Day two Pamplona

Today we were up bright and early for our ride into town to take our place on our balcony.  We had a great spot right in the middle of town with an old lady who was very nice but definitely had rules to follow.  We were warned about the rules. Do not try to get your own coffee she will invite you and help you and be sure you pet the dog...lol. Also she will constantly speak to you in Spanish even though she knows you don't understand , another rule is that she does not permit anyone up until 7am.  So we waiting outside in the  madness until 7am.

Outside our balcony

 

Headed up to the apartment 

 

On the balcony with our friends from Philadelphia!

Looking up at the balcony 

We headed up to our balcony and watched as many others were not provided the instructions we were and were get kicked off the course. Mostly they were in the wrong spot at the wrong time.   The next stage was a walk through of the course by a city official who inspects the course.  At 750 the police line moves aside and people are permitted to spread out down the course to the spot where they would like to begin their run.

 

At exactly 8am  we have heard the only thing on time in Spain) the first rocket is fired which means the gates are open and then a 2nd rocket to tell everyone the bulls are running!  We waited for the bulls to come around the first corner and expected to see the steer first leading the way but three HUGE bulls came barreling onto our street ,  Wayne's first words...HOLY--it! The bulls and steer ran past us in seconds! We saw a few people fall but nothing that looked too serious.  We could also see dead mans corner and there was a guy definitely on the wrong side and got slammed into the gate by a few bulls and quickly slid himself under he fence.

That was a great piece of advice we got which was to go through the slates of the fence or under.  Paramedics are everyone to pull injured people off the course .  It takes to long to go over and by doing that you may draw a bulls attention.  

Once the bulls passed us we went inside the apartment to watch the rest on tv.  The whole run is less than 2 minutes.

We later found out that the bull that was running out in front was the fastest to ever run the course.

After watching the run we headed over to a nice VIP breakfast in a very nice hotel in town where they have the run playing on a big screen .

That was all of our plans for the day so we decided to stay in town  and wander around. There was a market , some amazing views of the surrounding  countryside , of course drinks and snacks!

We came across a parade for children with large statues.  Never found out what they represented. There are quite a few activities for kids and a lot of families with their children at the festival.  

We headed back to the hotel about 3pm for a siesta before dinner that night .  While we were waiting for our ride into town at 6pm we saw a group of children and people outside the hotel .  We found out they were waiting to see oneofthatadprsfoe tonight bull fight.  We first saw three member of the matadors crew and a few minutes later he arrived .. he was so young! Everyone was very excited to see him. He is very  well know in the bull fighting world .

 We headed into the main square and found an Italian place for dinner after dinner we caught a ride back to our hotel at 930 to get a good night sleep for tomorrow big day!