"Jamonada" Linedance Picnic!

Today we had a very nice picnic in the hills over Torredembarra in a nearby village named Altafulla. Here  I am with our Linedance-leader Tony. Together with his wife Belén, he is the organizer of the group "Country la Torre", as locals refer to Torredembarra. Everybody brought a lot of good things. I brought my usual pizza, baked to "Julio Iglesias concert" yesterday. Why is it called "Jamonada"?

Because we had a big Serrano ham (jamon) to cut from at will. Alfonso was the chef and his wife Pili is seeing that everything is done well! Then we began to EAT...and eat and eat ...a lot of very good things and as one of the desserts we had Tiramisu made by Maria Carmen who looked this happy

And then applecake and brownycake and... (I hope that Amanda, my Weight Watchers counsellor, does NOT read this!!). Frank was also present and he had to lean against a tree after lunch to lecture Rosalia and Salvador about who knows what ,,,

The nice day finished with cardgames and a lot of fun and laughter. Spain has very special cards.
The traditional 48-card Spanish baraja is an ancient deck that existed in Spain since between the 14th-16th century. The suits closely resemble those of Italian cards and Latin suited Tarot decks. In fact, the Baraja, like the tarot, are used for both game playing and telling the future. The Baraja has been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Latin-American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain. They look like this

We had our picnic on the top of the hill where there is a "Hermitage" chapel named Sant Antoni.

Sant Antoni hermitage was built in the year of 1717 thanks to a donation from its first hermit, Baltasar Rabassa  with the help from fishermen of the village. It is really an hermitage of the sea and  fishermen say that several times they have been helped in need.

Altafulla is a medieval town and one does not know exactly its foundation. Anyway the castle of Altafulla was mentioned in documents from 1059. Every night I look at that beautiful castle which is seen from our house!

It looked quiet nice when we passed it in the daytime too, going back home...

A really fine day! Looking down on Torredembarra coming back, I thought of how lucky I am to live here with all these new friends and new family!!