Day 22: El Rocio

March 11, 2025

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The day began with some sunshine and less wind, so we hurried out toward the lakeside to see if any birds had been lured out. Certainly the street surfaces of town did not look any better, though the buildings remain attractive. Have a look:

Some typical buildings. Note all the horse hitching spots.

This is a typical design for el Rocio. Many of the buildings are owned by religious "brotherhoods" from various surrounding towns. It has to do with the large pilgrimages to see the Virgen, but we don't understand any more than that.

This umbrella was not only damaged by the wind, it was destroyed!

To pass through this street, one needs the sidewalks.

One can go on foot, but there is no bike room, due to the hitching posts.

At the lake, once again the paved or decked walkway was in great shape, and with the sun out it felt really nice to be walking along. The wind, though less than yesterday was still roiling the lake, and I didn't think we would be spotting any birds.

There are many panels showing what you ought to be able to spot.

The lake does not appear to have any birds.

In thinking that no birds could be spotted, I was not counting on the eagle eye/telescopic vision of Dodie. Quite quickly she began to note various water birds and birds in the shrubbery surrounding us. Ultimately, we saw lots, like for example these:

Black tailed Godwits - now that's a lot of birds!

Not even sure what these are, probably the Godwits?

We continued walking around the lake, though the paved path/boardwalk stopped and the ground was very wet. Still, we were now seeing lots of birds:

This was getting to be a lot of fun, and we knew there were trails all around the lake, so we walked on. Even if we had circumnavigated the whole lake, it would have been just a small taste of the whole Donana Park. The red pin below shows where we were, at the little lake by El Rocio. The lake is connected to a river that flows through wetlands, and ends up at the Guadalquivir river, over on the right, that is coming down from beside Sevilla.

Despite this status of being nowhere, in the huge park, I was beginning to think if the tour guide was too wimpy to take us out, we could do our own tour, right here. That lasted about five minutes, as we came to a place where the Arroyo de La Rocina had overflowed its banks, and was running overland into the lake. Tour over!

Ok, so maybe the tour guide had a point!

We turned around an headed for our next thing, a visit to the Virgen of El Rocio, in the Hermitage (church).

"The shiny white Hermitage of El Rocío, a monumental cathedral conceived as an Andalusian farmhouse topped by a locksmith cross. Built between 1963 and 1969 on the main square, it attracts more than one million visitors yearly.

The impressive baroque-style altarpiece houses the most revered image of all Andalusia: the White Dove, Our Lady of Rocío, the town patron. It was sculpted at the end of the 13th century, originally in Gothic style. It was destroyed during the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 and rebuilt again in 1969. She is dressed in rich fabrics, following the Austrian court fashion." (from silvias-trips.com).

The statue of the Virgin is surrounded by decoration in a sort of triangular way, and this shape can be seen all over town.

Silvia also has more on the annual pilgrimage (but not the Grampies one) to the Virgin:

"La Romería de El Rocío

The famous massive pilgrimage occurs every year on the Monday following Pentecost (50 days after Holy Saturday).

The peak of the celebration is on early Sunday morning, after the parade of endless carriages adorned with flowers when camps are lit with candles and torches, and believers drink, sing, and dance to the rhythm of tambourines and flamenco guitars.

Pilgrims reach the village on horseback and carriages through four different caminos: the Sanlúcar road from Cádiz, crossing the Doñana National Park, the Plains from Almonte, the road of Moguer from Huelva, and the Sevillian road.

Every seven years, on the night of August 19 to 20, the Blanca Paloma is carried on shoulders along the 15 km road of the Plains, between pine and sand, to the Church of the Assumption in Almonte. To make this journey, the Virgin abandons the Queen’s usual dress for “Pastora,” the travel suit used in the 17th century.

The White Dove returns to the village nine months later, a week before the pilgrimage, when almost a million pilgrims move to El Rocío."

The Virgin has left the church (from silvias-trips.com)

Walking to the church we passed a line of shops and restaurants. One shop was selling horse drawn carriages, a big item here:

The famous (from Bob Dylan) boots of Spanish leather.

Here comes a possible customer, but he is too involved in his cell phone.

When we entered the church I was immediately accosted by a guy, presumably a church official, who gave me to understand that I could not use my camera. Following my established procedure for camera Nazis, I demanded to know why. (Let the record show that I never get a satisfactory answer on this.). He merely took out his cell phone, and I understood that only cell photography was permitted. This immediately triggered a storm in my little brain, as it reviewed the differences between the Nikon P950 and a typical cell phone. The sensors are the same size. The cell phone has a lot of image processing and editing capability, plus internet connectivity, while the P-950 has the mega zoom. The mega zoom is useless inside a church, so really the cell phone is more powerful in that circumstance. Now how to explain all that to an ordinary Joe, in Spanish!

My actual response was to use the Lumix ZS-60. That should produce enough ambiguity to get me some snaps, and out the door!

Here is what the Virgin looks like. There is lots more ornate gold decoration surrounding the statue than I seem to remember. Last time, it was just me, the Virgin, and the cleaning lady in the church. I should go back and review those shots. These were rather hurried:

The virgin, unlike many, is not crying, but neither is she jumping for joy (must be hot under all that bling!).

A second off note, to complement the cell phone guy, came from the church's 50 cent candle lighting scheme. The "candles" are not wax but rather led bulbs, and I have severe doubts that they can work as effectively as the real thing.

One "advantage" is that you can use their app, and Google Pay or the Apple Store to turn on a light from anywhere in the world, at any time. We saw something almost as cuckoo as this in Lourdes, I think, where you could place an order, and an actual human would go light an actual candle for you. Maybe one day soon, my AI will contact their AI, and the two of them can manage all candle lighting, so I will just ride my bike! Dodie adds her theological perspective here, agreeing with me that it is unlikely that God responds to virtual candles.

The third (and "mercifully") final off note came in the church gift shop. There is a longstanding tussle between Dodie and myself over souvenirs. Left to my own devices, I would load down our panniers with pounds of keychains, thematic dish towels, stickers, and the like. In Limoges, I even tried to buy and carry pottery! So I was surprised that the power of the Virgin freed up one keychain spot in my bag. I selected an unwisely heavy one, but found that all the keychains were sort of locked in place. The church must recognize the true value of these €2.50 treasures. But I had the answer, since split rings on keychains are designed for removal. But when I went to implement this technique, the sales girl - previously totally engrossed in her cell phone - leapt to her feet, shouting "No, no, I have to do it!", unlocking the display from the back.

So now I have my Virgen of Rocio keychain. Maybe because I have not downloaded the app, I don't feel all that calm and meditative about the whole experience. Oh well, the birds were nice! And our 2025 list now stands at 145 species.

Tomorrow we return to Sevilla. The forecast calls for a West (tail) wind. That could be quite a bonus!

Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 606 km (376 miles)

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John FlecknerLoved the birds, as always. Also loved Seville, alas without bicycle
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