We got up at about 9am and had some breakfast with Lolly and Berna. Lolly made toast and pate and she chopped up a peach for me 🙂 We then went out in Berna’s car to the Villa Romano – the remains of an ancient Roman villa that is in the process of being restored to the first level. We had a guided tour but it was in Spanish so Carlos and Marina had to translate for us!
We then went to a house in town and learned about Berna’s Fraternity and the Semana Santa. It was not something we had come across before so was really interesting. Basically every year during April all the Fraternities in the towns get together and parade through the streets dressed in their “house” robes, carrying statues and Christian symbols. It is only for men and Berna has about 40 members of his fraternity. It is an extremely common culture in Puente Genil, Carlos is not yet in a fraternity but some of his friends are.
One thing that is very noticeable in this part of Spain is the narrow streets, there are lots of one way roads that you can just squeeze your car down and the houses are very tall and thin. I asked Carlos about this and he said it’s because of the sun – the tall buildings and narrow streets mean you can walk around most of the town in the shade from the houses. It’s too hot to walk to the shops in direct sunlight!
At about 3pm we met Lolly and had some lunch in a local restaurant. The food was really good but mainly fish that I am not used to and one plate was something they called baby sea snakes (actually eel) – I tried it but couldn’t get my brain to like the idea of it! Lolly and Berna bought me some flowers and Paul an ornament of the bridge into Puente Genil to say thank you for having Carlos at Christmas and for Paul being a good boss 🙂
We went back to their house for a siesta, however my stomach could not cope and I was sick all afternoon and night 🙁 I spend the rest of the day in bed, missed dinner and slept it off!