The Spaniards never shy away from a good party and Los Carnivales is one of the best-know carnivals in Spain. The whole city takes part in the carnival for a full 2 weeks each year and on the opening Saturday, everyone wears fancy dress.

Fortunately for us we were visiting on a Sunday, via a coach trip organised by Camping La Roselada. At 10 Euros each, much better than fighting our way in the car.

The carnival has it’s origins in the Middle Ages and according to the Catholics the name comes from carne- levare, meaning “to remove meat” (mandatory requirement for the Christians during every Friday of the Lent). The pagan origin is of a celebration where meat is offered to god Baal (carna-baal) in a festival where everything was possible.

The old town was a sea of people and straight away, it was clear our idea of a nice meal was just not going to happen. In the end we made some sandwiches from provisions we bought from a local supermarket. Washed down with some Cruz Campo.

Lots of add-hoc entertainment takes place throughout the day in the Old Town whilst later on, on the main road through the modern section, a several hour street parade commences around 5:00pm. I say that very loosely as this is Spain and it started nowhere close to 5:00pm.

A selection of photographs follow: