Murcia

Cathedral

So the week after we went to Valencia, a small group of female students signed up to go to the capital city of the autonomous community next to ours: Murcia*.  Murcia is very similar to Alicante in size (perhaps a little bigger), and we spent the day wandering the streets, exploring the Casino (don't worry, it's really just a social club), and visiting a museum focused on the Semana Santa (Holy Week) processions that take place all over Spain.  Unfortunately, this museum forbade cameras, so all that I have are photos from the cathedral, the casino, and our free time, but they are all very beautiful.

Crest of Murcia

During my few hours there, I was able to learn some fun tidbits about Murcia; I was also almost locked in a convent, but that really is just an aside.  One of the most interesting things that I learned was that one of the kings of Spain (unfortunately, which one now escapes me, but I know that he was one of the Alfonsos) loved Murcia so much that he asked to have his heart kept at the cathedral; because of this devotion, the crest of the city has a heart in the center.  Perhaps a little less gruesome is the fact that the city probably got to keep all of his body.

Virgen

Another fun story that we heard was of a famous bridge in town: once during a great flood, the stone bridge which crossed the central river was washed away.  In its place, the town built a wooden bridge.  To all the citizens, this seemed to a be a poor replacement, and it became traditional for pedestrians to cross themselves when traversing it.  The tradition became so widely practiced that a shrine to the Virgin - Virgen de los Peligros - was erected on one side.  For those who don't speak Spanish, it means Virgin of the Dangers.

*As a side note, some of you may have heard of Murcia in the past few months because the region was hit with a fairly large earthquake earlier in the spring.  Fortunately, Alicante was completely unaffected and I was as surprised as everyone back home by the news.

Sasquatch? 

Entry of the casino