Our day out

Yesterday, Pam and I rose from our sleep at 5:30am to ready ourselves for the trip to Valencia. The purpose was to support our band in a competition.

There was a lot of fog on the way but by the time we reached Valencia, the sun was shining bright. Although we were in time to listen to the first of the three bands, we elected to go for a coffee and something to eat instead.

We did go into the auditorium to listen to the second band, UNIÓ MUSICAL DE VILAFRANCA. Technically, they were excellent especially the lead flautist who played most of the solo parts. What they didn't do though was play with passion, there was no excitement.

Last on was our band from Bigastro. They were excellent and thrilled the audience with their infectious excitement.

You can download my audio recording to check this out for yourself here.

You can see my album of photos located in the sidebar.

and the results:

Primer Premio con Mención de Honor: Associació Musical la Filharmònica Alcudiana de l'Alcúdia, con 376,5 Puntos
Primer Premio: Unió Musical de Vilafranca, con 320 Puntos
Segundo Premio: Unión Musical de Bigastro con 300 Puntos

Now I don't know about the first band however,  I cannot imagine why we were placed 20 points behind the band from Vilfranca. I would have easily have put Bigastro at least 20 points ahead.

Coming third did not dampen the enthusiasm though, our band were just pleased to have been there and played so well.

Next on the agenda was food. 

We were taken to a place called El Palmara which is a small village outside Valencia on the edge of l’Albufera lagoon. Set amongst the fields of rice for which the region is famous, the town is mostly composed of restaurants of which there are many.

Of course, the main dish on the menu was paella but before we got to that there was toasted bread served with alioli and tomato, ham and manchego cheese, calamares fried in batter and mussels.

There were in fact two paellas. The first was a traditional Valencian paella with rabbit and chicken, garrofón white beans and green beans and the second paella marisco which came without the beans.

For dessert we had flan and Vienneta. There was a seemingly endless supply of wine, beer, water etc etc. to wash it all down.

Then the journey home arriving back in Bigastro at 9:15pm.  A long and exhausting day in the delightful company of friends.