Three Kings Parade

Here in Barcelona, on Jan 5th, the "three Kings" (or three wise men of the new testament) arrive by boat on the downtown marina shore. It's called Cavalcades dels Reis Mags and in English it means Three Kings Day.

Apparently Jan 6th is a bigger holiday in Barcelona than Christmas. Tons of people ride the metro into the city to greet the kings and then watch them parade to their destination. Everything was closed that day, even the bar we wanted to see that evening.

Renee found out about it online before she came to visit so we headed down to the marina area to see the event. We had apparently gotten there early because there there were few people when we showed up but when we tried to get into the subway station to go, the entire area was jammed with people arriving for the start of the parade.

We had heard there were going to be fireworks. We were standing/sitting there in the freezing wind for an hour waiting for it but it never happened.

At some point a sailboat arrived from somewhere and 3 gentlemen disembarked dressed in fancy clothing. The whole festival was in Spanish and we were away from the speakers so we didn't really get to understand much of what was going on. There was quite a bit of dancing and singing though.

On Jan 6th, the actual holiday, the children get gifts, and so when we tried to go shopping for my camera on the night of the 5th, it was madhouse inside the store.

We should have probably waited around for the parade to start but I had forgotten my gloves and hat and so I was starting to freeze up. I would have had to run laps to stay warm, and that just wasn't on the agenda.

I also didn't have a camera. I could feel myself getting annoyed everytime I wanted to take a picture but couldn't :)