After lunch, I studied Spanish for a while and then decided to head out for a walk. I walked around the shopping district first, enjoying the crowds of shoppers out getting their last minute gifts before Three King's Day.
Lots of buildings have been decorated with balloons in preparation for today's parade and the holiday.
Then, I started walking the parade route in reverse... there were people stationed all along the parade route with LARGE amounts of candy to replenish the floats- each group in the parade throws candy (and they are not stingy) for the entire nearly 6 hour parade - that is a LOT of candy so they cannot carry it all, they need replenishment as they go. These are not high quality confections here - the key is quantity not quality. There were also people all along the route taping up the bottom of their shoes with packing tape or taping plastic bags over their shoes - the idea is that there is so much crushed candy on the ground after the parade goes through that you will want to protect your shoes for the walk home.
At a point about two miles from home, the crowd got so thick that I decided to stop and wait for the parade - it was either that or turn off the route. It was a fun parade with horses, bands, groups dressed as Bedouins, and floats. The biggest three floats were the ones carrying the kings. Every float and Bedouin group was tossing candy - not just a piece here and there but huge handfuls into the crowd. Both the volume (and sometimes velocity) of the candy made the entire process a little dangerous...especially for the little ones who didn't know to duck when the kids were throwing overhand! I didn't care much about the candy, but the floats and bands and costumes were impressive.
When the last king passed, the crowd started to disperse and the ground looked like a carpet of candy - there was just too much even for the hundreds of eager onlookers with their plastic bags...
Right behind the parade were the street crew members with large brooms followed by the big street cleaners that drive around every day.
I headed toward home - it was not a fast walk with the big crowds, but I made it to our bridge just as the front of the parade was coming across. I worked my way back to the head of our street in time to watch the whole thing again - this time with no camera - just enjoying the children and the parade and the crowd. This time I kept a few pieces of candy (knowing that no child would have less than a full bag) and made the short walk home as soon as it was over. Rachel had collected candy as she watched - believe it or not, she was selective - but still she had quite a haul.
We were not home long before we got a message from the landlord asking if they could come up for a few seconds. Of course we said yes - and what a treat. They brought a Three King's Cake (from the good bakery) to make sure we were celebrating correctly. We really do have the most thoughtful landlords ever.
We each had a small piece - and Rachel's piece had the lucky figurine in it.
Tomorrow morning we have an early train to our hike. So, we all did a little packing before bed. It is a little after midnight and the singing (and drumming) can still be heard from the streets, but I am sure that all over Sevilla there are children tucked into bed with dreams of the gifts that the three kings will leave them tonight.
Tomorrow there are parades in most of the large neighborhoods of Sevilla to say goodbye to the kings. There will be, of course, more candy. We will miss the Triana parade, but I can assure you that I need a hike much more than I need more candy at this point in the holiday season.
