La virgen de los dolores

I reckon I’ve nailed this procession business. Well, that’s what I thought anyway. I set off early again, wore hiking shoes again, and headed to the same zone I parked in yesterday. It was packed, but again I found a rare space instantly.

As a result, I was so early I decided I’d go to the church to see the pasos leave. Of course there were many people waiting already, but I selected a prime position opposite the church door, just behind the shortest person in the front row.

The moment arrived, the doors opened, a cloud of incense billowed from the church … and a man who was literally seven feet tall appeared from nowhere and sprang in front of us, waving his compact camera aloft and completely blocking our view and that of everyone behind us. The petite girl in front of me kept tapping him on the back, being unable to reach his shoulder, and he would briefly crouch, before springing up again as soon as anything interesting happened. He could have stood at the back and seen everything for heaven’s sake. In the circumstances I managed to salvage just a few of my photos here, my blip being one of them. The procession included an impressive gold-trimmed transparent coffin with the figure of Christ inside, also Saint Veronica with her hanky.

I’d planned my next location and I knew I had plenty of time before the procession arrived there, so once the BVM had emerged with her splendid cloak (she’s always at the end of the procession) I walked down there, sat down at a nearby bar and had a glass of wine and a tapa. This was also well timed; when the smell of incense floated down the street, I paid my bill and arrived at the Callejón del Silencio (the alleyway of silence) just as Christ’s golden coffin turned the corner. It was extremely dark here, and even harder to take photos.

It was close to 11 pm by then, so once the procession had passed I left the crowds behind and walked back down to the beach towards the car. There was a holiday atmosphere there too, the restaurants still buzzing. A day of rest tomorrow, or rather today now :)

I added a few more photos to the album; they're getting a bit samey, but click right from here.