Anna when she’s not wearing those ugly glasses.

After some partying and beach time with the ladies, I took a later flight so that I could explore the old city myself. I am so glad I did as I ran across many spectacular moments in the short span of a Sunday afternoon.

The Cathedral.

The Cathedral.

The Cathedral.

Torre del Micalet.

Couple at Torre del Micalet.

City view from Torre del Micalet..

Fountain in Plaza de la Virgin

Child vs. pigeon standoff in Plaza de la Virgin.

A bit of modern architecture mixed in.

Valencia street view.

Random street performance. These ladies were amazing.

Clarinet player in the street performance band.

Costumed men joining the street performance.

And now I’m finding it difficult to get back to the mundane tasks that life is requiring. I guess that’s what Monday is all about. What do you think the people of Valencia are doing right now?

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It was the day of the Queen’s birthday parade and Joanna and I had been up the night before drinking too many bottles of wine and playing music videos which quickly turned into singing and dancing along to music videos. Our respective significant others were out of town, her kids were at grandma’s house and it all seemed a little necessary.

She was up early the next day to get her hair did and I was off to see the Queen. Kitschy yes, but I had to do it.

I put myself on the tube and headed down towards St James Park. I spotted some slightly hungover American girls across from me, and in British tradition, did not strike up a conversation or make eye contact during the ride. As soon as we were back in the sunshine and off towards the parade, I asked them if they were headed to see the Queen and if I could join them.

None of us knew where we were going but we figured anywhere with crowds was a good bet. Unfortunately, there were more crowds than we bargained for. We tried to position ourselves for the parade but had a very difficult time finding a place where we could actually see anything. We finally wedged ourselves into a spot with a partial view and waited. Every once in a while a horse or official looking person would march by and we’d get excited, but alas it was just a teaser.

“I’d pay about 10 quid for a cup of coffee right now” I moaned to one of the American girls. “Me too” she agreed.

Finally, some action.

Pomp and Circumstance

As we balanced from one tiptoe to the next, guards on horses, foot and with instruments passed by. “There’s Camilla!” someone shouted and I looked just in time to see her and one of the princes pass by in a carriage. Finally, the moment arrived and the queen was in sight.

The moment arrives.

I couldn’t help but be disappointed that she didn’t bother to wave or smile. She just sat there like a big grump being forced to be in a parade on her birthday when all she wanted to do was sleep in and eat pancakes.

I guess I can’t blame her – except that the birthday parade isn’t actually for her birthday at all. It’s a ceremony of British infantry regiments that has been going on since the 17th century. It’s held the second Saturday in June in St James Park and celebrates the beginning of the monarchy in it’s entirety.

The Queen’s actual birthday is April 21, 1926, making her a Taurus.

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