Then on to Teruel capital. It's a city which started making a noise about 20 years ago with a campaign called "Teruel Exists". The first time we went there, it all looked rather sad and closed. What a difference now in this lively, crowded place alive with the now-famous festival.
There's a story here rather like Romeo and Juliet, about the young lovers Diego and Isabel, who lived in the 13th century, died tragically and are "buried" in Teruel-in inverted commas because their mummified bodies are visible through the bars of their coffins in the mausoleum.
Well, 20 years ago in Teruel they started a festival called Isabel Segura's wedding. A few dozen people dressed up medieval style and did a reenactment. Over the years it's grown massively, and it was great fun on Friday there. Medieval stalls everywhere. People in costume. We saw the dramatization of the wedding ceremony, where Isabel reluctantly marries another man, having given up hope of Diego's return.
My goodness what a lot of food there was there! As we left, the wedding party was having their dinner medieval style, all very picturesque.
As part of the show, there was a party of "monks and nuns" who ran a brewery "Cervesia Ambar"
reportedly from the monastery of San Arnoldo. Ambar is the brewery from Zaragoza and they did a brilliant commercial spot as part of the reenactment.
