10/2003 - People Watching
8th February 2004 - Benicassim, Spain
!Hola tambien!
The Rollingfruitbats had rolled into Benicassim, a little north of Castellon, when we last wrote. We'd been recommended a site just on the edge of the old town, some 120 metres or so from the Passeo Maritimo - the promenade. You may recall that, as we arrived, we were enthusiastically greeted by a couple of friends we made further north shortly before our emergency dash to YUK, and were assured by them that there was only a Rump of a Rally left on the site, the majority of Jolly Ralliers having left earlier in January.
From the road if you're barrelling down the N340 or A7 (the parallel autopista), Benicassim looks like quite a built-up area with a long, narrow coastal strip of fairly high rise apartments and a few hotels. In fact it's a great little town. A definite 'heart' to it (in more senses than one), busy and bubbling, but with areas of peaceful, strollable / cycle-able seafront with great character. The town is encircled by hills, which include an area of National Park, the Desierto de las Palmas, and a large Carmelite monastery that is often visited for its bodega as well as its stunning views.
Apparently 80% of Benicassim's visitors are Spanish, with many people from Valencia, Castellon and even Madrid having second homes here. It has been a favourite seaside refuge for wealthy Spaniards since the 19th century, and a long section of the old Passeo Maritimo, near where we were pitched up, is testament to that. It's called the Ruta de las Villas, as several dozen houses, fronted by gardens of varying sizes, line the promenade. They range from large through huge to gargantuan and are all individually - no, let's say individualistically - styled architecturally and mainly built between the latter end of the 19th century through to the 1920s and 1930s as summer residences for wealthy families. Around 30 of them are considered to be very significant, either because of their history, their architecture and/or their former occupants, and these have information boards outside which make fascinating reading (as long as you're armed with your Spanish dictionary in our case!).
Naturally we were particularly captivated by 'Buttocks Villa' (or that could even be 'Arse Villa') - one that really has been popularly dubbed 'Villa dels Culs' due to the proliferation, within and around it, of neo-classical statues, mainly of women with modestly covered frontages and bare bums! (We're considering some rule-flexibility in Boggle to allow for such slang Spanish as 'culs' to supplement the by now common 'arse'!)
Benicassim, like so many Spanish towns, has a bustling weekly market, which was on Thursday, the day after we arrived. Everybody turns up to do their business in town on market day. Naturally, vehicles take second place to pedestrians, the whole main street being closed to traffic, so it's the bicycle jams we had to watch out for, as well as hoards of pedestrians. If we say that this was the usual weekly Spanish market, you should absolutely not read 'usual' as 'boring'. Oh no. We love Spanish markets and this one was no disappointment.
A typical range of stalls - plenty of polyester two-pieces, cheap shirts, tops and trousers; stalls entirely devoted to bulk bras (in more than one sense); tapes and CD stalls with a cacophony of wailing music; bags, belts and other leather goods - you know the sort of thing every market touts. And then of course the food stalls, especially the wonderful fruit and veg, most of which probably hasn't travelled much more than 30 km from whence it was grown; some less than that, as there were several older couples with their half dozen plastic crates of oranges and lemons and maybe one sort of vegetable.
This is the end of the market that seems to offer the best people watching opportunities. There are the serious-food-shoppers, mainly women, who clearly know the traders well, picking through the produce - and from the torrent of speech, body language and vegetable waving, we just sensed there was an awful lot of passionate bartering going on 'Huh! Call this a courgette? And you're asking WHAT for them?!' - 'I can't pay you that much for these apologies for artichokes - daylight robbery!' - 'I'll take the lot, but I'm only giving you 3 euros, and then I'm doing you a favour!' 'Fresh? Fresh? Oh no, you just go into the back of the van and get me the best ones!'... You've been there too - but isn't it wonderful to be in any country where people get so fervent about food?! (Dave nods his head).
(Talking about food fervour, several people also told us that during the recent fiesta in the town, there was one event that involved 400 paellas being cooked over open fires in the main street. Now that's gastronomic enthusiasm too!)
Another highlight of our stay at Benicassim was the concert one evening at the town's theatre. We didn't know much about it, save that it was a locally much-anticipated visit by the Banda de la Federacio de Societats Musicals de la Comunitat Valenciana. Many townsfolk had turned out for the event - whole families, including babies and children (so no stuffy hushed atmospheres here, then) - and we felt distinctly under-dressed in our regulation campers' tracky-bots and fleece zip-ups. Didn't seem to matter though - anything went - and as usual we were given a warm and friendly (if slightly bemused) welcome.
Jeni confesses to being stuck in a bit of a time-warp as far as classical music goes, but this - well, it certainly hurtled one into the world of 21st century Spanish classical music. For those sophisticated music aficionados among you (and we have a goodly brace of those on this email list), please bear with our philistinism for a while!
The first piece 'Raices' composed by Juan Jose Colomer seemed to be Tom and Jerry backing music meets Songs From The Shows, the Palm Court Orchestra at the Grand Hotel meets avant garde moderne meets 19th century central European waltz. And that was just the first movement. Astonishing? You could say so. And the conductor (at least the back of him) was utterly compelling as well - a luxuriant mop of below-collar-length hair, which ended in several layers of dancing rivulets of curls. Indeed at times it looked like the woodwind section was being independently conducted by his vibrant curls, whilst his fringe directed the cellos and double basses. He ranged gloriously between standard classical conductor, jive bunny, aerobics enthusiast, pogo-iste and air-pastry mixer. A marvel.
By the time they were two-thirds into the first movement, Jeni admits to being mesmerised. It was truly refreshing and full of musical surprises, nay delights. [I'm not going to try and do the music critic here, I'll only show my ignorance! J] It was quite a small theatre, so the atmosphere was intimate and the audience in the stalls were pretty close to the band on the crowded stage. So on that scale, with the foot-tapping, arm-waving and occasional baby-crying amongst the spectators and two or three young children racing around the stalls from time to time to get a better view, it made for a rather special ambience. Up in the circle (we moved upstairs for the second half to get a birds-eye view), people were sitting on their flipped-up seats and jostling and gyrating at the back, threatening to break into dance. There was even a moment when the two cellists and our hirsute conductor seemed ready to collapse into a fit of giggles - and this was a highly polished, professional, award-winning set-up. They were obviously enjoying themselves too.
We should also mention that it wasn't a standard orchestra mix. There were a handful of cellos and double basses (no violins or violas), then heavy on the woodwind and brass and a percussion section to die for. About 3 types of xylophone; drums a-go-go - kettle drums, couple of massive bass drums, djembes, snares, tom-toms - the lot; a great variety of other percussion instruments from the expected (triangles, cymbals, gongs etc.) to rainsticks and whirling-tubes, swung round the players' heads, and even what looked like a massive tombola drum which, when the handle was turned, made astonishing wheezing and whining sounds. The percussion section was given several showcase moments in both the first piece and the second half ('La Vall de la Murta' by Andres Valero - anyone know it?). Fantastic.
(So Eastbourne Giants' Drummers - be on notice, we'll be aiming for a higher standard this summer, and greater variety!!)
Anyroadup it was a great evening and a good chance to mingle with local people. Oh, and by the way, it was entirely free!
Our site at Benicassim was great too, and included the first-for-this-phase-of-Project-Nomad treat of a small, covered, heated swimming pool. Eh, luxureh! We had a very sociable time there, one day hosting a little outdoor luncheonette event for Alan and Beryl, which later turned into a tea, wine and beer drinking soiree as we were joined by some other people we'd met with whom got on well. Two of them, Kath and Gordon, had sold up in England a year ago and bought a house in a small French village, though they continued to over-winter in Spain in their ancient, collector's-piece, folding caravan; Carlo had sold up in Germany, similarly enjoying the Spanish weather for winter, but he was heading back up in his Camping Car to Hungary to buy a log cabin by a beautiful lake before May, when Hungary joins the EU and property prices go up, he said. We're all Europeans now!
So, we passed a happy few days at Benicassim, where every third house in the town had its crate of lemons or oranges on the doorstep with a little honesty-box, and sometimes even old brass scales, for those of us who didn't have a citrus tree or two in the garden, to share their glut. But already it feels like time is short (it's all relative, folks!) so we decided we better wave goodbye and press on South.
Where next? Moraira, South of Denia, was our destination. Kamping Killer Katerpillar and Dave and Pat, here we come!
Hugs to you all for now,
Dave y Jeni
Xx
p.s. Thank you to those of you who enquired about Cedric, The Patriarch. He is doing well now, having a period of convalescence before returning home. He's participating in a hospital-back-to-home programme with great enthusiasm and is hopeful of being back in his own little Eastbourne flat in a couple of weeks.
p.p.s. And to those of you concerned souls who have been wondering about the Boggling - you'll have been pleased by the little reference in this Bulletin to know that we are still pressing forward with the Challenge. Dave is gamely keeping in there (we're now 3 sets to 1), but every so often feels the need to assert himself by trouncing Jeni in Upwords or Rummikub!