Back in business. Here at planet FBTG we always love to celebrate Spain’s week long Easter holiday with more groundhopping around one of Europe’s most fascinating countries. This year we trekked north for a short tour hitting up 3 different La Segunda games in 3 different days, braving the rain and the cold.

We started with a Friday night clash in the medieval city of Burgos. Famed for being the birthplace of the Castilian warrior El Cid, as well as for the local delicacy “morcilla” (Black Pudding for you fellow guiris), this popular resting point on the Camino de Santiago is normally very welcoming to visitors – except when it comes to the travelling support of RCD Espanyol. The blanquiazules from the Catalonian capital came unstuck against their black and white adversaries in a 0-0 draw in ice-cold conditions. If you believe Spain is a hot country all-year-round, you’ve clearly never been to Castilla y León in March.

A 3am start the next day allowed us to get to the beautiful, verdant comunidad of Asturias bright and early only to struggle to secure a ticket for the next game on our agenda. Sporting de Gijón is another Spanish giant from the industrial hinterland of the country’s north coast whose supporters deserve better than their side has given them in recent years. Both Sporting and visitors Racing de Santander were playoff contenders for the year (Espanyol eventually secured the final promotion spot back to La Liga) with load, raucous fanbases that give as much as they get. And boy do they. With no tickets available online, we queued up outside the ticket office of the impressive Molinón stadium in a rainstorm only to discover that it was a complete sell-out. But as we waited in the miserable weather for a chance ticket-touter, God sent an angel on the holy week. In exchange for 35 Euros, we got a behind-the-goal seat for honestly one of the best matches we have ever visited, with Racing winning 3-2 with a 101st (yes, you read that correctly) minute winner. We can confidently say that now having seen the Racing fans both home and way, they have perhaps the best support in all Spain.

Asturias is a region ruled by a duopoly of cities. The rain followed our train from the costal city of Gijón back to its inland rival Oviedo where we stayed the Saturday night. After a lie-in, we enjoyed the local Easter festivities including two local folk bands and dancing groups performing in front of the town hall and a traditional Catholic procession finishing in front of Oviedo’s quirky Cathedral before heading to the Estadio Carlos Tartiere to see Asturias’ other big shot club Real Oviedo in action. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ground as odd as the Carlos Tartiere, but its bizarre architecture makes for steep tribunes that keep the noise inside the ground. Real Oviedo hosted the Villarreal B team with the blues of Asturias taking what turned out to be a comfortable 2-1 against their Valencian visitors. From the stadium, we ran quickly to get our carshare back home through the night.

And that rounded out our Easter! Longer posts to follow, but we can never resist putting up a few photos in advance. Keep your eyes peeled for more content.

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