'Cabalgada', the 3 Kings Parade.

Spain celebrates the Day of the 3 Kings in a big way, and today - the 6th January, is a nationwide public holiday. There is a parade on the night of the 5th January symbolising the arrival of the Kings and so, well wrapped up against the cold, we drove down into town to see the parade.

The square is very pretty at night, with all the lights on,

and there was a big crowd and lots of children waiting for the Kings to go past, as they throw out boiled sweets for the kids as they drive around town.

The floats are pulled by huge tractors, and I especially liked this big orange one.

The King's looked quite splendid in their costumes and I hope they had good thermal underwear on, because it was freezing cold last night.

The parade circled around town and ended up outside one of our larger stores that has a whole basement floor dedicated to toys & games at this timeof year, and who had donated lots of gifts for the Kings to give out to the local children. A lovely gesture, but we missed it because we were back in the bar having a warm.

For more on this tradition is Spain, take a look here:

http://www.esflamenco.com/scripts/news/ennews.asp?frmIdPagina=305