Yesterday we did that promised roadtrip to the small town of El Rocio, where all the horse equipage where heading on their “pilgrimage”, Romeria San José, that I mentioned in my last post Enjoying Sun and Parades.

If we could have gone with them through the nationalpark of Doñana it would only have been around 70 kilometer, but since we were going there by car, we had to drive around the national park, which means we had to go all the way up to Seville and then towards the Huelva area and down to El Rocio.

From Sanlúcar to El Rocio it is about 200 kilometer and it was definitely worth the trip there, this is a place that I recommend from the depth of my heart!!!

El Rocio is such a beautiful old town with white Spanish style buildings. The streets are all sand, sand and sand and it has a gorgeous location just beside the Doñana national park beside the marismas, the swamp mark, with a lot of sea birds to watch.

There is a lot of restaurants that has provided possibility to park horses and carriages outside them, which makes it looks like a real western town.

All the people we met there were in a very nice Saturday party mood, which made us stay there all day and the evening too, even though people did drop off in the evening.

We talked to a young couple there, Maria and Victor and got some tips for restaurants in Sanlúcar since they had lived there before. They were now living in Seville and lucky us, she worked for the city sightseeing there, so now we have free tickets I hope to be able to use.

So, of course, we loved El Rocio and felt right at home there!!!

Especially since some of all the Caballeros were arriving on sweaty horses there after their long ride through the national park, already a bit alcohol influenced, singing very happily.

They were going in to the church, doing the cross sign in front of the Madonna – which was the purpose of the ride of course. this church is very well maintained, one of the most beautiful small churches I´ve seen.

The middle center of the church hold the Madonna and was all covered in gold.

Then the partying were really going on, we had singing Caballeros all around us. We felt like we were in the old Western, cheering with cowboys. Expect this was Spanish cowboys.

I think I prefer these ones without guns

They did point at us with their glasses instead, which is our kind of melody of course. It´s a pity we couldn´t speak with them better, because our Spanish is almost zero and so were their English. Sign language had to do most of the time.

I must say I admire their mood, after that long ride, sitting in the saddle the whole day here in El Rocio too, cheering and singing all the time in an excellent and contagious party mood!!!

One of the Caballeros that came forward to me saying something in Spanish and luckily Maria was besides us, so she could explain. He was telling me that I am gorgeous. *blushing shy*

He also asked Mr L for forgiveness, but just had to tell me that, they are very polite when they deliver their compliments. Funny thing is: it was the same when we were in Jerez, an old man stopped me in the street to tell me that too. His son explained it to me in English.

I guess it´s because I´m tall and rather blond, in the opposite from the Spanish girls? It´s the same all over the world, we always want what we don´t have at home, right? *giggles*

Well, I find it quite amusing. Especially since I really felt ugly this evening with quite dirty hair…. *giggles*