The Wedding

I am running a day or two behind because of writing a post and accidentally erasing it which led to much pouting.

The day of the wedding involved much champagne and wine. The first event of the day was a meet and greet at a mountain which was not the mountain where we were staying so we took a cab down our mountain and then up another mountain which the cabbie said was the ritziest part of Tortosa. There were many fancy houses sitting on that mountain.This event was outside at a restaurant/church (really). We had tapas and champagne. Several new people arrived, bringing the total number of wedding guests to around 25. At the dinner the night before, we figured out we had 11 nationalities represented and I asked everyone to toast with the toast word(s) from their individual countries. That led to a lot of toasts and drinking. We acquired 2 more nationalities once the new guests arrived.

The pre-wedding reception

After that, we went to the center of town where the civil ceremony in a municipal building was taking place at 5:00. But the officials were not ready to have the wedding so we all went across the street for a shot of a liqueur called d'arroz or rice liqueur which is very sweet but good.  Finally, we went to the wedding. For a civil ceremony, the wedding was very nice. I was responsible for walking the bride up the aisle and did a very good job of it, I'm sure. The ceremony was in Spanish but one of the witnesses translated. What was most interesting about it was they read some of the civil codes associated with marriage. It went something like this:  Code 6.1. Both parties will be equal in all things. Code 6.2 The couple will live together and share all things equally.  We later found out that the official left out most of the code but apparently in Spain, when you sign the official papers, you are agreeing to all the codes.  People from other countries were surprised to learn that in the US, we don't have civil codes to agree to. Of course we might, for all I know, since who reads those papers you have to sign, but I must say I remember nothing about promising to be equal.

V playing the role of father of the bride

After the ceremony, we went back across the street for the traditional Spanish cake//pie and champagne. Then we went back up the mountain to the vicinity of our hotel, and walked up another mountain to some ruins for over an hour of picture taking. That was tedious. However, the ruins are amazing. I've climbed around on ruins before in different countries and as ruins go, these are in fairly good shape.  The fortifications were originally built in the 10th century but the various groups who conquered the city kept reinforcing them, all the way up to the 17th century. Parts of the walls are in very good shape.

Traditional Spanish pie/cake

Bride and Groom, Beata Pilch and Michael Garvey

After pictures, we went to the dinner which was in our hotel. It lasted from 9-12. The steak entree was tender and delicious but most of us were too full by then to eat it since it was about the 4th course. Except for the entree, I must say the food was better at the little restaurant in the city the night before the wedding.

The young people had rented a room for dancing from midnight until 4 a.m. I think that went on until 6 a.m. but at no point did Lola or I check to see. BTW, when I say young I mean anyone younger than us. The bride and groom are around 50 but they can still hang with the younger set. In fact, there were several guests close to our ages. We are embarrassed that we are no longer on the partying "A team."

The next day, we walked down to the city to see their claim to fame which is a cathedral. It is huge and stunning and in perfect condition. Unlike many cathedrals in Europe, there were no additional requests for money outside of the 3 euro admission cost.  We got kinda lost getting back up our mountain so we climbed through more ruins which were also in good shape. Before we got there, we stopped at a sculpture garden that we had wanted to see but thought it was at the other end of town. The garden used to be a spa but was converted to the sculpture garden in about 1975 so the sculptures, which portray the life of man in society, are modern. We did not climb up another mountain to see the sculptures at the top.

Sculpture Garden

The sculpture Garden

 Photography is not allowed in the cathedral so you have to believe me when I say it's in my top 10 list.  It's really surprising such a small city can keep this cathedral in such good shape.

The Cloister

 We had a later train which arrived in Barcelona after 7.  It was practically empty at Tortosa but at the next stop, it seemed hundreds of people got on and it was standing room only. The people in our car seemed to be younger people who were returning from a weekend at the beach but frankly, we have no idea who all those people were. They all seemed to know they would be standing all the way to Barcelona which is over a two hour trip.  The taxi line at the airport was quite long and it was raining so it took awhile to make it to our new apartment. It is at the top of an apartment building. It's modern and once again, the bathroom is great with a huge shower. I don't know why these bathrooms in are bigger than what you typically see in Europe but those Spanish people really know how to build a bathroom.