Tower of strength

What a lovely day out! In 27 years living here, and with an increasingly keen interest in Catalan culture, we have somehow never managed to see any castellers, the famous Catalan human tower.  S was determined to rectify this and with his Catalan skills discovered that five teams, four of them from over the border, were having a meeting in Prades today.

Prades is about an hour and a half from us and only a stone's throw from TickyTocky's abode; we haven't seen them for ages, so I asked if they wanted to come with us. Result, we were promptly invited for lunch :) We arrived a bit late and after lunch featuring delicious mussels, and xiuxos we had brought from Girona, Mrs TT nobly stayed at home to walk the beautiful dog they are looking after, and the rest of us went for a tour of Vernet.

First stop was the church, where TickyTocky gave us a quick bellringing lesson. I had not realised that English bells are each connected to a wheel that gives complete control over the bell so that change ringing can be done. Great explanation from TT, complete with working model (extra 1)! It's a very complicated business that requires extreme coordination and memory skills. S was brave enough to climb up into the belfry, but I wasn't.

Then we walked up to the belvedere, via the casino, for an excellent view over Vernet (extra 2), and back through the old village. A quick stop at the house before setting off to Prades. Five teams of castellers plus hangers-on represent a lot of people -- a number of large buses were jamming the roads, so we were glad TT knew a good place to park not far from the sports ground.

It was a lovely day for it. The teams gradually worked up to taller and taller towers -- they are categorised by number of levels and number of people on each of the upper levels, so this is part of a seven-three (the two children count as a layer each) . There was no competitive element -- members of other teams happily helped out at ground level, though only members of the designated team constituted the upper levels. This activity is taken very seriously -- some of the associations have existed for well over a century, and it's a family affair, starting very young (see the top of this tower). Only little ones wear hard hats; it's amazing to see them shinning up with few footholds except hands and belts -- they wrap themselves round the adults' bodies. Must be a bit nerve-racking for the parents! The bottom layer is a packed mass of bodies and hands (extra 3, as a companion to this blip).

I don't know how long they were going to carry on, but we spent close to two hours there, and as we left we saw the large sports hall lined with tables and hundreds of chairs, with a band warming up to play sardanas later (extra 4). I might delete the extras at some point, but there's an album here that gives more context.

It was a long but very enjoyable day, home at 9, hence backblipping.