Knotted without a hitch

Well the wedding weekend is over, and we are all back home safe and sound. Daniel surprised us all by having a wonderful time being babysat by Nuria, doing exactly what he was told without a fuss and eating everything was put in front of him (including something very garlicky this lunchtime! His breath this afternoon had us all leaping out of the way…), taking his nap yesterday afternoon and sleeping through the night and generally being brilliant.

We started out on Saturday morning after Jamie, Anja and Carmen got back from having their hair done. They all looked fabulous, and Jamie couldn't wait to show off her party hairdo that evening. On the way to Palencia, we detoured into a village to get some petrol and bumped into Luis and Christina, an amazing coincidence, especially as we'd arranged to have lunch with them. Now we could follow them to the restaurant (in a totally different village) and not worry about getting lost. The restaurant, in a place called Amusco
, was in a converted mediaeval synagogue, and it was quite something - both in terms of the setting and the food. (click on 'Lugares' to see photos of the church next door to the synagogue). I recommend it to anyone who happens to be in the area of Palencia.

We got to the hotel at 5, and the coaches to take us to the cathedral were due to leave at 6.15, so there was a mad scramble for us all to get ready for showtime. The hotel was full of wedding guests, so the roar of a hundred hair dryers reached a crescendo at about 5.45. Jamie was a beautiful little princess in the black dress and bag that she got from Brenda, and Carmen looked very sexy in her cocktail dress and stilettos. As we waited for the coaches in the lobby, we noticed a poster showing the seating arrangements, and were disappointed to discover that we would not be sitting with any of our close family. The coaches then turned up, all three of them, and we drove into the centre of town. Being on the Spanish plain, Palencia was a lot colder than it is here on the coast, and a vicious wind was whipping around us, making it very chilly indeed. The cathedral is beautiful, and well worth a visit. (More photos here and here). Music was provided by a full choir accompanied by the cathedral organ, and the wedding went off without a hitch.

It was warm enough inside during the service, but after it finished they opened the huge double doors, and we guests froze while waiting for all the photos to be taken. Then it was back into the coaches and back to the hotel for the dinner and party. The banqueting hall was huge, with all the guests sat at round tables set at quite a distance apart. So even though we were sat at the next table to Luis, Christina and most of the rest of our Spanish family, we weren't close enough to talk to them during dinner unfortunately. Dinner was worth waiting for -- 'bogavante' to start (somewhere between a lobster and a crayfish), then a mouthwatering hake 'en croute', a lemon sorbet cocktail in between (weird but very tasty), fourth course melt-in-the-mouth solomillo (steak) and then a slice of very nice mocca cream cake and a sort of frozen milk ice cream. The first two courses accompanied by a very pleasant, fairly sweet white wine, and the steak accompanied by a very typically heavy rioja. Finally coffee and liqueurs, and a cigar if you wanted one (I didn't).

After we'd finished eating, Roberto, the groom, came and asked Jamie if she would like to hand out thank-you-for-coming presents to all the ladies (the men's present being the cigar), and of course she jumped at the chance. And skipped. Carmen was roped in to carry the basket, which weighed a ton - the presents were miniature bottles of very good perfume. Of course Jamie charmed everyone's socks off, she loves a stage like that.

Then just as they finished, the music started and the highlight of Jamie's evening arrived - dancing. By this time it was already 12.20, i.e. 4 hours past her normal bedtime, but off she went, first dancing with me for 20 minutes, then with Roberto, Dioni (the groom's mother), various other people and on her own. By 1.30 she'd completely used up her last reserves of energy. Meanwhile Roberto had introduced me to a Scottish woman and a Dutch man, both friends of the bride, and I had a nice natter with both of them. The Scots woman had a similar background to mine, having spent most of her adult life outside the UK in various countries, to the extent that she'd even been a professional translator at one point, so we had a lot to talk about.

The party was really swinging by now, but Jamie was ready for bed and we used that as an excuse to head upstairs (we old farts can't party like we used to!). Just as we were moving towards the door the band started playing the Birdie song (as they do at Spanish weddings…) and suddenly we'd lost Jamie - finally found her in the middle of the dance floor, showing everyone how to flap their wings and waggle their tails.

We got Jamie to bed, but her thoughts were still racing and she was chattering away 20 to the dozen. I told her to think about all the nice things she'd done that day and went into the bathroom to help Carmen take out the pins from her elaborate hairdo. When we came out 3 minutes later Jamie was fast asleep.

This morning we were all a bit subdued, but we managed to get down for the buffet breakfast, which was very pleasant, and were on the road home by about 11.30. We stopped for coffee in Reinosa and got home at about 2. Danny had just finished lunch at Tori's flat (Nuria's mum, two storeys below our flat) and was delighted to see us at the door. We were very surprised to hear how good he'd been, we had half expected problems at some point, especially waking up after his nap or in the morning.

I took the digital camera along but the batteries in the flash were empty unfortunately, so you'll have to wait until I get the film from the film camera developed to see how we all looked in our finery.