Sunday, October 4th - Salou, Spain

I actually got up earlier than usual today and went to Church.  I knew kind of where the church was on the map but I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there.  I allowed 45 minutes but in fact it was more like 30 minutes so I was there in lots of time.  In fact, I was one of the first people there.  But then it really didn't fill up quickly for the 10 a.m. service and there were fewer than 20 people there at the start and maybe 30 by the time the English speaking people left to go to their own area about 20 minutes later.

I found this church by googling non-Catholic English speaking churches in Salou.  What would I ever do without the internet?  The church looked big and seemed to have a lot going on.  They even had a Gospel Choir and that got me really excited.  However, the Gospel choir was not singing at church today and they don't sing again anywhere until the 14th and I am supposed to be gone by then.  Darn!

The church itself looks like it might have been an old school.  The services are in a gymnasium-type room with a raised platform built into the wall at one end and folding chairs set up throughout the room.  Considering the number of people in attendance they had way more chairs than needed - perhaps 10 for each person there.  The entrance is very small with the service in the room immediately off to the left.  To the right is a hallway with some smaller rooms and with a kitchen somewhere and washrooms.  The English speakers, 9 of us in total so almost half of the church, went into one of the smaller rooms and there they have a Bible study each Sunday.  It was interesting and they are pretty good at discussing things, but it wasn't as exciting as a Gospel Choir would have been.

Most of the English speakers are from the UK and live in Spain now.  There was another lady visiting from the US but she had just moved to Tarragona.  And none of these people seemed to live in Salou.  They all drove from other towns as this was supposedly an English speaking church.  The start of the 10 a.m.  service is bilingual.  The minister or leader does everything in Spanish and then one of the ladies form the English group repeated it in English.  That works okay for the first part of a service but not so much for a sermon, which is why the English group goes off to another room.

Many of the English group skip the first part of the 10 a.m. service and just come for the Bible study.  Then they wait around for the 11:30 service and do the first part of it because the songs are more modern and familiar.  So I decided to do the same.  What a difference 1.5 hours makes.  The place was packed to overflowing with kits all over the floor and some adults standing.  Typical of the Spanish daily timetable, 11:30 is much easier to get to than 10 a.m., especially for families.  And the music at the later service is better and more upbeat.  However, I didn't know any of it!  When the other English folks got up and left, I took that as my cue and I left too.

I passed a large grocery store (open on a Sunday!) so decided to pick up some things on my way home, and by the time I got back it was already after 1 p.m. so that was a long morning of church.  I put the groceries away, had some lunch and decided to go to the beach.  However, it was a bit too cool and windy to be truly comfortable on the beach so instead I sat on a bench in the sun and read for a couple of hours.  That was probably also more comfortable than laying on the sand with the sand blowing in your face.

That evening we had another rain storm.  I was actually excited about it because I had finally twigged that I could do a video directly on my iPad and then I could post it.  However, this was just a gentle rain and it was too dark to video anything anyway.

I'm sure I've mentioned the one rainstorm we had at the end of last week that was just torrential and flooded the streets within minutes and plugged up a lot of the roads for a day or two.  Well, I was checking the BBC news today and it looks like the French coast got that storm too but much worse than we did down here.  They had water not only flooding the streets but also flooding their homes and washing away mobile homes and cars and several people were killed.

I only have one more blog to do from our Spain / Portugal tour but I still have notes  that aren't crossed off, meaning I haven't said anything about them yet.  So this is kind of a trivia catch up on Spain and Portugal.

Spain

- population of 47 million people

- birth rates are low and population is decreasing

- most people say they are Roman Catholic but attendance is low and falling

- Muslim influences are strong in some areas

- 25% unemployment overall but varies 10-35% by region so a big concern

- Spanish is the world's second most spoken first language, mainly because of all the colonization that Spain did in the 15th to 19th centuries

- only 1% of Spain is covered by water.

- children used to get their given names and that would be followed by the last name of the father and then the last name of the mother (both of them) but now can switch that order or can just use name of father or just of mother - very complicated!

- paella in Spanish means leftovers and it was originally a poor person's cheap meal of rice and anything else that could be found (chicken, fish, vegetables, etc.) 

- fidejoi in Catalan is a pasta paella instead of rice

- tourism is the #1 industry - the 47 million population grows to 65 million with tourists

- Spain supplies 20% of its electrical needs through hydro and has some wind and sun power - everything else (gas, nuclear, ...) is imported

- Rome occupied current Spain for a long time - Emperors Hadrian, Trajan, Theodosius and Marcus Aurelias were all born in what is now Spain

- health care and drugs are free to those over 65 and in general the health care system is considered good

- both private and public state universities exist and are affordable

Portugal

- in 15th and 16th centuries they went everywhere in the word

- Portuguese and British royalty intermarried then Britain helped Portugal remain an individual country and not be swallowed by Spain

- in 1417 they reached the Azores

- Moors and Venetians had all the power at the time but Portugal had the School of Navigation and all the kinds of intelligent people came to be part of it, which helped Portugal in its navigaton

- wanted to find route to India

- Vasco de Gamma made it to India in 1498

- colonized countries in Africa

- they also made it to Newfoundland but didn't want it - can you imagine?

- also went to Australia, Macau, Bombay, etc.

- intermarried with the foreigners to gain the support of the countries as Portugal couldn't afford armies like other countries

- tea means charm in Portugal and they started the ritual of tea at 4 p.m.

- cod was important - salted and drained several times before cooking

- ships always had a priest on board to say they were spreading religion and not trying to take over the land

- Span ruled Portugal from 1580-1640

- the revolution in 1974-1975 to end a 40-year dictatorship and gain democracy was unique in that the protesters wore or carried carnations or put them on the military guns, hence the name of the Carnation Revolution - very few casualties from carnations

I think those are all my notes.  Now I just need to get the final blog (September 9th) completed and the bus tour will be finished.   Yeah!